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| source; aanchalloshali.wordpress.com |
Maybe it was the new gig as Director of Admission, but for whatever reason, I couldn’t shake the anxiety. As soon as my alarm would sound in the morning, my brain would start racing with to-do lists, e-mails to send, and things not done from the day before. To be honest, it was nearly debilitating.
Then, a few months ago, it all changed.
I know it seems somewhat dramatic to say it, but there was one main thing I can credit my anxiety-reduction to: meditation. I was a naysayer forever — I thought meditation was silly, too hippy-dippy, not for me. I was also certain that I didn't have the attention span for it. And then, I tried it. And... it worked.I am not saying it wiped out my anxiety, but there is no doubt it's had a profound impact on my life.
It has worked so much for me that I thought it was about time to share some of my tips for reducing anxiety in your hyperactive high school life. I know this time of the year can be crazy stressful and anxiety-inducing. It’s my hope that by doing a few of the things below, you can see the same changes I did.
1) Meditate. I am just saying to try it. Give it a shot. You have nothing to lose. Even just ten minutes a day. Remember, they call meditation a “practice” for a reason: you’re not going to master it the first time you try it. Or even the first ten times. But keep at it for a few weeks. I promise you, if you try it ten times in ten days, you’ll see remarkable results. I use InsightTimer and Headspace, two great apps for guided meditation. Marines, pro athletes, CEOs, and millions of Americans have introduced meditation into their daily life. This stuff is the real deal.
2) Treat your brain like it’s your roommate. Here is something I learned from the concept of mindfulness and specifically from this great book I read called The Untethered Soul. Basically, your brain is like your roommate. It’s always going to be nagging you, talking to you, reminding you of things, giving you it's opinion in an endless narrative. The most important thing to remember is this: you can choose what you listen to. This was big for me. Just because your brain is always talking to you, doesn’t mean you have to listen to it. After all, if you could control your brain’s thoughts, you’d only think positive things, right? As soon as you starting thinking “I’ll never get into this school," "I am going to bomb the ACT," just remember — you don’t have to listen to negativity. Just like that annoying roommate, you can pick what you listen to.
3) Try a little mindfulness. Take few moments to listen to a podcast about mindfulness. When I did, it was the first time in my life I’ve ever been exposed to the concept, and to be honest, there is something to it. If you’d told me a year ago I would have typed that sentence, I would have laughed at you. My sister got me turned on to Tara Brach — look her up in the Podcast store and give it a listen. If you'd rather read, check out the book Dan Harris from ABC news wrote after his on-air anxiety attack called Ten Percent Happier. We've even got a Mindfulness Collaborative here at Tulane.
4) Don’t look at your phone before you go to sleep or right as you wake up. When you are checking your phone right before you sleep, it keeps you awake and also keeps your brain racing. Instead, read a book. Meditate. Do something besides sit in bed and stare at your phone. Adjust the Night Shift on your phone. This takes out the colors that make it hard on your eyes in the evening. Right as you wake up, don't grab your phone and check your SnapChat or e-mail. Just let yourself wake up.
5) Drink a full glass of water as soon as you wake up. I don't know. It just helps somehow.
6) Add the Momentum add in for your desktop. It gives you gorgeous shots and inspirational messages to greet you every day.
7) Don’t post your college application decisions on Facebook. If you get into a school, that is great! No need to blast it all over social media, even though I know you are super pumped. Because as you get in, many of your classmates will not. Keep your results off social media and you'll be inadvertently helping those around you. Once you select a school to enroll at, by all means post about it. But in the crazy ED/EA season, it goes a long way to show some humility.
8) Take it a step further and take a little break from social media altogether. This one is tough, I know, especially in the world we live in. It's remarkable how much anxiety it can give you when you are consistently comparing your life to your classmates and experiencing FOMO.
9) Learn to respond, not react. This is one that is going to take some time and won't happen overnight. But by practicing some mindfulness and maybe a little meditation, you'll get there. Simply put, reacting is the knee-jerk reaction to a situation. Responding is taking a breath, collecting your thoughts, mulling it over, and then responding. Next time someone e-mails you something obnoxious, instead of immediately reacting with an equally obnoxious e-mail, sit on it, sleep on it, and write a well-thought-out response. You'll be glad you did. Great example: if you get deferred from a school, don't react. Respond.
10) Be patient with others. I was on the airplane last week with a mom and her baby. The baby who would NOT stop crying. Everyone was glaring at the mom with a "shut that kid up!" look on their face. Now, think of it this way — who is the only person on that plane who wants that baby to stop crying more than you? Right. The mom. So be patient. I bet that baby will stop crying a whole lot sooner if the other people on the flight gave the mom a few compassionate looks of patience. Patience with others can lead to a remarkable amount of anxiety reduction of your own.
11) Remember the symbiotic relationship between your energy input and output. I could go into a whole lot of detail on this one, but I'll keep it simple. The better energy you put out into the world, the better you get back. Seems like a heady concept, but there is something to it. Ever notice how negative things happen to people who are often negative?
12) Exercise. But like, REALLY, exercise. One of the absolute best ways to reduce your anxiety is to get a really good workout in. Not just a casual jog, but something where you really push yourself. Take a boot-camp class, maybe even a spin class, but do something that pushes you harder than usual. If you're a freshman at Tulane, your first spin class is on me!
If you had told me last year I'd be writing a blog encouraging you to meditate, I'd think you had lost your mind! But here I am doing exactly that. Like I've said before, everything will be alright in the end. If it’s not alright, it’s not the end. You'll get in somewhere, you'll go somewhere. You'll do fine in school and the drama with your friends will come and go. This goes back to deciding what you listen to in your brain. It's not always going to be perfect, but you can rest assured, eventually things have a way of working themselves out. I am not saying all will be completely stress-free all the time, but over the course of the next few months, if you try a few of the tips above, you just might experience reduced anxiety in life, at at time when you'd expect it to be higher than ever.
Good luck out there!
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