How to Deal With New Year Anxiety: 3 Tips to Help You Walk Into the New Year With Empowerment
What is new year anxiety?
Anxiety can happen when there is uncertainty or fear of the unknown. For the new year, this can bring a lot of uncertainty about what the next year will bring. Anxiety can happen after the initial ‘high’ of new year's intentions and hopes are not fulfilled. Sometimes, it can feel like you ‘failed’ if you didn’t follow through with the resolutions or intentions you set.
How chronic anxiety affects the mind & body
Anxiety can happen in the mind, but also in the body. When we have new year anxiety plaguing the mind, we might experience constant thoughts of this past year and what we did or did not accomplish. We might fear the new year and what’s to come. We might feel shame or guilt for this year not being what we wanted it to be, and a lot of pressure to make next year better. In terms of bodily sensations, you might feel tightness in your chest, or ‘on edge’, or lack a sense of grounding or security in your body.
Anxiety is ruthless and affects our overall well-being. Learning how to manage and decrease anxiety will help you immensely with your health, in the present and in the long run.
How to feel less anxious using a mind-body approach
Working with new year stress and anxiety from a holistic, mind-body approach means understanding that anxiety affects your whole body system, and using your nervous system to calm both your mind and physical body.
When you start to feel anxious, the first, and best, thing to do is work with your breath and start to increase your exhales. I know it might sound simplistic, but don’t knock it ‘til you try it! When you’re in a state of anxiety, you aren’t getting enough oxygen to your brain or body. When this happens, your nervous system goes into a state of stress because it feels like you’re in danger. By increasing your exhales and breathing from the abdomen, you’re able to send signals of safety and calm to your brain and body.
Next, start to bring an evidence-based mindset to your anxiety. This means trying to take a step back from your immediate thoughts and recognize what is actually true right now. Not what you fear could happen in the future, or what happened in the past, but what is actually happening and true at this moment.
3 techniques you can use to help alleviate your new year anxiety
1) Set intentions, not resolutions or expectations
When we set resolutions for how we think things 'should' go, more often than not, we set unrealistic expectations for ourselves. By doing this, we can set ourselves up for failure because when we don't meet those expectations exactly, we then create shame and criticize ourselves for not following through.
Studies show that only 9-12% of people keep their new year's resolutions. This, to me, calls for a new way of resolutions: intentions.
Intentions get down to the essence of our being and are a guiding principle for how we want to be, feel, and show up in the world. When we set intentions, we are creating more of a stable foundation for whatever action we want to take. For example, an intention could be: I want to create more authentic connections in my relationships, instead of the resolution that you will make 5 new best friends this year.
2) Be flexible
Intentions are less rigid than resolutions, and allow for more flexibility, enabling us to shift and change things if needed. The essence of our driving goal is still there and doesn't change, but HOW it happens can shift. When we allow for more flexibility and openness, anxiety doesn’t need to be there because we are secure in knowing that our intention still stands.
3) Start your day with one calming activity
How you start your day can greatly impact your mood, behaviors, thoughts, and feelings throughout the rest of the day. When you feel secure in knowing that you’re going to do one thing for yourself each morning, your chronic anxiety won't be as present, because anxiety happens in the unknown.
For example, start your day by going for a short walk, or listening to a 5-10 minute breathing or meditation practice. You can find these practices on a meditation app or YouTube. When you do this, you’re tuning into your nervous system and creating a calm, soothing environment for your mind and body.
How I can help you with new year anxiety
If you need support with anxiety and want to make a change in your life, click the button below to book a free therapy intro call. Therapy can be a powerful tool to get through this time and help the part of you that is suffering. Through compassionate guidance, I help you get to a calmer place and teach you how to use your nervous system to decrease anxiety.
Other services I offer
If you’d like an intro to regulating your nervous system, go ahead and sign up for my Nervous System Reset course, where you’ll learn how to understand your specific anxiety triggers. I lead you through mind and body-based practices to relieve your anxiety, including journaling, breathing exercises, meditations, and physical yoga therapy.
I am honored to help people along their healing journey. Specifically, I help people address anxiety, chronic pain and illness, trauma, disordered eating, and nervous system dysregulation. I help by combining nervous system training, holistic psychotherapy, and yoga therapy. If you want to grow in your healing journey and make exponential changes, I would love to be your guiding support. Check out my other blogs to learn more about my practice.
