Pen and Moon

musings, life lessons & poetry from Theresa Jarosz Alberti

Tag: anxiety (Page 1 of 2)

What I Want to Tell You…

November 2, 2020 / / 6 Comments

Hi friends, I want to talk to you today about mental health and self-care. We are going into a really stressful week right now. Coronavirus cases and deaths are climbing, and tension around this election has been building for months and months. There’s a lot to be anxious about!

Today is a good time to think about how we can get through this week in a way that lowers our stress and is kind to ourselves. I’m talking to myself here, as well as all of you. What kind of self-care can I do to help myself this week? Continue reading

Self-Compassion in the Time of Corona

March 26, 2020 / / 0 Comments

Yesterday was not a great day.

I had hopes about things I wanted to do, to focus on. With this Global Pandemic and #StayAtHome, it seems like I have this endless blank-canvas of a day to do things, to be productive, to march forward on my goals. Sometimes I have a little luck with this, but often I’ve been finding myself getting lost in eddies of anxiety and distractions, and the day is suddenly gone. Yesterday, I listened to the news too much, which only ups my stress. Or I abruptly interrupted whatever I was trying to do by scrolling on social media— looking for… Something. I read more upsetting articles on Twitter. I watched Instagram stories flutter by in the stream. I didn’t exercise or write or make art, some of the things on my list, things that usually make me feel better.

How about you? Does any of this sound familiar? Continue reading

“The Best-Kept Secret About Meditation, or What I Learned That Finally Made It Work”

February 6, 2020 / / 6 Comments

I’ve had a love–hate relationship with meditation for most of my adult life. I’d hear about it from people who incorporated it into their life, or from books, stories of those who went on retreats to meditate in silence for days on end, or friends who woke up early to meditate every day.

Something about it appealed to me, the peacefulness of it, the idea of calming my anxiety, wanting to experience the… I–don’t–know–what, that keeps passionate meditators on their cushions every day. I didn’t really understand how to do it, though, so I looked for ways to learn.

I think my first experience meditating was in a college class, when I was going to school and working full–time. At the end of a long day, we lay on the floor in a dark room, and I fell asleep every time to the teacher’s soothing voice.

Continue reading

Breathing as a Tool?

March 18, 2018 / / 8 Comments

I know it may be hard to tell from my calm, cool demeanor (heh), but I’m actually a pretty anxious person. Maybe I have the central nervous system of Alice’s white rabbit. Or it could be the result of the family system I grew up in. Or maybe it’s just my own funzie personality…  probably a combination of all of the above. I tend to look for the negative in everything first, sussing out what could possibly go wrong before I will believe it might work. I’m anxious about new situations or places, even though I power through and push myself to “do it anyway.” I anticipate and ruminate and fret and go over things in my mind a million times. You get the picture. Continue reading

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