Yesterday was not a bad day at work. I think that the stress of returning to work is going away now that I'm back into the swing of things. I passed my return-to-work tests and I'm receiving high quality scores again at work and this is reminding me of how things were before I left work.
Yesterday, there were times when I reached about a 7 on my anxiety scale but I was better able to focus on my work and my breathing than I was other times. This gave me a confidence boost and I feel that if I just keep this up I will feel more relaxed at work as time goes on.
I am slowly incorporating the coping strategies that helped me outside of work over the past two months into my daily work routine and it has been helping. I always arrive to work at least 30 minutes early and I sit in my car at the parking lot and just focus on my breathing until I feel fully relaxed. This usually lasts about 10 to 15 minutes. I then visualize myself walking into work and facing some of the situations that normally cause a lot of anxiety and then develop a game plan to cope with them should they arise. I then get out of my car and walk towards the office focusing on my breathing and just walking for the entire time. Once I'm at work I turn on my fan to keep me feeling cool and I focus on my breathing again for a bit.
Throughout the course of the day I try not to avoid the situations that cause anxiety and I cope with those situations by telling myself that even though I feel very anxious other people probably aren't even aware that I'm feeling that way. I also try to avoid anxious behaviours like looking around constantly, fidgeting and trying to crack jokes all the time. A good joke here and there is good way to crack the ice and be social with people.
Like with anything practice makes perfect and as long as I focus on practicing the coping skills in and out of work I'll continue to move forward and in time, hopefully, this won't be an issue anymore.
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