I used the opportunity of not being able to sleep last night, to consider what helps me live with my Generalised Anxiety and Ulcerative Colitis conditions.
So here is my menu of options in no particular order that help me:
- Take medication twice daily (Pregabalin for Anxiety and Pentasa for IBD)
- Use Pentasa enema once a week to help avoid flare up
- Go for regular walks (at least once a day)
- Maintain a daily routine, of getting up, washing and putting on clean clothes
- Eating well (portion sizes and types of food) and regularly during the day
- Limit the amount of caffeine I consume (coffee and Pepsi Max)
- Meditate every day
- Mindfulness
- Yoga, using Yoga with Adrienne on You Tube
- Go out for a ride on my motorcycle, either to do a chore or just for the hell of it
- Reading, both novels and self-help books
- Doing Sudoku puzzles
- Listening to music, usually on my headphones to element surrounding noise and environment
- Use my Tooth Guard, eye drops and hand cream daily
- Get 8 hours quality sleep each night
- Writing down my thoughts in my journal and/or blogging
- Counselling – when I feel I need it
I have collected (what I used to call my bag of tools to manage my anxiety) through the help of counselling and reading, I like the idea of now saying it is my ‘menu’ of options to help me live with anxiety and IBD, i.e. I am getting better at accepting that I am anxious.
I do achieve menu options 1, 4, 11, 12 & 14 the majority of days and options 3, 5, 6, 7, 13, 15 & 16 at least weekly, but want to do more. So what about 2, 8, 9 & 10, I ask myself.
I was going to identify whether each option helped with my anxiety or IBD, but upon review they all help with both conditions.
Hope you find this post useful
Best wishes from MyAnxiety
