How to Cope with Anxiety During Bad Weather
No matter where you live, you likely have to live with the threat of some type of bad weather. In Florida, we have hurricane season around half the year. Predictions are always made as to how many and how severe the hurricanes will be in a given year. It’s mostly just a guessing game.
Bad weather can bring anxiety for anyone, but if you tend to be more prone to anxiety, then bad weather can really make it worse. The truth is we can’t control the weather. It’s unstable and unpredictable. All things that anxious people don’t like.
So if you tend to be anxious and the bad weather just makes you more anxious, how do you cope? Here’s 5 tips to survive the storm.
5 Tips on Surviving the Storm
Turn of the news. Yes, it’s important to get updates, but don’t watch the news/weather constantly. All that does is fuel your anxiety. This goes for social media, too. For more tips on managing social media, check out my post here.
Be prepared. This may be obvious but have the basics. If the idea of being without electricity really freaks you out, then makes sure that you have batteries and flashlights/lanterns/candles. If you have small children or even a baby, then make sure you have the basics for them. Try to keep it simple though. Kids typically go with the flow more than we do as adults.
Have multiple, positive activities you can do to distract yourself (and even your little ones). Think about simple and relatively inexpensive activities that you normally enjoy. Here’s a few that come to mind:
art activities such as drawing, painting, coloring, and crafts
puzzles such as word searches, Sudoku, crossword, and jigsaw
meditation, breathing exercises, and journaling can really help with the pesky negative thoughts
Don’t sit on the couch all day. Get up and move. You can do many exercises while stuck in the house. Think stretching, yoga, squats, pushup, lunges, dancing, jumping jacks, etc.
Monitor your thoughts. Ultimately, it’s crucial you be aware of what level of anxiety you are feeling so that when it starts to ramp up, you can utilize one of the above suggestions to bring it back down to a manageable level.
It’s important to know that feeling anxiety and even panic during a bad weather situation is very normal. Try to keep things as positive as possible as you wait out whatever storm you’re facing. It will pass and you will be okay.