Serenity Sunday

One of the main ways I stay calm and I am able to collect my thoughts is through meditation and yoga. So to encourage you all to meditate and possibly try some yoga I will be starting "Serenity Sundays" I know that today is not a Sunday, however this post will be on Sundays from here on out. 

Image Credit: hiskinho

Serenity is defined as a state of being calm, peaceful, and untroubled. 

This is my main focus of this blog, to help others to find this kind of peace. The photo posted above is to help with meditation. For me when I began meditating it was difficult to completely clear my mind. So I would focus on a peaceful picture, An example of what I would do with this picture is focus on the water falling over the rocks and tree branches. Breath in 15 seconds and breathe out. Close your eyes, imagine yourself near the waterfall. Clear your mind. 

Continuing to do this for even just 15 minutes can leave you feeling refreshed and relaxed. 

Now mind you, this is not the real way to meditate. This is just how I began. 

If you would like to begin real meditation I encourage you to view 12 Steps to Meditation this will help with the steps and actions you must take to reach the state of meditation. 

I encourage you all to comment below on what worked best for you, focusing on the picture or following the 12 steps of meditation?

Relief Through Expression

Have you ever wanted to say something but just didn’t know how to put your feelings into words?

Occasionally our stress and anxiety can come from simply not being able to express ourselves using the typical form of expressions, ie. Words/Language.  This is why I love art and dance. The arts give people the ability to express themselves in ways that they may not have been able to through words. Now before I share this video I must warn you, it is not a positive one. However sometimes as I said in the beginning of the post, we just need a way to express ourselves in a manner that doesn’t involve talking.  

Written and Directed by: Rogerio Silva

The video I have shared with you is3. a dance that dives into the life of an abusive relationship, physical or mental. The video shows two dancers, a male and a female. The female has what seems to be a ghostly shadow of herself throughout the entire video, this is meant to be her spirit. As you watch the video you can see that anytime she tries to leave he pulls her in and a little bit of her spirit leaves her until there is nothing left.

The end of the video she disappears completely and the ghostly shadow of her stands defiantly looking at him, behind her is several of her forms of spirit. After watching this video, the ending interpretation can be taken different ways, I like to think that she got out of the relationship and the defiant spirit at the end is her standing up and walking away, knowing that she has to rebuild herself but she will be stronger than ever.

Sometimes this form of expression is just what is needed for people to get out of bad situations or even realize the situation they are in. If you're looking for ways to manage your anxiety through expression another way could be art. Below are some sites that allow you to create your own pieces of artwork. Let's see how you express yourself!
1. Jackson Pollock Paintings: make your own Pollock painting. Change the colors by clicking the mouse and paint away!
2. Bomomo: Create something fun and somewhat relaxing with this website. Paint with different brushes that follow your mouse!
3. Lastly this is one of my favorites Scribbler with this site simply scribble a design on the empty space. Click "done drawing" then "start scribble" the site begins to scribble based off of your design. Very satisfying and relaxing to watch.

The sites listed above are just some ways to help you get started on managing your anxiety through forms of expression. What are some of your ideas to help manage anxiety/stress through art forms?

For years I have dealt with severe anxiety. As many people know anxiety comes with a lot of health related issues. For me my anxiety caused severe insomnia, where I would go a maximum of 7 to 8 days with little to no sleep at all. It also caused me to break out in hives. The funny thing about that is sometimes I wouldn't realize my anxiety was bubbling up until my hives would start, then when my hives start I have to remind my self to breathe and calm down. Typically in ways such as those described below, inhaling as the objects increase in size and exhaling as they decrease.

 

Image Credit: Monsters & Critics

Why Blog About It?.... 

What made me want to start this blog was due to how easy it is to forget all the techniques I've learned over the years to manage my anxiety. This world causes a lot of stress, life itself is stressful and sometimes we forget as were going about our daily lives how to manage those stress and anxiety levels. However to let you know a little of where my stress and anxiety come from here's a brief history of what I have gone through the past 5 years of my life (which has been where my anxiety has peaked). 

Where my Anxiety Comes From...

My junior year of high school my Dad was diagnosed with stage 4 pancreatic cancer. For those of you who don't know. Nearly every person diagnosed with pancreatic cancer dies within a couple of months of diagnosis. Luckily my Dad lived much longer than the estimated time the doctors had given him, he was given two months however lived two years. Throughout those two years I had continued going to school and took care of him 24/7. Instead of just being his daughter I also became his primary care taker. He ended up passing away halfway through my first year of college. Since then there has been a lot of his things to go through. As well as other unexpected life changing events (of which maybe some day I will share publicly however haven't gotten there yet). With everything that has gone on I had to find ways to manage the anxiety and stress that came along with these events

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What I hope for you....

With this blog I hope the ways I deal with stressful situations, as well as anxiety in general, help you to deal with your personal stress and anxiety.  In the meantime, here are some websites that may help you to analyze why you may be feeling anxious or stress and help to manage it.
Website number 1: Player2  This website is a fun way of helping you to realize what is causing you stress or anxiety, and in a silly way helps you to deal with it.
Website Number 2: Stress Analyst This website takes a more serious note off of the first website I had given. This one looks at ways to analyze your specific stress and anxiety, and gives you solutions to these problems.