what do you do with anxiety? 4.2.21
The days are longer, the season is changing. Spring holidays are upon us, whispering about the summer to come. The pandemic's end is in sight, yet the pandemic is far from over. In this moment, we are all posing plenty of valid questions that can fuel our anxiety: when will you get your vaccine? what will you do after graduation? where will you live this summer? when will you hear back from that internship? how can you reconnect with your friends who are studying remotely or on campus?
It is normal to struggle with uncertainty! But if the worry gets too big, it can begin to get in the way. We can become stuck in anxious mode, moving through the day with a sense of uneasiness. Or anxiety bubbles up acutely at the strangest times, and we find ourselves tapping our feet and feeling tightness in our chest - and we don't even know why.
It's tempting to distract and zone out when that happens. Anxiety feels bad, so our natural impulse is to get away from it. The problem is, scrolling and Netflixing and being too busy do nothing to lessen the anxiety: it's right there waiting for you when you stop.
And in a weird way, it should be! Anxiety is a warning sign. It's the E on your internal gas tank, a flare that a deeper, more true feeling is setting off to get your attention. Anxiety is the alarm between you and what is often a painful negative emotion sitting just beneath it. When we can stay with and calm our anxiety, the truth we've been avoiding is there waiting for us to welcome it and learn from it.
You might discover you're holding onto a lot of grief from the accumulated losses of this past year. Or that you're really scared of what happens when you come back to school in the fall after a year of studying remotely. You might learn you're angry at a world that gave you a senior year of college spent zooming in your room.
All of these emotions are valid.
Send yourself some kindness in response, and then think about how you'd like to respond to the truths you've discovered about how you really feel.
It doesn't sound that complicated, but we know that feeling your feelings can be really hard to do alone. We're here to help with it all: calming anxiety, identifying and accepting feelings, and figuring out what to do with them. Please call the Student Wellness Center if you'd like to talk.
Warmly,
Lauren, Susan, Katharina, Meagan, Alexis, Kelly and Gene
p.s. And please join us this coming Wednesday for the latest in our Let's Talk series, an anxiety-calming hour with Susan Schultheis: Mini Mindful Moments Throughout Your Day. This interactive talk will be held on zoom at 3 pm: https://fandm.zoom.us/j/
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