Decrease Your Dating Anxiety With These Tips
Our relationship expert Dr Pam Spurr (@drpamspurr on Twitter and Instagram) gives us 5 more tips to help us conquer our dating anxiety.
Last week I shared my first five tips on how to ease your dating anxieties and as promised here are five more tips on ways to relieve that tension.
Watch what you put in your mouth
What you eat can affect your anxiety levels so avoid having much caffeine and sugary foods. These intensify anxiety. Eat as healthy and ‘clean’ as possible to keep your mood calmer.
Watch how much you drink!
Don’t use alcohol to ‘take the edge off’ any anxious feelings or to soothe worried feelings. Unfortunately, with alcohol there is a rebound effect and your anxiety bounces straight back. Sometimes at a more intense level.
Definitely try relaxation techniques to calm frazzled feelings.
The tenser your body feels, the more anxious your mind. You don’t have to be a yoga master to do a few basic stretches to help loosen up tight muscles. Physical relaxation really helps and that can include making sure you get a walk-in every day and other exercise. So keep telling yourself: tight muscles feed into a “tight mind”!
Challenge any irrational thoughts you have
Fight away any feelings of e.g. you’re not doing well enough or you’re going to fail. Tell yourself you’ll be just fine, that you’re doing your best, that it’ll be okay.
Out of sight, out of mind
While chipping away at your anxieties avoid dwelling on anything that causes you anxiety. For instance, looking through fashion magazines or visiting their websites, etc., might lead you to angst over how you look compared to how you think others look.
It’s crucial to stop comparing yourself and instead to remind yourself of your best qualities. You have the power to focus on these and to silence those nagging doubts that you don’t match up to others. It takes practice and needs to become a habit. Just as your habit to compare yourself unfavourably to others needs to be broken.
Finally, if your anxiety continues – or gets worse – please call your GP to check with them about potentially getting counselling and/or medication that might help you and your individual situation.
Good luck and happy dating, Pam x
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Follow Dr Pam on Twitter and Instagram @drpamspurr and at drpam.co.uk
Check out Dr Pam’s art gallery and shop for gift ideas, fantastic for a loved one: https://drpam.co.uk/art.php
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