How to deal with Anxiety

I was always the quiet, shy kid. I could spend hours playing by myself, crafting, drawing, going on 'adventures'. It wasn't considered as much of a big deal. As I grew older though, I felt more and more strange about me being so completely fine by myself and not feeling the need to talk and interact much. I felt an increasing pressure to be more outgoing which I think eventually really triggered my anxiety issues. In short: growing up sucks. As a little kid you can be as strange and unusual as you want and it's generally no big deal, but as an 'adult' things are expected of you, you have to act 'mature' and start caring more and more about what others think of you and your decisions. 

But I digress.. this post is all about tips and tricks on how to tackle anxiety that I've learned over the years through reading articles, watching youtubers with similar problems and personal experience. I hope they can be useful to some of you beautiful peopel!

1. Look around you!
Whenever an anxiety attack strikes me, I have the tendency to look down and turn into myself, but this will only make things worse! Instead, try to look up and just observe everything around you. Are your surroundings really that threatening? Listen to the music that is playing, look at the people that are really not looking at/judging you (trust me!) or feel the delightful sun on your face and just breathe. Maybe take a second to sit down and obeserve and then carry on. 

2. Pilates, Yoga and Meditation
Ever since I started doing these, I have definitely become more calm and aware of myself and my body. I've never been big on exercise, because it was always about competition and being better than someone else. With these practises however, it's all about your own journey and setting your own goals. Pilates and Yoga helped me better my posture and feel more confident and meditation helped me tackle anxiety attacks and stress in general. It can be as simple as just focusing on your breathing for a few minutes. Whenever everything gets a little too much for me, I just excuse myself and do some meditating in the washroom or whatever quiet place I can find. 

3. Tea!
Tea cleanses the body and the warmth relaxes it. There are a gazillion types of tea, each with their own special benefits. My favorite is plain green tea, but other great relaxing teas are chamomile, lavender, valerian or passionflower and if you have the luxury of a bath, then take a bath with your favorite bubbles while sipping your tea. Double the warmth! ♥ 

4. Know your patterns
Sometimes anxiety can just hit you out of nowhere, but you can probably also think of scenarios where an attack will be inevitable. Me for example, I get huge anxiety when I have to go out by myself, and usually spend about half an hour looking into the mirror to check if I look good enough for the outside world and saying encouraging things to myself. I also get anxiety when I have to make a phonecall or I have to pick up the phone,  or when I'm suddenly around a lot of people.
The trick is to find out these anxiety scenarios for yourself, think of what your brains does at that time, and turn those thoughts around. JUST DO IT is my 'mantra' right now, which includes not thinking too much and just jumping into whatever 'danger' is ahead. You will (most likely) survive ;)  

5. Talk
I've never been a big talker, especially not when it comes to all the thoughts swirling through my mind. I would just seclude myself and deal with it on my own. Since about a year though, I've been opening up more and told people about my anxiety issues and other troubles on my mind, and it's such a relief! Everyone is always very understanding and some even share their anxiety experiences with me which in turn makes me feel less alone and weird (and anyone who doesn't understand or thinks it's stupid doesn't deserve your time anyway). So whenever you're having an attack and whoever you're with looks at you questionly, just tell them what's up! Or go to a therapist, they're here to help you! 

6. Alter Ego
Think of your favorite kick ass lady from that one movie, or that awesome girl from youtube you watch every day, or the protagonist of the comic you just read and BE HER.Coming up with 'famous' alter ego's has helped me immensely. In case of emergency, I can just be a classy Dita von Teese, Caroline Wexler from Daydream Nation or Faye Valentine from Cowboy Bebop. Be anyone you want to be! 

7. Just live through it
Sometimes, there's just nothing you can do. That's just how it works. Those moments seem to last FOREVER, but really, it's only a few hours (if not less) of your entire lifetime (and what's a few hours in 100 years, right?). Good days are soon to come again, no worries :)

Do you have any tips for me? Please share!

Bioshock tattoo progress

A little update on the progress of the Bioshock tattoo design I've been working on! It's been a lot (but fun) work so far, and I have quite a bit more ahead of me. At least the basic design is almost done, and my boyfriend is loving it so far!

Here's a look at my progress. I started with a rough sketch of where I wanted everything, and from there it was basically fine tuning all the elements that I thought were in the right place and adding stuff to fill it up and balance everything out. More than once the proportions were a disaster and I had to draw the same thing a few times over (The Songbird, Big Daddy and Little Sister for example..), but everything MUST be exactly right, especially since it's a tattoo design! You don't want to be walking around with a wonky looking character!

(click to enlarge)

And this is what it looks like right now! The paper got so dirty :P I have to work on some more details and then it's time for the linework, which I dread. I'm not the greatest at outlines and I'm still not sure how I'll transfer everything/what I will do the linework on. Kinda don't want to mess up the original.

On kind of a related note.. The other day we were playing around with paint with some friends and I started to freestyle paint a Murder of Crows tattoo on my boyfriend's arm! You can find it on the right in the tattoo design. I think it turned out pretty good :) and it made me all the more excited to (hopefully) see the actual tattoo on his arm someday!

How getting ice cream is the reason why I'm not here.

(find sources here)

Forever in love with pink, pretty lips and nails, words of wisdom, cuddles, food themed accessories and art...

Ever since I started living in Canada with my boyfriend, I feel like I really started to live my life. My evenings and weekends aren't spend sulking around in my room anymore. These days we go out and meet up with friends, go to concerts, have a bbq, have spontaneous soccer games or go and get ice cream! It's an amazing change which also really helped me to challenge and (mostly) overcome my anxiety issues, but it's not as good for my blog! I guess right now I just put my energy in so many other things that there's hardly any left for the internets D: I guess it's a good thing that I'm not a huge online personality so I won't get hate mail about being absent lately. Hopefully I can get my camera fixed/get a new one veryvery soon, since taking pictures always inspired me for blogposts. My phone camera just doesn't do it for me for some reason.. Anyway, I'm sure I'll get back into the swing of things sometime soon!

I hope everyone is doing great and is excited that the sun is finally coming out more!! Or if you are in Australia, that it's cooling down a little bit? Now get out and enjoy life and keep looking at all the beautiful things surrounding you n.n

Thankful for bubblegum and 90's music!

Last Sunday I saw a meteorite and I was honestly waiting for the world to explode. But I'm still alive and well! Feeling a bit 'meh' today. I've been feeling sick for a good few days now, but not too sick to stay in bed all day. It might just be hay fever or something (sore throat, irritated eyes..), but whenever I feel like this I like making a big gratitude list :) Despite not feeling 100% amazing, I've had some great days with great people (which is also why my blog has been a little neglected..). The weeks are flying by, something fun is happening every week (Flatliners concert this Thursday!! ♥) AND summer is still not here.. will it ever come??

Getting a delicious tuna melt with bbq sauce for dinner at Johnny Rockets ♥ Marathoning Game of Thrones ♥ trying the 'secret' banana split blizzard at Dairy Queen (vanilla ice cream with banana split toppings mixed in, yum!) ♥ brunch at Panera Bread ♥ going on a teahunt ♥ dancing on a Friday night until I could hardly stand on my feet anymore ♥ sleeping in the next day and doing absolutely nothing ♥ watching hockey (I'm actually really getting into it! Go Bruins!) ♥ hubba bubba bubblegum kisses ♥ seeing a meteorite in the sky ♥ working hard on the Bioshock tattoo ♥ peanut butter rolo ice cream.. omg. ♥ being a champion at beer pong ♥ 90's dance music ♥ drawing on an extra dramatic cat eye for extra fierceness ♥ doing more meditation and relaxating yoga (and feeling amazing afterwards) - receiving a cute tropical flavoured Hello Kitty lipbalm from Maria :) ♥ watermelon and strawberries ♥ the stargazing app on my phone ♥ Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey ♥ daydreaming about summer ♥ my dad and his crazy bicycle adventures...