Anxiety was my norm for a while.

A long while. As soon as Covid hit I entered a 2-year plus anxiety cycle. I think the majority of us felt our stress, anxiety, and blood pressure rising as wave after wave of uncertainty crashed into our daily lives. A scientific brief published by the World Health Organization back in March showed that during the first year of the pandemic, anxiety and depression around the world increased by a massive 25%. And that’s just the cases that are estimated.

The thing with anxiety, stress and depression nowadays is that we’ve gotten very good at hiding it. We think we should show up and be all smiles, even though we’re feeling absolutely rotten inside. You don’t need me to tell you that doing this, meaning you aren’t giving yourself an outlet for your negative emotions, will have a negative impact on your health.

There’s a ton of research that will tell you what stress can do to every aspect of your health, from impacting your respiratory system to your cardiovascular health. I’m here to share my story of what stress did to my body and how I healed myself by taking small steps over a longer period of time. Yes — you need to give your body time to heal from stress; although it’s intangible, it causes a lot of damage if you ignore the symptoms.

I used to have a persistent migraine that felt like brain fog for an entire year in my 20s and I couldn’t figure out what was causing it. No amount of Advil could alleviate the headache, and regardless of how much I slept (or tried to sleep), it wouldn’t go away. I went to the doctor’s and did every test possible to try and figure out the root cause, but nothing showed up. On the surface, I appeared healthy. My daily routine back then was going to work, client meetings throughout the day, and then heading home. On the weekends I would be out eating and drinking with friends. The migraines were definitely wreaking havoc on my life, in fact, every moment of it, because I couldn’t concentrate when all I felt was this invisible pain.

*With yoga, you can roll out a mat and work on YOU instantaneously.*

I heard from a friend (and thank goodness for that friend!) that yoga helped them destress and so I signed up for a membership to try it out. After going for flow yoga classes consistently three times per week, my migraine disappeared after 6 months. It took time and it required time and dedication, but I couldn’t see how I could have continued to live with a painful migraine that would make me suffer in every aspect of my life.

With the pandemic and not being able to go to yoga classes plus the added anxiety, my migraines were on the verge of returning, so don’t let down your guard; your health and wellbeing are things you should be consistently working on, and just when things break down.

*Walks in nature with your camera could give you a restful moment when you focus on framing the shot instead of ruminating over your issues in your mind.*

Here are some ways to help you expel stress and anxiety from your system. You need to give it an outlet. if you aren’t comfortable talking to a therapist and you want some DIY options, see below.

Sweat it out. Lie there with infrared sauna therapy or get active with apps like Keep on the weekdays. When my team was working from home, we had team workout sessions at the beginning or the end of the workday using the Keep app; it was a good way for us to stay connected and healthy together. If you aren’t the sporty type, you can try what I did and lie min an infrared sauna pod to sweat it out. Get those toxins out! An hour-long session with my headphones in listening to music worked wonders to help me power through the lockdown. Plus, since you’re in there alone, it was covid-restriction friendly as well.
Let your mind and body REST. They say you should get your 8 hours of sleep every day but we all know with so many distractions at home and on our phones that’s highly unrealistic, especially for someone with anxiety! Try telling someone with anxiety to sit down and do nothing and see what happens.

So how did I manage to do that? I ‘distracted’ my mind from thinking about things that stressed me out (which was and still is work-related). Exercising is great for this because I figured that my mind was trying to make sure I wasn’t toppling over on my yoga mat, or missing a step while hiking and rolling down the mountain. Yes — my mind was focused on trying not to get injured so it wasn’t free to beat me up about that mistake I made at work that day. Sometimes we need a break from ourselves and exercise was my answer.
Give yourself hope. I recently wrote about this in passing in our weekly newsletter (have you subscribed?) and I encouraged our readers to identify moments in their day that gave them hope. Is it waking up to the sun? Is it going on a walk with your camera? Is it going for a run and hearing yourself breathe and feeling healthy? Is it savouring your favourite pastry and wondering how they make it taste so good?

Before Covid, it used to be that we could escape through travel and experiencing new things, but when the pandemic hit, it meant that we were no longer free to explore. When I’m going through a particularly stressful time at work, having even weekend getaways planned gave me hope that there was some much-deserved rest and relaxation ahead, but taking away in-person interactions and travel experiences took away that light at the end of the tunnel. This is why I refined how I view the daily moments in life. I started to tell myself that I should be grateful for the little things, and doing this has made me more connected to my friends and family as well.

Check in with yourself. How are you feeling? Do you need to take some ‘me time’ and do some self care? Being aware of the issue and acknowledging that you will not let the situation persist is the first step and only you can take the first step. I knew that if I didn’t decide to go to the yoga classes and force myself to go 3 times a week no one else could do it for me. I hope you start on your healing journey today.