Trying Something New

I've noticed that I've been a little on edge lately and why wouldn't I be when school starts in two weeks? Yesterday, I had to go to the school with the BFF for a little meeting of sorts and I'm proud to say my anxiety crossed my mind only once. It wasn't any sort of panic, but merely a passing thought.

Over the years that I've been dealing with anxiety as an every day thing and not just a every so often circumstance, I've heard various ways of handling it. Some have clearly worked. Some only work half the time and some don't work at all. But there are some that I haven't tried yet.

Well, it's time to put those things to the test.

Starting today, so I get a head start and in the right mindset, I'm going to change a few things in my life. Hopefully, these things will help and I'll start some good habits along the way. So what exactly am I going to do?

• Reduce stress. There are a couple things that I can do to reduce my stress. Lots of stress triggers my anxiety and too much in a short time period will start triggering the attacks. Honestly, I can easily reduce my stress by changing a few things. Ignore some phone calls. Stay away from some people. Don't overload myself. Those are the main things I'll do to keep myself a little less stressed.
• Exercise. That word was tossed around in the beginning. A couple doctors and my therapist told me that regular exercise could both help on the stress part and the anxiety part. The stress only becomes an issue when it gets to be too much. Since I could use some exercise anyway, I'm going to do a little of that and play tennis. It'll be good for my health, both mentally and physically.
• Drink more water. I love my Dr. Pepper and I gotta have it everyday. However, caffeine isn't too good for me and my anxiety. That's why I stay away from the energy drinks 99.9% of the time and limit my frappé intake. The amount of Dr. Pepper I do drink isn't too much caffeine, but I know it would help if I switched out at least one drink of Dr. Pepper with a bottle of water every day. 

I figured if I start now that I will at least be in the routine of doing these things before school starts. And as long as I keep it up once school does start, I'm hoping that these three things in combination with my medication and all my other techniques will help me last through the semester. Things are still feeling pretty good right now, but I want to try and prepare myself anyway. Not to mention that these are all good things in general and I'm pretty excited to get back into playing tennis. :)