Jenolan State Forest

Hello loves, ❤

I hope you’re all well 🙂 It’s Wednesday here in Sydney, Australia & its a sunny day but VERY cold. Haha, us Australians think 15 degrees is cold, whereby some countries think 15 degrees is HOT. (I am talking celsius)

How was every ones weekend? I went about 3 hours away to Jenolan State Forest, this area is known for caving etc but we went into the forest section & was driving through there. We also went to for a lovely long hike to a suspension bridge & faced a few fears 🙂

I got a lot of steps on my Fitbit that day (Speaking of Fitbit, thank you to those that have added me on Fitbit & have been doing challenges with me, I am having so much fun doing this, it is also very motivating)

We then came back to the campaign ground & had some lunch (We brought some food from home to make our own sandwiches, which was yummy)

On the way out of the forest, we took another exit, as the mountain got higher, the temperature was dropping which meant… IT SNOWED! Now, I have never seen snow fall from the sky, only ever seen it already fallen onto the ground, so it was an AMAZING experience to see it fall from the sky.

^ This is the amazing clan I went with 🙂 From left to right is, me (hi), Jamie (Sister fiances brother), Archel (Sister fiances brothers wife), Tiarna (sister) & Dean (Sister’s fiance)

^ This is a video of the snow falling from the sky 🙂 I absolutely loved it.

Wherever you are in the world, have a lovely day ❤

 

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Things You Need To Know If You Love Someone Who Suffers From Anxiety Attacks

Hello loves, ❤

When the people you love suffer from afflictions that you don’t know much about, it can be difficult to help them, even if you do your best. Anxiety attacks are something people commonly deal with for a variety of reasons, and when someone close to you has them frequently, you may not know what to do to help. Read on to find out some basic things you need to know in order to support your close friends and family before, during and after an anxiety attack.

1. Don’t Question Their Reasoning

The thing about anxiety attacks that everyone who has them knows is that they can be equally triggered by things that make sense and things that don’t as much. For example, a friend might begin to have an attack because they put too many chocolate chips in their pancake. You might feel inclined to take them less seriously because of this, but for them it might have trigger anxieties that relate to that activity. Always recognize that their attack is valid even if you don’t understand it.

2. Offer Your Help

Everyone is going to react differently when you offer help during an anxiety attack, so don’t take their answer personally. Some people may need you to talk them out of it, hold them while they go through it or even leave them alone so they can just wait it out. The key is to give them the power to control the situation, so their anxiety can be eased.

3. Focus on Breathing

Practicing a breathing exercise can help at all times surrounding or during an anxiety attack. By doing a breathing exercise to relieve anxiety that’s right for them, your loved one could do this on their own when they feel themselves getting anxious. If they want you to stick around during an attack, try to talk them through the exercise in an effort to help calm and refocus them.

4. Meditation Can Help

The difference between meditating and doing a breathing exercise is that meditation focuses the mind and air intake, while watching your breathing is just a calming method. You can meditate with your loved one as a sign of support so they don’t feel alone in learning to control and channel their anxiety. Meditation has been proven to help control triggers and impulses that relate to anxiety attacks, so even just trying it could give your loved one a moment of peace and calm.

5. Set Boundaries

Some anxiety attacks are caused by people overthinking, so boundaries can help them learn to narrow down what anxieties they deal with every day. Your loved one could worry about their health and repeatedly ask if they should go to a doctor or if what they have is serious. Good boundaries could be limiting their questions to three, then if they have concerns after that, they get one call to their doctor for advice. Boundaries show that worries can be dealt with quickly and don’t always have to spiral.

6. Go to A Professional

Never underestimate the kind of help a mental health professional can provide if no other options have worked. They might recommend something like Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, which is a psychotherapy that aims to modify dysfunctional behaviors and thoughts. It’s commonly used to treat anxiety and has given people positive results. Seeing a professional wouldn’t be a sign of weakness. It might be the best way for the person you love to overcome their anxiety and live their best life.

Talking about their anxiety attacks is sometimes the hardest part about life for someone who experiences anxiety. It’s not always easy to explain and they may feel defeated by it, making it a big insecurity. There are lots of ways you can help your loved one who deals with anxiety attacks, but the biggest help you can give is by always providing a safe space for them to come to so they don’t have to worry about any judgement.

And never forget that even if the person you love finds ways to cope with their anxiety and struggles with it less over time, it’s a personal issue that follows people their entire lives. There’s no magic word or trick anyone can do to instantly take it away. There may be relapses or long periods of success, but always promise to be there for them if they should ever need it.

Wherever you are in the world, have a lovely day ❤

Real Reasons Why Dealing With Anxiety Is The Worst

Hello loves, ❤

I like to call anxiety the silent killer of my aspirations. It likes to convince me that I have nothing good to say, or that, even if I did, someone else is already saying it better than I ever could. It likes to set negative expectations, so that in the event that the bad thing actually happens, my useless fears are reinforced. “See?” my anxiety says, “what did I tell you about ignoring me?”

They say fear is a natural thing. It serves an important role in our lives, and has kept our species from dying out. Anxiety is fear on steroids, it’s death from the inside out. It’s when your brain is hijacked and constantly in fight or flight mode. It’s exhausting, it’s useless, and fighting against it makes you feel like David standing up to Goliath. There’s many reasons I despise my anxiety, but the following five are the bulk of my scorn.

1. The Ups and Downs.

Anxiety is one step forward, one step backward, a never ending cha cha. You feel trapped in a loop of “wow, I’m doing so much better” and “today I failed massively.” The worst part? You don’t know if you’ve really failed, or if it’s just your anxiety is making you feel like you did.

2. Constantly needing reassurance.

Constant reassurance. You know, more than anyone, that it can be a pain. The last thing you want to do is ask your friend if you did an okay job ordering from the drive through, because the lady at the window looked at you kind of funny. Sometimes the “you did fine” that follows isn’t enough to calm your racing thoughts.

3. Always worrying about something.

Anxiety is proactive and reactive. It will not only stop you from doing things you want to do, thus, being proactive. It will also plague you when you are having fun. There’s always that moment where your immediate problems have all been solved and you feel almost as if you’re missing something. Shouldn’t I be worrying about something? Then it starts again. To be noted: if you have anxiety, googling symptoms of an illness is not advisable.

4. Caring too much. About everything.

Anxiety likes it if you care what other people think; that further hinders your ability to find yourself and be truly happy. If you try to cater to everyone, you will be locked in a very tight box, I assure you. It’s so easy to lose sight of your own identity in trying to make it fit with someone else’s picture of what is right. It’s hard not to want to shrink yourself into the smallest person you can be, just to appease your fears.

5. Being too much while simultaneously not being enough.

You’re too much of a worrier, too much of a people pleaser, not enough of a risk taker, not enough of an individual. If anxiety and all the things it prohibits is not enough, the constant misunderstanding of those around you can really make you want to crawl into a hole. It’s important to accept who you are, anxiety or no. It’s important to ignore the people who don’t appreciate you, but it’s so much easier to say these things than to actually do them.

My anxiety is a grotesque, slimy creature that feeds off of canceled plans and inner turmoil. I don’t like it, and I don’t like its friends. This is why I hate my anxiety.

Wherever you are in the world, have a lovely day ❤

Things People With Anxiety Never Ever Want To Hear

Hello loves, ❤

Having a god support system is VITAL when dealing with anxiety, these people are your back bone. These people are the shelter from your storm 🙂 Make sure you choose your support system wisely.

Notice that the below are RED FLAGS for a bad support system & people that say:

 

1. Are you ok?

No. To be completely honest no. And you can not fix that so do not ask if I am ok because the answer is no. When an anxiety attack sets in, or a bad day hits, nothing can make you feel okay and what makes it worse is when someone who has no experience to what is going on thinks they can make you ok. Thank you for trying, that is so kind but you can not make me ok. Only I can and it is a lot harder then you will ever know.

2. Just take your pill.

As if the medication is a quick fix. Did you know it takes at least two weeks for a medication to kick in and if suffering from anxiety, it usually takes longer. And even when the medication does kick in, it;s not a fix.

Anxiety medication is simply a relief but not a total stop. If anxiety medication just stopped anxiety in total I think more people would be on it. However, it is not. It maintains the issue but does not fix it. Anxiety is not something that can be fixed. It is not a broken car part. It is part of our brain, body, and everyday life.

3. Just ignore it.

HAHA. Like that is even possible. Anxiety makes us see that little spot on our jeans or that little tear in our school paper and makes unable to ignore it. I don’t know about you, but ignoring it is not an option. If ignoring the voice in our heads was on option, I think we would ignore it.

4. Stay calm.

I genuinely think if someone says these two words to me they deserved to be slapped across the face. Staying calm is not possible when your heart is racing or you can not catch your breath.

We are way past staying calm at this point. Hearing these two words is like nails on the chalkboard. Staying calm is just not going to happen.

5. You are fine.

You certainly are not fine and you never will be. Every day is hard and people do not give you enough credit for that. You deserve credit for getting out of bed and doing a daily task that drives you nuts. You also deserve credit for not being able to leave your bed. For knowing yourself so well that you know if you take on the day you will physically and mentally break done.

People with anxiety are far from fine, but they know themselves better than anyone. People with anxiety are forced to trust their gut… something “normal” people fail to do. People with anxiety do not conform.

You are not fine and you never will be, but you will handle it and that is something you should be so proud of.

Wherever you are in the world, have a lovely day ❤