5-10 minute anxiety tips please

[EndlessUserName]

Kids at home, working from home, home schooling (I'm a teacher so it's not too bad) but just finding I get overwhelmed at times and the kids are picking up on it - I can see my anxiety reflected back in their behaviour

What quick ish self care things can I do?

Escape upstairs for a cuppa... But what else? That's all I can think of!

Thanks!

There are apps for 1-5 minute meditation/breathing exercises. Go for a wee, lock yourself in and just breathe.

Do you have a garden or a balcony? Get out there and take breaths of fresh air too.

Let the kids have screen time and have some time to yourself too if you can. Write in a journal, record your anxieties and what, if anything, can be done about them. If nothing can be done, try to redirect yourself with another activity, alone or with the kids.

I quite like cheery music on headphones for a little bit - kinda hard to listen to your own worried thoughts when you're drowning them out with Dancing Queen :)

I've been using the Stop, Breathe & Think app. It gives recommendations based on how you are feeling. Definitely very helpful at the moment.

I find singing helps me. Fairly loudly- unfortunately for anyone within earshot.

Also look around you and pick 5 things you can see, things you can hear, touch etc. And really focus on them.

Bring yourself into the ‘now’ and think of something positive right at that moment.

Stick TV on for them. Go kitchen and have a brew and message mate

Have you tried mediation apps like headspace? They normally have 5-10 minute guided breathing tracks you can follow.

It's the sort of thing you can practice quite regularly and hopefully end up being able to do anywhere without a track to calm down if you practice enough. Really sorry you're feeling anxious. I'm feeling it too tonight.

There are lots of super mindfulness things online - if you google mindfulness and free you'll get lots back, but here's one to get you started, with several 5-10 minute sequences on it.

www.freemindfulness.org/download

Yoga breathing and mudras might help too.

I also suffer from anxiety, but this kind of thing has really helped me. I've had to do quite a bit of breathing today. I don't go out much anyway, but the fact that I now can't go out even if I want to really got to me earlier.

That and singing. (Badly, usually. I like the songs from the musicals and Irish ballads my mother used to sing when I was little but I always forget the words half way through and end up having to go la la la.)

And as others have said, the STOP technique is excellent. On a course I did recently run by our local mental health Trust they put us into pairs for the 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 exercise and we had to describe them to each other (so, for instance, 5 things you can see, 4 things you can touch, 3 things you can hear, 2 things you can smell, 1 thing you can taste. Though that's not set in stone). It was a brilliant way to ground us in the present.

Also, mindful walking. You can do it in your living room, you don't even need much space for it. (Mindful walking is a different technique from a mindful walking meditation, if that makes sense.)

Or, if you have an Alexa or similar, get her to tell you a story for 10 minutes or listen to a bit of Classic FM.

Also loving the Dancing Queen tip above. I might have to dig out my old Youtube list I put together of "really bad songs to dance to". It's things like the TimeWarp and Gangnam Style and the Macarena and the Hokey Cokey. Or 10 minutes of Mamma Mia or similar?

Lavender or Jasmine aromatherapy oils (dilute appropriately).