I’m very tired because yesterday I stayed up too late, needlessly worrying about finding a part-time job in Switzerland. I was googling job positions at 1.30 am, which wasn’t conducive to good sleep.
The thing is, I had already looked at most of the positions earlier in the day and decided they weren’t a good fit for me. There was absolutely no need to look at them again. It just ended up with me feeling frustrated and anxious and like I hadn’t rested at all, which was very annoying, because I had actually scheduled yesterday as a day off with the sole purpose of resting. I even wrote down ‘today I will rest and I won’t look for jobs!’ in the morning as a sort of manifestation for the day. For some reason, my brain took that as an instruction to do the opposite. It seems that my brain doesn’t always like to do what’s good for it.
I do feel better and less anxious today though. I had a lovely chat with my German-speaking partner on Skype this morning and that grounded me and now I feel creative and ready to write, which I haven’t felt for a while now. So, to that end, I thought I’d write about my best practices for dealing with anxiety and how to avoid making it worse. My tips for dealing with anxiety are as follows:
1. Stick to a routine, especially at night
Usually, I’m quite good at sticking to my night-time routine and when I do, I sleep better (which naturally reduces my anxiety) and I feel calmer in general. My nightime routine involves turning off my laptop at 8.45 and saying goodnight to my husband (we sleep in separate rooms as I’m the world’s lightest sleeper and I struggle to sleep when he’s there ) and physically getting into bed at 9pm.
I then allow myself to have hours of alone time (I can’t sleep unless I’ve had adequate alone time – I’m a huge introvert), which I spend watching calming ASMR and Reiki videos on my ipad or listening to music and then, I turn off the lights at 12.30 and fall asleep within minutes. If I stick to my routine, it’s easy to fall asleep. If I don’t turn off my laptop and get into bed by 9pm, it becomes harder and harder to fall asleep and I get more and more wound up, as when I’m on my laptop, I google more, as it’s easier to keep multiple taps open on my laptop than it is on my ipad. Not googling before bed is instrumental in helping me sleep better and being less anxious overall.
2. Give myself uninterrupted thinking time
As I mentioned in a previous post, keeping physically active is good for my mental health, but equally important is giving my brain time to just mull things over, to just give myself space to let thoughts bounce around untethered. I need to make time for my brain to be aimless and chill out. I’m constantly listening to podcasts as I’m doing my chores (which helps motivates me to get them done), but if I go for a walk, then I try to not listen to anything to give myself time to think and my brain loves it. If I listen to things non-stop my brain never has time to process anything and then more anxiety sets in. Physical activity plus uninterrupted thinking time equals much less anxiety.
3. Practice Gratitude
I know, I know. Self-help writers say it so often, but it’s a cliché for a reason. Practicing gratitude helps you to appreciate all the good things you have in you life so much more. Being ungrateful only makes anxiety worse. Last night, when I was frantically searching for jobs like a lunatic, it was partly fuelled by my being ungrateful. Instead of being grateful for getting to live and work in such a beautiful, clean, safe country, where many people would love to live, I found myself becoming increasingly ungrateful that I wasn’t living in the UK, as I much preferred the jobs on offer there than the ones currently available in Switzerland.
Last night in the midst of my anxiety-fuelled insomnia fest, I should have stopped and taken the time to realise that yes, there may be less opportunities for me here, but there are still opportunities and there are lots of advantages to working here when compared with working in the UK. For starters, wages here are so much higher than the UK. True, it costs more to live here, but with Swiss wages I’ve always been able to work less hours than I would in the UK and to save more. If I live frugally, my money goes a long way – there are a lot of free things to do in Switzerland, especially when it comes to enjoying nature. The quality of life is very good here – we get more holiday on average than a lot of countries, employers have to pay into a pension scheme for their employees and the Swiss have one of the best transport systems in the world, so getting to and from work is easy, and one doesn’t need to drive to do so. People also take work contracts seriously here and workers have a lot of rights. Switzerland is actually a great place to work, so long as you find a job you align with.
Writing this has made me feel more grateful and as a consequence, I feel much less anxious at the moment about my future here. I want to make practicing gratitude a daily habit, as it really makes a difference when it comes to managing my anxiety.
As well as these three tips, there’s the other usual tips as well, such as eating a balanced diet, journalling (though sometimes that makes my anxiety worse) making time for self-care, reading and being mindful.
What do you do to manage your anxiety? What makes it worse in your case? I’d love to hear your tips.