Making Anxiety Manageable

Even if living alone is your preferred lifestyle, it is human nature to want the validation that comes from positive interaction with other people. I fully understand that and know that you, living alone, do too. 

 

We are both of an age and too experienced with life to underestimate the effect that being with people has on us.  And we want to look in the mirror and like what we see, a mature woman with practiced social poise.  

 

But the infrequent anxiety that can come from not having face to face approval and support on a daily basis in your own home can be a puzzle to you.  And make you wonder if you are basically lonely without realizing it.

 

Be assured that it is natural to feel anxious at times.  Having a friend or relative to discuss your thoughts and feelings with can go a long way to keeping fearful ideas and negative feelings at a minimum. 

 

So it is worth your time and attention to find someone in your family or social network with whom you can build such a conversational relationship.  

 

Depending on this kind of easy friendship is one way to balance negative thoughts that can come in the night and disturb your sleep.

 

And hang around in the daytime making you wonder if you really are normal. 

 

Most people go through such anxious periods in their life, whether living alone or not.

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But dealing with even mild anxiety can get you stuck in a "worst case scenario" that feeds off circular thinking when spending so much time living home alone.  

 

Downer thinking like this needs the benefit of others' opinions found in friendly social conversation.  Even agreement to disagree can break the rigid hold your thoughts may have on you. 

 

It can make you realize that there is more than one way of thinking here and lighten up your former bad feelings. 

 

This is one reason to concentrate on making a social life that can balance your time alone and dispel the home-grown heebie-jeebies.  

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While counting on your friendly network to help keep you sane, you can help yourself with an exercise routine that also balances your mental exertions. 

 

Everyone by now knows that exercise improves the production of neurotransmitters in your body that are natural uppers for mental health.  And for feeling good.

 

And taking physical action on any problem improves your feeling of self confidence. 

 

 

 

Another way to lighten infrequent feelings of anxiety is to watch and moderate your diet. 

 

There are foods we all love that might add to stressful feelings due to being harder to digest than others. 

 

Avoiding them totally would take a lot of pleasure out of our eating life, but moderating these foods is doable. Clean eating while limiting the following:    

 

* Fried foods stress the body with difficult digestion.

 

* Refined white sugar can cause jitteriness for over an hour after eating desserts. 

 

* Alcohol is dehydrating and can cause anxiety all by itself.

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* Coffee causes rapid heartbeat and/or racing thoughts with its load of caffeine.

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* Acidic foods like pickles, sour cream, etc. can drop magnesium levels in the body. 

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These foods are just a few that can add to physical feelings of anxiousness due to their reactions in your body. A little goes a long way.  Eat them infrequently.

 

None of these foods are truly bad for you except in excess. 

 

But then that is true of most everything in life.  

 

Who said live with everything in moderation...except moderation.  

 

Being aware of your diet, keeping exercise in your weekly routine, and having a pleasurable social life can go a long way to keeping anxiety to a minimum in your living alone life.

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And then you can like that person smiling back at you from the mirror.

 

 

 

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