Today the peer-support leaders led the group through reflection of common symptoms of anxiety disorders. We learned that we each experienced our anxiety in different ways. For example, symptoms of panic attack could be immobilizing, and particularly bad if you had one while driving your car … a thing to “worry” about if you do get panic attacks.
It was a busy day as the group reviewed a menu of 50 goal ideas (ideas) for holistic health. The point was that anxiety needs to be managed on multiple fronts, and looking into a menu for managing physical, mental, emotional, spiritual, and social health can suggest to each individual where there might be an imbalance and what might be done to regain a balance.
Many responses popped up for different goal ideas. For example, someone suggested (threatened ??) bring in hula hoops to meet the goal of exercise regularly for physical health. For mental health, the goal to learn something new might be met by trying herbal management. To take care of something (another goal idea) the group considered visiting West Place Animal Sanctuary, the largest and most diverse home to rescued animals in the area. For spiritual health, the group agreed that they had already met the goal of joining a group with the same interest.
The group then considered a menu of 15 complementary therapies, which included holistic therapy. Most of the therapies were things that members of the group had heard about, but some were more than a bit mysterious to some of us: Cranial Sacral Therapy (which turns out to be a light massage where a touch on the back could bring relief to legs) and Reiki (a form of energy therapy). The 50 goal ideas were too much to take in at once, so handouts were taken home to put on our refrigerators.