5 self soothing strategies for anxious mums to try

*collaborative post*

If you have read my blog for a while you will know that I have suffered with anxiety. I think I have always been a bit of an anxious mum but it wasn’t until Alex was born in 2016 that I experienced severe anxiety for the first time. Apart from taking medication, the best thing I did for my anxiety was to spend some time figuring out some coping strategies. For me, yoga really helps me to stay calm and if I don’t have time to do any actual poses, just doing the deep breathing and focusing only on inhaling and exhaling can help me to keep an anxiety attack at bay. I have also found making sure I prioritise a little bit of alone time each day helps and if I am feeling overwhelmed I will speak to my husband about it. I used to bottle up all my feelings and it did much more harm than good. Talking to someone you trust is a really effective way to help manage your anxious feelings. Today’s guest post is full of other methods and strategies on how to quickly and effectively soothe your anxiety. If you are an anxious mum too, I hope this post helps you.

5 self soothing strategies for anxious mums to try

As a parent, it is your job to soothe your child. But sometimes things can get a little overwhelming. And when that happens, you feel anxious and need to soothe yourself. You have to have tools to tell yourself that everything is going to be okay. 

Getting to this point, however, can be a challenge if you never learned how to self-soothe in the past. If your parents didn’t teach you how to do it, you can struggle to know what you should do. But here’s the good news: dealing with anxiety is a skill – one that you can learn like any other. The better you get at soothing, the more you’ll be able to beat back the feelings of panic and the happier you’ll feel.

There are some common signs of self-soothing that people use to try to control their anxiety. Things like thumb sucking, nail-biting and leg shaking are all standard methods used to try to alleviate negative emotions. But more often than not, they’re symptoms of an underlying feeling instead of things that help to improve the way that a person feels. So what are some good self-soothing techniques that you can try? Interestingly, many of them involve positively indulging the senses. 

Listen To Your Favourite Music

Music can bypass the executive parts of the brain and stimulate the emotional centres directly. That’s why listening to it can be so powerful. Sometimes you can hear a piece of music that sends shivers down your spine; it’s so beautiful. Pick songs that sound upbeat and remind you of a positive experience in your life. Put on some noise-cancelling headphones and then wait a few minutes for the soothing effect to kick in.

Suck On A Sweet

Sucking on a sweet can make a tremendous difference in how you feel. You can now get CBD gummies for anxiety, for instance, that provide beneficial compounds to help you relax. Even regular sweets can help by providing you with delicious flavours that immediately improve your wellbeing. 

 

Aromatherapy

Using aromatherapy and essential oils can help improve how you feel a great deal. Certain smells, like lavender and frankincense, help to reduce anxiety while also making your home fresher. 

Light Candles

Regular spotlights that use LED bulbs are harsh and intense. For some people, this can be a source of stress that makes it difficult to enjoy the home environment. Candles, on the other hand, emit a gentle light that softly flickers in the background. It makes for a far healthier and beautiful environment. And it helps you wind down in the evening after a busy and challenging day.

Use Sound Machines

Sometimes, constant background noise in city environments can leave you feeling stressed and anxious. It’s not pleasant. Fortunately, you can use sound machines to reverse the effect. These units blast out generic noises that cancel out the specifics of your environment, fading into the background, allowing your mind to switch off. It can help you relax a great deal, especially when sleeping.

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What do you do to soothe yourself when you are feeling anxious? Are any of your coping strategies on this list? I would love for to share what works for you in the comments.