If you’re anything like me, you’re constantly on-the-go, planning, plotting, organizing and scheduling ways to get ahead––whether it’s in your job, academic work or hobbies. Then the inevitable happens: there’s a burnout that knocks you off your feet. It could be sleep deprivation, a loss of appetite or a lack of motivation to keep going. There have been solutions for these burnouts that have been said many times before: get more sleep, rest, reflect and take a break. If it were that easy, wouldn’t everyone implement these strategies to avoid quick burnouts? Instead, the anxiety and panic attack rates in the U.S. are skyrocketing because people are out of touch with their energy levels.
According to the Anxiety and Depression Association of America, “Anxiety disorders are the most common mental illness in the U.S., affecting 40 million adults in the United States age 18 and older, or 18.1 percent of the population every year. Anxiety disorders are highly treatable, yet only 36.9 percent of those suffering receive treatment.” Since only 36.9 percent of those with anxiety receive treatment, that means that 63.1 percent of people are battling anxiety without the resources they need. The good news is that although anxiety is a common condition, it is not the sunken place. There are ways to overcome it and get back on-the-go. It starts with being in tune with your balance.
Empowerment Strategist, business owner, author, personal trainer and podcast host JJ Flizanes explains practical ways to find your balance and identify your energy, feelings and mindfulness on her iTunes podcast, “Fit 2 Love: Physical, Emotional and Spiritual Fitness for the Happy Life You Deserve.”
“If there’s one thing I’ve learned from being a business owner, it’s my balance of energy over the years,” Flizanes said during the episode titled, “To Be or Not to Be.” With over 20 years of experience in the empowerment and fitness field, Flizanes details her burnouts and anxiety attacks and what she did to improve her mental state. Flizanes urges her listeners to make time to be still.
“Your concept of understanding being versus doing doesn’t mean you do it,” she said. “How often do you actually create space for yourself to do nothing, and to just be? No distractions, no numbing, no eating or drinking or anything to get in the way of you sitting in your body and your being. What about listening to your own heartbeat and your own breath for a minute? Can you just be in the moment?”
Flizanes explained that many people struggle with being still and doing nothing because they are accustomed to numbing their balance in their busy schedules. With the distractions of technology, noise and the busyness of our minds, Flizanes encouraged her listeners to start doing things mindfully versus randomly.
Being still is “how our bodies replenish our physical needs,” Flizanes said. “Do you know when you’ve gone too far? Do you know when you need a break, or do you crash first and then say you need a break? Do you even know what your balance is?”
Scheduling time to be still, mindful and reflective are essential to finding the right balance internally that will affect our external performance.
“Rest is not only necessary for life and survival, but for the creative capacities that will power knowledge industries of the future. And human creative capacities follow inherent biological capacities. They include our inner body clocks, with their multiple rhythms, and our need to recharge,” Matthew J. Edlund M.D. said in a Psychology Today article.
By being in tune with your balance, knowing your energy and creating space and time to focus on the present, your attention to mindfulness counteracts the mental state of constant worrying and anxiety. A few exercises you may want to try if you are dealing with anxiety are yoga, breathing and prayer. Remember, anxiety is not a destination, but rather a symptom of an imbalance we have in our energy.