Hi, my name is Amber and I live with Generalised Anxiety Disorder (GAD).
I’ve covered a lot of the scale. Light but lingering nausea, can’t leave the house paralysis, random palpitations and the-devil-is-inside-me psychosis 😬
The cool thing about learning to live with GAD is that you develop some pretty clever tricks that help ease anything from the truly terrifying to the fleeting nerves.
Today, I’m focusing on the nerves.
Getting a grip in high-pressure situations
Critical business meeting. Public speaking. First date. I gotcha.
Before kick-off
1. Swap the caffeine for Chamomile tea. Best known as a bedtime potion but not to be overlooked. This is a cup full of magic for your insides and takes the edge off so that your brain can get back to focusing on the important stuff.
2. Pose like a superhero. Striking a high power pose reduces the stress hormone, cortisol, in your body. It can flip you from feeling weak to strong in a matter of seconds. Every time I go to pitch for business I ask to use the bathroom before the meeting - Guess what, folks? I’m not peeing. I’m being superwoman.
In the moment
3. Breathe out for longer than you breathe in. Everyone knows to breathe when they’re nervous, but are you doing it right? If you breathe in for longer than you breathe out, your body gets tighter and tenses up… 😶
EXHALE! Breathe in for three, out for four. Sometimes I don’t even count, I just push as much breath out as I can (with practice you can get pretty subtle).
4. Create a pressure point that grounds you. Hold your hand out, see that bit of flesh between your thumb and your index finger? Pinch it. Hurts, right? That’s my fave pressure point. If I feel like I’m losing control I’ll just pinch that point, it hurts just enough to ground me. Find a point that feels comfortably uncomfortable for you. I have friends who tug their ears, poke their hip and gently bite their tongues…
and you thought your mates were weird.
5. Ground your feet and grow your spine. When we’re nervous, it’s natural to curl up, to hide. Instead, ground your feet on the floor, feel the support beneath you and straighten that spine, lift up that chin. Your mental strength will grow as your physical body does (yep - we’re back to another variation of the power pose, cause it works).
It’s done. Now what?
6. It’s time to try to dissect every little thing you did or did not say, even though it’s a blur and you can’t remember most of it.
No, no, no……… No.
6. Pat yourself on the back and move the hell on. Sometimes I walk away from these penalty moments feeling like a badass, but mostly, I’m wondering WTF I just said/to whom/about what. But none of that matters, you just did something that you were terrified of, give yourself a high f*cking five ‘cause it only gets easier from here.
That’s all you need, people. Go boss that scary thing and tell me all about it!
Until next week,
Amber ✌️
every day I’m balancin’
OBSESSED with…
Be a Lady They Said. If I didn’t return your call, email, text. If I didn’t get to that meeting, meet that deadline. Well, it’s because I was watching this video. On repeat.
Evening Standard: From burnout to new beginnings
Catch up on my interview with the lovely Anna from the Evening Standard. There’s a rumour this will go digital, but of course, until that happens, I have a hack.
And here’s a Balpro logo, #branding.