Self-Care About Anxiety: A Personal Experience

This article describes a personal experience of dealing with anxiety through a self-care plan. It emphasizes the importance of a self-care routine and how it can help combat anxiety. The article includes a detailed self-care plan and the author's experience of following it. The plan includes exercise, meditation, and healthy eating habits. The article also highlights the role of a support group in following the plan.

Running head: SELF- CARE ABOUT ANXIETY
SELF- CARE ABOUT ANXIETY
Name of Student
Name of the University
Author Note

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Part A
Self Care Plan
The self-care plan is the vital and most important part of the self-care program. The plan is the
regime of the program consisting of the per day task for improvement which incorporates the
fitness habits that combat anxiety. My self-care goal will be on anxiety. Anxiety creates
entangled situations for me on a daily basis leading to my lack of concentration.
Fitness regime means a little bit of mixture of our daily routine with the fitness habits. Dealing
with stress is like dealing with our thought process and mental conditions. Few hormonal matters
need to be considered here since hormonal misbalance can be a significant cause for anxiety, and
along with balancing the hormonal secretion, the regime should also focus on the proper flow of
the happy hormone (Skovholt & Trotter-Mathison, 2014). The regime depends mostly on the
food process, sleeping habits, the people whom we choose to be around and on other things
(Andersen et al., 2014). My supporter group will consist of my mother and my best friend. My
mother is a source of support for me, and most importantly, she stays with me for a massive part
of the day. My best friend is one of my closest girl and fun buddy. She understands me well, and
we spent a lot of time together as well. This regime will demand a complete shift in the daily
habits of a person for good of course but this part is going to be tough for anyone and everyone.
Everyone remains quite happy and comfortable regarding their daily habbits. A change in the
daily habit can make anyone suffer and create a lot of trouble. But this has to be changed for
good.

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These are the few things that I have emphasized while deciding my fitness regime. The selected
routine is like:
1. Getting a proper sleep of 7 hours every day.
2. Rising up in the morning at 8 a.m. and freshen up and have some milk and banana.
3. Starting and completing an exercise routine. An expert physical trainer should construct
the routine.
4. Having a nutritional breakfast consisting of cereals, oats, fruits and other dietary stuff.
5. Starting the daily work.
6. Keeping track of the water intake for the whole of the day (Al Hayek et al., 2013).
7. Having lunch in between 1.30 p.m. to 2 p.m. The nutritional factors have to be kept in
mind.
8. Having tea and snacks in the afternoon (Neimeyer, 2015).
9. Taking an evening walk and having a coffee break during the walk.
10. Not to keep thinking about the negative things throughout the day. Instead, a fixed time
will be allotted for thinking about the worries in a particular part of the day.
11. Checking the surroundings. Surround yourself with positive people and distance yourself
from negative ones who continuously think negatively.
12. Reasoning about the different problems.
13. Trying some meditation under an expert trainer.
Exercising is a crucial point of the regime. Anxiety treatment consists in balancing the
hormonal outputs and an increase in the secretion of serotonin or the happy hormone. This task
can be done majorly through exercise (Yıldırım et al., 2013). There are particular forms of
exercise which focus is serotonin secretion in the cardio exercising forms or in yoga forms. Also

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exercising itself helps in secreting the happy hormone. Anxiety problem is highly related to the
sleep cycle disorder or with chronic fatigue. Eating correctly and sleeping in time helps in
keeping the energy level intact.
Part –B
My Experience
Self-care should be an essential part of any body's daily routine. This helps a person to
work appropriately, concentrate appropriately on their work and hence increase their
productivity. People can have different self-care issues according to their lifestyle and behavior.
My problem, regarding dealing with the self-care issue, is dealing with anxiety. I have a habit of
over thinking about petty matters and making them an essential thing in my life. Maybe I
become more tensed than others regarding crucial tasks as well which leads me to anxiety. I am
not being able to concentrate properly on my works and studies. Also, sometimes, I lack the
mental presence in my daily activities. Also in the times when I stay with my friends or relatives,
means in my leisure hours. I am quite aware of the fact that these kind problems can be dealt
with a bit of self-care and by following a proper daily self-care daily routine. I have planned a
self-care routine with the help of my fitness expert, my yoga expert, the medical expert, a
dietician and with a little bit of research. According to the experts, a period of three weeks in
enough for this plan and I have to continue maintaining some healthy habits even after that. This
is description of my journey regarding the plan and the complete process. I have enjoyed it a bit
and suffered with it a bit to be very much honest but this has helped me a lot regarding my
problem.

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First of all, I want o mention about my support group. I have already described
above that my support group will consist of my mother and my best friend. My mother has
helped in following the whole routine a lot. My routine was consisted of a going to sleep alarm
and a waking up alarm. Apparently, I was not used to with the go to sleep alarm in the nights and
with the wake-up alarms in the mornings. I used to sleep late in the nights and hence used to
wake up late in the mornings. Moreover, I was also not used to with the proper breakfast timings
and with the food routines. After waking up late, breakfast used to be consumed by me lately,
and though I was quite used to with the juice intake throughout the day since I like them a lot, I
was not familiar with the cereal and oat intake. Also milk was something that I used to hate.
Being a fruit lover, I like banana a lot but the taste of the milk is something I was not happy with.
But with time, these things became my habit. I have set alarms means a go to sleep alarm and a
wake-up alarm and follow it strictly. My mother has helped a lot in this case. She strictly keeps
an eye on me regarding the alarms, and she became another alarm clock for me. She
continuously pushes me to the bed during the said time with the dinner and the freshening up
part appropriately done in time. Again, it's also being ensured by her to take the morning milk
and breakfast in time by preparing them in time for me. After trying for a few days, I can say that
I was ultimately used to with the said routine. I am happy with the taste of milk as well and with
the breakfast menu. The energy quotient is getting back to being high in me nowadays. I always
feel more happy and contented and able to do lots of tasks in a day. Again, regarding the healthy
activities during the evenings, I always used to invest my time into television soaps and other
activities. But those were the things I was used to with. It is still fun watching television with lots
of funny stuffs and cartoons obviously and music. The session used to continue with lots of
snacks and with friends. I have tried to change the things a bit with replacing television with a bit

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of evening walk accompanied by friends. My best friend has also encouraged me in this
particular case. She was my daily companion. We went to coffee shops and food courts in
different mall where coffees remain available hence adding a bit more fun to the coffee session.
Also, this used to add a bit to the total walking distance that we used to cover. With time, the
course started to become more interesting as we began to get habituated with it. In the initial
days, I used to come back early, but as time passed by, the walking became more enjoyable for
me, and we had lots of fun through it. My best friend used to encourage me a lot.
The very first week started with a little bit of difficulty because I was not habituated with
the said routine. The waking up early in the morning part and the evening walk were mostly
supported by my mother and my friend. Then came the exercising part and it was tough for me. I
was always known as a lazy person. Hitting the gym used to be a nightmare for me. All the
weight lifting, free hands and everything else used to scare me a lot. Meditating was indeed a
tough task for me as well. Things used to go haywire every time I have tried it in the past.
Whenever I used to sit, in every attempt for this meditation, I have experienced only and only
negative and scary thoughts. Nothing positive happened ever and the whole of the time, in which
I used to sit, went as a useless time every time. Those ideas use to scare me more and lead me
more in the direction of anxiety. Started with consulting a gym trainer, I began preparing myself
mentally for these exercises. The trainer handed me with a routine for the training purpose which
started with freehands and a few cardio. The method was quite comfortable in the first week but
went on being strict with time as this is the general prescribed thing for anyone and everyone.
The initial days were a little more terrible for me but starting with the free hands seemed to a
comparatively easy task. On the third day and on getting a bit used to with the exercises, I started
with the cardio part. On the 6th day, there was a noticeable change in my flexibility and in my

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mood. I was happy and felt a distance from negative thinking. Apparently, my friend started
noticing a difference in my behavior and kept telling me about it. With experiencing more and
more fun in my life, I became more involved in every activity of mine and around me and the
daily activities. Then came the little more burdensome routine of the exercise and which, I
became able to grab with a bit of more ease because of gaining more flexibility with the course
of time and started to try meditating a bit. As is explained above, this session has started with a
bit of difficulty in gaining the concentration level. There were negative thoughts during the
practicing period which kept me uncomfortable. But with time and with a little patience and hard
work, things became more favorable. I started practicing positive thoughts and noticed a
difference in my concentration levels. Until the 6th day, things became more comfortable for me.
Another significant segment of this routine was to set a particular time in the whole of the
day to think about any of the worries. That will only be the time dedicated to any concerns and in
the rest of the time; I have to stay away from over thinking. This part was really tough for me in
the initial time. As written before, this was the fundamental problem such that in every part of
day I used to feel uncomfortable due to over thinking. I started practicing slowly and tried to be
steady and allocated time for it in the evening after evening walks. After struggling very hard
with it, finally, I have managed to go through the routine. Until the 7-8th day, I ultimately got the
track for the process.
There are lots of hinders in the way like some were for my own habits and some were for
the external factors. My own habits are like not being habituated with whole routine and being
part if this kind of things before. The thought process plan also really tough for me because it
complete went against my daily habit but here, this is the thing that I needed to have changed and
the whole plan was set for that purpose only. The external factor is like getting an experienced

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fitness trainer and a dietician and other experts. But I have managed for each and every thing
with a bit of searching and have follow the plan process with a lot of dedication and will power.
Now after the 6-7th day of the plan, everything came in a free flow order with me.
This whole process went well with me. The waking up part and the exercising part and
the meditation part went well. I have started getting the results and I have started noticing
positive changes in my health. I feel happier and more concentrated towards my work. The
anxiety part has dramatically decreased till now. In the final week, I received an entirely positive
change in my life. My concentration levels have increased and hence productivity has increased.
The efforts went well. These training sessions went well and have increased my flexibility and
my concentration powers. Meditation has also helped me in the process. But the process was a
really time taking one the whole routine started in a tougher note with a drastic change in the
daily habits and changed nearly every one of it. The process also demanded a lot of efforts of the
support group. My mother has invested a lot of energy and effort in it regarding the morning part
and the food making habits. My friend has also provided with a lot of support.
It can be concluded from my experience that the regime has helped me a lot in fighting
with the anxiety issue. With the incorporation of every part of it in my daily life, I have
developed few good habits like waking up early and going to sleep early. The proper food habits
also got changed with the addition of few nutritious habits. Spending time with few more good
practices also got incorporated like spending time in the evening in a more productive way. All
these patterns finally helped me in fighting with my anxiety problem. I feel happier, can
concentrate more now and feel more productive as well.

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