A sense of restlessness and anxiety in life can be totally devastating if they get out of hand – and many people struggle with these sensations chronically, without a clear sense of where to turn.
Often, some of the most frustrating problems relating to restlessness and anxiety occur when things actually seem to be going pretty well, and it’s not even clear why those sensations are so prevalent.
While there is plenty of advice out there for dealing with things like stress and anxiety, a lot of it seems to focus on taking time off. But what if you want to tackle restlessness and anxiety, but still get stuff done?
Here are a few tips that might help.
Make some plans for your day, but focus on being as present as possible in each moment
In order to get things done, it’s often very useful – and sometimes essential – to make some plans for your days, including doing a bit of scheduling, and maybe keeping a to-do list.
But just because you make some daily plans, that doesn’t mean that you should make the mistake of being constantly overloaded, and always looking nervously ahead to the next “to do” or scheduled event.
After making some plans for the day, the next step for proper balance is that you should try and focus on being as present as possible in each moment. Get out of your head, pay relaxed attention to your surroundings, and engage with the task at hand without letting yourself overthink things too much.
Focus on quality and connection (in terms of your everyday life, and your belongings)
Focusing on quality and connection – both in terms of your everyday life and interpersonal connections, and also in terms of your belongings – is likely to make a dramatic difference in terms of how stressed and anxious you are on a regular basis.
When you allow yourself to focus on quality over quantity, and on feeling a sense of connection to the people, and even the things around you, you move away from the sense of alienation and disconnection that often comes with a sense of anxiety.
At the same time, focusing on quality over quantity is a great way of still getting things done – but being more selective about what you do, and achieving to a high standard.
A good first step might be to rent a Storage Container and to transfer a good chunk of your belongings over to it temporarily, as you undergo a decluttering process.
Pay more attention to your everyday habits and routines than to your future goals
While it’s very useful to have a sense of the direction you want to head in, becoming highly fixated on your future goals can be a very jarring and anxiety-producing thing.
At the most basic level, if you’re highly focused on your future goals, you will feel a sense of lack and frustration until you have achieved those goals.
Instead, pay more attention to everyday habits and routines. If you get those right, you will still be moving in the right direction, and you won’t have to be obsessively fixated on the future.
