Thanksgiving is a time of year that families and friends come together to eat and celebrate. Sometimes it can in be large groups or with family/friends you haven't seen in a while. These group gatherings can cause people with social anxiety to have a panic attacks or other symptoms. Social anxiety can present in many different ways: general shyness, shaking, fast heart beat, sweating, vomiting, nausea, and more. Since it shows up in many different forms, you might not be able to notice when someone is struggling with social anxiety. If you do notice someone struggling it might be good to know some methods to help them calm down. People with social anxiety can be "on edge" when they are in certain situations making it hard for them to enjoy a Thanksgiving dinner or be comfortable in general with groups of people. Dealing with social anxiety during these holiday times can be very difficult and hard to deal with so we have made a list of a few ways to deal with social anxiety this Thanksgiving. If you are someone who personally struggles with anxiety or someone who wants to know a few ways because a loved ones suffers from social anxiety, this is for you!
DEALING WITH SOCIAL ANXIETY THIS THANKSGIVING
Give yourself pep-talks: Talking to yourself might sounds funny or weird but it can actually be very helpful. Telling yourself things like: "You are okay", "No one is judging me", "Deep breath", ect... You can start this in the morning before Thanksgiving dinner happens to calm any early nerves. (For people who are wanting to help someone else, these reminders can be helpful coming from you as well)
Find a way to help or be active in Thanksgiving: This method can be really helpful. When dealing with social anxiety sometimes it can be hard to do anything because your mind is so focused on the people around you or yourself. If you give yourself something to do, like make cranberry sauce or set the table, your mind can focus on something else and it can help calm your anxiety.
Yoga the morning of: Yoga is great for calming nerves and dealing with anxiety. Yoga helps to rewire your reactions which can help you with how to react to high-anxiety situations. You can read our blog post: BEGINNER YOGA POSES FOR DEALING WITH YOUR ANXIETY, to learn more about how yoga can help with anxiety and find some poses to try. The breath work of yoga can also be extremely helpful for anxiety.
Find one or two people you feel comfortable with: Talking to people you feel comfortable with or you know well, can really help calm nerves and anxiety. This is especially helpful if this person knows you are struggling and can help calm you down and get you through it. You can either stay with these comfortable people or you can text these people throughout the night. Sometimes even just being near a comfort person can help you calm your anxiety a bit.
Visualize the morning of: The morning of, you can use the tool of visualization to picture a calm evening where you feel comfortable and at ease. This tells your subconscious to direct your body into feeling comfortable and at ease. You can do this a few times before Thanksgiving dinner to fully remind your subconscious and tell yourself how your Thanksgiving will be.
Find out the details of Thanksgiving: Sometimes people with anxiety can be calmed down a bit by knowing all of the information ahead of time so they can mentally prepare themselves. Some information that is helpful is who will be there, where is Thanksgiving, what will be served, what time will it be at, or how long will it last approx. You can ask the host these questions before hand and let your mind prepare itself so you aren't thrown off by someone being there that you didn't mentally prepare for, ect...
Change your focus: This is similar to finding something to do to get your mind off the social aspects of the dinner. If that method works for you, then this method might work for you as well. For this you can focus on certain things at the actually dinner instead of before hand. You can make mental lists of the smells at dinner, the tastes, textures/ feelings, ect... You can either do this by mentally making notes throughout the dinner or you can go alphabetically and find something for each part of the alphabet. Whichever works for you!
Breath work: As we mentioned above when talking about yoga, breathing techniques can really help calm nerves and anxiety. One simple way you can try this is breathing in for 5 seconds, holding your breath for 7 seconds, then breathing out for 5 seconds. This breathing technique is great for social anxiety because no one notices it and it still calms your anxiety. You can do this exercise a few times throughout the night to ease nerves and anxiety.
Those are eight simple ways to deal with social anxiety at Thanksgiving this year. You can make mental notes of these, write them in a notes app to remind yourself if you forget, or tell a friend/comfort person that can remind you of them throughout the night. If you try one out and it isn't working, try a different one out til you find one that is working for you. If you none of these work, you can try tapping on your stomach or tapping your finger tips to calm the nervous system.
If you are someone who is looking for ways to help a loved one who struggles with social anxiety, as we said before: you can write this ways down and help them remember or you can make mental notes of these methods. When someone is in a high anxiety setting, it can make them forget everything because they are overly focused on their surroundings, the people around them, or themselves. That's why it is always good to write these ways down or have someone else to remind them.
We hope everyone has a lovely Thanksgiving and that you are able to use these methods to help everyone have the most comfortable, loving Thanksgiving!
Happy Thanksgiving,
Love BE era Magazine.
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