Anxiety Does Not Care

There is a man in this boat with me / We are going down below the calm, blue waters

My hands are bound, as are my feet / There is nought to do but watch, and falter

For all of us, smartphones can be the root of a lot of intense feelings of anxiety. I used to scroll mindlessly through Instagram and get so defeated seeing what other people were posting on there. Sure, most of it is BS and comparing those snapshots to your own everyday life is very dangerous to your mental health, but not giving in to that is a hard thing to do. I traded in my iPhone for a $50 flip phone for a while and that made me feel a little better but I knew that wouldn't last. A smartphone is a major convenience that I'd really rather not live without.

So I started to really think about it. If this supercomputer in my hand can make me feel so awful about myself then why can't I use it to do the opposite?

Anxiety doesn't care where you are or what you're doing. Those feelings of worthlessness and despair can attack you from all angles, all at once, and when you least expect it. That's why I started creating some "feel-good" tactics just as available to me as those often toxic social media environments. That's what I want to do here: I want to show you how you can use your phone to offset those feelings of anxiety.

Stopwatch

When I started going to therapy I was introduced to breathing exercise pretty early on. I found that breathing in and out to a count of five or ten seconds was a pretty good first line of defense against sudden feelings of anxiousness. I started putting the Clock app on my phone next to some of my more frequently used apps so that, if the walls started "closing in" like they had so many times before, I was only one or two taps away from starting the stopwatch and breathing in sync with the numbers on the screen.

There was something calming about watching the second hand move steadily around the ring of numbers that centered my frame of mind and allowed me to better process what I was feeling in that moment.

If you're a little more tech-savvy and want a quicker method you can also set up a shortcut on your home screen that will automatically set a short three or four minute timer for this same purpose.

Notes

Let's say I was feeling anxious and I needed to process something really difficult. I'd take a minute or two to breath and then open up a new note on my phone. Once I'd calmed down a bit I could start to word-vomit into that note and let any and all troubling thoughts out of my head and onto the screen. I used to do this a lot with my journal, but I didn't always have my journal on me and it's usually a lot faster to type things out than write by hand.

Writing my thoughts down in a note allowed me to organize them and view them from above, leading me to look at whatever was bothering me as something that I could actually see and work through. What's great about that too is that when you have those thoughts down on "paper" and you've finished processing them you can delete the note as a way of letting go of them. More often than not that was an action that made me feel lighter and freed me from some of those detrimental thoughts and feelings.

Reminders

There was a time that I was working really hard on strengthening my mental fortitude by going to therapy every week and doing some other extracurricular mental exercises to keep me positive. One thing that I established with my therapist was a list of grounding activities that I could put in my Reminders app and refer to when I needed a little peace of mind.

It looked something like this:

This process helped me a lot because I could go through this list, checking them off one by one as I completed them. My therapist and I agreed that this was a great way to process tough emotions for two reasons. The first is obvious; these are activities that are critical in reducing feelings of stress and anxiety and help to center yourself before spiralling into a complete breakdown. Secondly, the action of checking things off of a list and accomplishing something is an incredible way to keep yourself from "freezing up" from those anxious feelings.

Our lives are crazy as is, and sometimes it feels like we can never really get anything done when we're feeling down. Creating a list of activities to check off can pull you out of that and make you feel productive and positive.

Texting, Games, and Photos

Some other ways to reduce feelings of anxiety using your phone are texting a friend, playing a relaxing idle-style game, or looking at favorite memories in your photos.

Having someone to talk to about sudden feelings of stress or anxiety is a great way to process those emotions. It can feel like you're being a burden to friends or family if you text them while you're down, but the people in your established support system will never feel way. Send them something like, "Hey, I'm feeling a little anxious right now. Do you have time to text or do you mind if I just vent to you right now?" Of course that's just an example, but having that open communication with someone can be really helpful in getting difficult feelings off your chest.

There are also a lot of games you can download that can promote mindfulness. Personally, I enjoy puzzle games if I need a mental break from work or if I'm feeling anxious. It's a good way to get your brain out of that rut of negative thoughts. Sure, it's just a distraction but sometimes that's what our mind needs to get back on track.

Lastly, and one of my favorite methods of decreasing feelings of anxiety, is to create albums on my phone of photos that remind me of happy memories. I've got an album on my phone now with pictures of my girlfriend and our dogs and any time I'm feeling alone or stressed out I just flip through those for a little mood booster. It's leagues better than scrolling through socials or the news, and it always helps to remind me of all the great people and things in my life.

Try It Out!

Anxiety is something that we can't control, especially in this age of information we're living in. Our smartphones can be a huge source of anxiety and stress but overall it's a tool like anything else. We have the strength to overcome our worst days, find what works for you and use it to your advantage.

Leave a comment below if you've used any of these techniques or if you have your own methods of reducing sudden feelings of stress or anxiety.

Peace!