E86 Labeling And Coping With Triggers

0:00What are your triggers that set off your anxiety or panic, or depression, or sad, sad states, PTSD, the like? Hi, I'm Scarlett Classic, and welcome to Classic Advice, a mental health podcast that is guidance for resilient souls and cringol amid the chaos. Being able to label our triggers, knowing what sets us off can be really, really helpful because we can plan in advance for them. So for example, if you know that going to a certain place, hearing certain sounds, seeing certain people will set off your anxiety, or if you have PTSD, set off your PTSD, we can

1:11do ourselves a favor by planning in advance on how we are going to deal with them. That's the first step. The second step is figuring out what calms you down to prepare you for seeing the person or going to the place. I know I talk about journaling a lot, and it's because it really helped me through my tough times. The other thing I talk about a lot is deep breathing, because that's what got me to calm down when I would experience panic attacks. That's what works for me, and just because it works for me doesn't necessarily mean that that is what is going to work for you, however, I can really only share what worked for me. But there's something different that works for you, then just take this with a green assault, and you can switch things up and play around with it a little bit and see what

2:15it is that's going to work for you. If you have an appointment with someone on Tuesday, say you're getting together with someone, and you have a history with this person, and you know that seeing them is going to set you off in maybe a sad state or anxiety or whatever it may be. Right before you see them or you go to the place, I would encourage you to do what calms you down, and then immediately afterwards do the thing again. So I would journal before seeing certain people, and then I would do some deep breathing, and you can even, the reason why I like deep breathing so much is because you can do it in the moment without anybody knowing. You can practice doing really deep breaths in, deep breaths out while in a conversation

3:17with someone, and it can help keep your heart rate down and keep you calm in the moment. And then after the fact, if you go for a walk, walking is a really, really great way to relieve stress because when your body is stressed, it wants to move. It wants to deal, it wants to do something in action to relieve the stress, and walking is a really, really great way to get your body moving and to calm yourself down as well. I like doing it outside to get some fresh air, and if you have a forest or a lake or some more calm, even if you're by the ocean or a river, the sound of the water, I particularly really like that sound, so you can play around with what works for you and use what's in your environment to help bring some calm and help bring some peace into your world.

4:22And sometimes we need to be very, very intentional in bringing the calm into our world. Knowing our triggers, labeling them and being very intentional on how we are going to deal with them can help us bring calm to a chaotic moment. Thank you for tuning in to classic advice. Guidance for resilient souls, may you stay anchored in what studies you, rise resilient through what challenges you, and carry calm into whatever comes next. Take care, love you, bye.