Anxiety Symptom Management: The Top Tools We Use for a More Balanced Life

Zach: [00:00:00] Do you wake up every morning with a constant dread of something's about to go terribly wrong that carries on throughout the entire day?

Jeremy: Or is your morning alarm clock like a starting gun for your racing thoughts that you struggle to keep up with all day long?

Zach: That's just a little bit of what it's like to live with anxiety. Today we're gonna talk about some tools and techniques that we use to manage our anxiety. That may be useful for you as well.

Jeremy: All right. Well, Zach, you've been gone for a while, a week or two on a global adventure, seeing all the sites and doing all the things. I imagine that was just completely, uh, peaceful and freewheeling, easy time. Uh, no stress of any kind.

Zach: It always is. I mean, what's the problem? No issues. No issues [00:01:00] going to other countries? Uh, no, actually I wanted to talk about anxiety today just because, like in, in a general form, because I mean, I do deal with anxiety and I have, I, I don't, I wouldn't say I have a lot of travel specific anxiety. I have, like, I have general anxiety that includes it when I travel.

Traveling doesn't stress me out anymore than taking a left hand turn out of a parking lot

into oncoming traffic.

Jeremy: Right, but, but both are off the

Zach: both. Both give me anxiety. , but yeah, no, the last two weeks have been interesting. I had to go to Ireland for work, , but I brought my daughter with me, so that added to it.

Like, I don't normally bring her on work trips cuz that it's hard to do. But anyway, brought my daughter, hired a nanny in Ireland and like on day one, just like met this, this woman who was fantastic, she was lovely, but met her and literally handed my credit card and my daughter over to her and it was like, go have

fun.

And then.

Jeremy: I've known you for an hour here. Take everything that matters most to

Zach: Yeah. , but, you know, and getting my daughter into the [00:02:00] country, like her passport didn't arrive until Thursday. We flew out on Saturday, like talk about tight. I, I was about to cancel everything. , so my daughter's first time in a new country trying to like, acclimate her to that, trying to work, trying to do all the things.

And then I took a week off and we flew over to Paris and went to Disneyland, Paris, which is way different than. The Florida version. Way, way different. Uh, we were there for a couple days. We went to Paris when the riots were happening. We actually got evacuated off of a train, , because there was a, a riot in the next station.

And then I had to go figure out the Paris subway systems to get to where

we wanted to go. Um, cuz we

Jeremy: hell, hell of a time to go. to France, by the

way. Good, good planning

Zach: I know, but I, I needed to make it to the louvin time.

Jeremy: for

Zach: And then we flew back to Dublin and we hung out in Dublin for a couple of days, and I took my 12 year old daughter on the Guinness Factory tour.

No stress or anxiety whatsoever, like just nothing, right? It was a, it was a whirlwind of a two, two week

stretch here.

Jeremy: So just getting through the day normally is enough to send your anxiety through the roof. All [00:03:00] of the logistics of this, the passport, the travel, the plane, the evacuations, Disney, all of the stuff must have just elevated that

in ways that really taxed your system. So how did you manage all that?

Zach: Well, I just used all the same things that I use normally. I think the one thing that was missing was my physical exercise. I only got like two or three workouts in, in the two weeks, which was problematic for me. Cuz again, like that is the foundation, that's the baseline, , For me in managing my anxiety is making sure I move for like 30 to 60 minutes

.

early in the day.

If I do it late in the day, it's, it's, it's doesn't work as well for me. So managing my anxiety is really good doing it first thing in the morning. , but again, just like all the deep breathing, , I've traveled the world before and. Nothing terrible happened, and it's all the same thing.

It's flights, it's airports, it's, , figuring out , what something says in French. Like it's all the same thing. So looking at those, those prior [00:04:00] situations and going, you did it, then you'll do it now. It'll all be okay. But there was just so many moments where I was like, you know what? I'm just here.

I have a little anxiety, I'm gonna just take 10 deep breaths. It's literally that simple. It's like all you have to do. , I did break one of my rules and I did have, you know, I was in Ireland, so I did have a couple of

guinnesses while I was there. So I had like alcohol and , like they don't make coffee in Europe. They make things with espresso shots and that, and I just order like, oh, gimme a large whatever. Not realizing there's like four shots of something in it.

And, um, I think a couple of days, like I was, I was buzzing cuz I had so much caffeine and I had also had alcohol the night before. , so when I only did that for a couple of days and then I was like, oh, yep, nope, , I can't do my physical movement. So there's no alcohol, there's no more coffee. Like I limited my coffee

intake after that.

Jeremy: , so I'm curious. I was, I've been thinking a lot about this. This is something I've just sort of been [00:05:00] wrestling with in my head and, and I saw a tweet the other day, or a post from, uh, Alex Hormo, and it was something to the effect of, Hey, America was built by a bunch of guys that smoked cigarettes and wrote around in wagons.

If you missed your biohacking routine today, you're gonna be okay. And I don't beat myself up, but I. I have not been super consistent with all of the things that I do, but I'm trying to do some of them every day because I know that, that they are essential to managing my mental health issues.

how were you on yourself when you missed most of those workouts when you had the alcohol you don't normally have? When you had more caffeine, , were you then telling yourself later, uh, I'm, I'm a loser. I can't believe I did that. Or are you at a place now where you can go, you know what, this is what the day demanded.

Tomorrow's another chance.

Zach: Yeah, no, I'm, I'm okay with it. I, I know that I can't. Have that routine all the time. I have the routine for a very specific reason, but, , there's a ton of self-compassion that goes into it as [00:06:00] well. ? It's, oh, I had, I, you know, I had a Guinness.

I mean, when you're in Ireland you have to have a Guinness.

And I had too much coffee and like, I just made adjustments, like, okay, well that didn't work. Like I can't beat myself up over it, but I can make better decisions tomorrow and, and do things differently. , like all the things that you need to do to manage anxiety, sleep well, no alcohol or, or limited alcohol and caffeine intake.

, getting enough sleep. , all of those things weren't happening. . So I really just had to like, be okay with that, that elevated level of what was going on, on top of like the increased stress. And that's okay. Like it's okay to be out of your comfort zone. Occasionally it, it reminds me like why I've got these routine routines of why I

do these things.

[00:07:00]

Jeremy: I was just gonna say that's something that is, is another, I think, often overlooked piece of advice in this space is that when you do have the routine, intentionally kicking it aside, And just going, you know, I'm just, I'm just not gonna do it just to push myself to be uncomfortable, whether it is because you're traveling and it's inconvenient and it's, you know, hard to fit into the day.

But what if it's just Thursday? What if you're just, you know what, today I'm just, I'm not gonna do it [00:08:00] just because I need to prove to myself that I'm strong enough to, to get through this without it. I mean, certainly there are elements of it that. Like you talked about, like the, the movement, the same way for me with depression.

If, if I don't go to the gym, if I'm not moving my body, I suffer the consequences later mentally. But sometimes I do push myself to just go, you know what, let's try it without it . Today, let's, let's get through this day without that and practice some other tools to see if something else can fill in the gap and, and practice those other things and get uncomfortable so that I can try to grow a little bit more and not be so reliant on.

These crutches that I build for myself to, to get through the day.

Zach: I wouldn't call them crutches, and I'd be careful with also saying, I'm gonna do this and see if I can make it through without. These tools cuz you're, if you can't, you're kind of setting yourself up for failure. And if you don't have your self-compassion dialed in, you're, you're gonna beat yourself up over it.

And I wouldn't call them crutches. I really do call these tools and especially with anxiety, [00:09:00] just realizing that it's never gonna go away. Right. These aren't crutches to. You know, get you out of the cast because your foot's healing. These are crutches cuz you're never gonna walk again. Like this is something you need to embrace and say, okay, these are the tools that I'm going to use to manage my anxiety.

Cuz your anxiety doesn't define you right. It's not you. That's not who you are. , so I'd be careful with that, with those two statements. Like you could set yourself up for failure. Like I do think that you should go without your tools. I. Occasionally and be uncomfortable because it really reminds you how important those tools are.

But, but that's, for me, anxiety is befriending it. Anxiety is going into it knowing that this is gonna be there for the rest of my life and this is just the way I need to live my life to be okay with it. So, so I wouldn't

say crutches.

Jeremy: That is a far more articulate way of saying what I was trying to clumsily , say through that, uh, pile of words that fell out of [00:10:00] my mouth.

Zach: I think I just

mansplained to you, didn't I?

Jeremy: I think you did, I think you did mansplain to me a little bit. You son of a

Zach: God damn. That felt good.

, so really the whole point of all of this is we really just wanted to, to rattle off a few things that you can do on a regular basis that will help you manage your anxiety. , first off is the knowledge that you are not your anxiety. It is separate. It's another thing, and the sooner you can go in, make friends with it, acknowledge it, and thank it.

Be loving to it and say thank you. There's no tiger chasing me. I'm okay. I kind of shut it down. The sooner you'll be able to let some of these other tools and techniques, , have the greatest impact, but like that is the number one tip is to understand that anxiety's never gonna go away. It'll ebb and flow in its intensity, but you need to accept that it's there forever and be okay with it.

And be friends with it, and then [00:11:00] you can use all these tools to kind of manage it and mansplain to it. I guess maybe you

could.

Jeremy: And among those tools, the physical activity that you talked about, Recently, so I'm, I'm in this weird transition in my life where the kids are outta school, so they're home all day, so I don't have to get up at the crack of dawn to , get them to the bus stop and get my routine off and running. I'm sleeping in more, and so I'm not getting to the gym first thing in the morning.

And so my brain is taking over, like the, the thoughts are racing. Like the minute I wake up, it's like the starting gun has been fired and my brain's just like, these are all the problems , that you're facing in the world and internally and all the things. I recognize that that is because I'm not moving that energy, so my brain is like, come on, let's go catch up.

Let's get going. So if you can work in some sort of physical activity, get up and go for a walk around the neighborhood, walk around the block, go to the gym, do some online workout, like some sort of thing to, to move your body, for me, that is essential in keeping this [00:12:00] box on top of my shoulders from taking over and completely ruining my day.

Zach: And while you're doing anything that you're moving around with, just remember to breathe . There's breathing exercises that help with anxiety. I mean breathing exercises that help with everything, but specifically to, , activate your vagus nerve and , your rest, , and digest system.

Like if you can just figure out how to take some deep breaths. And I mean like belly breaths, box breathing, like, look it up, like , this stuff actually really works, but while you're even working out, like you can do box breathing while you're walking, , if that's your, your mode of like moving around is

Jeremy: I find it helps me survive.

Zach: It is good for that. I mean, it does have that benefit. It really does. It keeps you

alive.

Jeremy: I mean, don't

take my word for it. I, I'm sure someone else has done a study on this, but I find breathing is important to

Zach: it is, it, it totally is. It's also important if you're in the moment, like feeling overly anxious and like you're about to lose it

.

at any point in time, like [00:13:00] nobody can really even see you breathing. It's something that you're doing anyway. You can just put a little bit more effort and thought into it.

You can do this anywhere. I do it in the car, I do it in the grocery store. I do it when I'm talking to people. I do it everywhere, and it is literally the number one thing that will calm me down in the moment if all of my other tools didn't do their job to keep me stable and I'm having a moment, just a little bit of breathing, like even just a minute of deep breathing, which is not a lot, anyone can do a minute of deep breathing, it'll, it'll really bring the anxiety down.

It really does. You just gotta give it a try. I tried explaining this to my daughter. She doesn't believe me yet, but she'll get it when she's like 22 and 23 and she'll come

back and thank me eventually.

Jeremy: As soon as she's out of that, my parents are idiot's

Zach: Yeah, exactly.

Jeremy: change. Aside from the, just the physiological effects, the idea of focusing on your breath gets your brain to, especially if you're wrestling with anxiety, like we're talking about, instead of focusing on all the things, you're not doing, all the things you are doing, everything that's going wrong in your life.

If you can just bring the attention back to the breath for a minute, it just, [00:14:00] it just has a way of calming all that down. Not only does it slow your heart rate and, and help your body physiologically, but mentally. It just gives you something else to focus on that you actually can control. And it's a massive way to, to reset that anxiety button.

And with all of this is self-compassion. You're not always going to be perfect. You're going to miss workouts. You're going to make food choices that you'll regret. You're going to, you're gonna mess up, you're gonna do things that you wish you didn't do.

Just stop. Start again. Now. Start again. You know the minute you catch yourself. Reset. Don't judge it. Don't throw a bunch of negativity at it. Don't punish yourself for it because that's only gonna lead to a cycle of repeated failure. Have compassion, try again.

Zach: Yep. And the last tip that we have that if you're having issues with self-compassion, just go take a nap, go to sleep. Like literally getting enough sleep is, again, for all the things in your life, super important. But if [00:15:00] you have anxiety and you need to manage it, and you're only getting four to five hours of sleep a night. That's gonna impact your anxiety and make it even worse. So that's like one of those baseline things that you can do, get enough sleep, and it'll actually just bring your anxiety down a little bit more

Jeremy: Well, there you have it. If anxiety is something that you deal with, hopefully these tips have been helpful for you and will continue to be helpful for you. You can get more information like this in our newsletter, which you can sign up for@thefitmess.com.

That's our website, and that is also where we'll be back in just a few days with a brand new episode. Thanks for listening.