Routines are a considerable part of my life. I have my morning routine and my after work routine. When something happens to break them, it causes anxiety.
When I have quirks like this, it is difficult to differentiate if this is due to my environment or my brain injury. Either way, it causes me anxiety.
Coping
The ability to cope with broken routines are crucial. Life can be unpredictable, and this means that routines are going to be broken.
Routines allow me to get done what I need to get done. I am relatively busy in life. I am trying to balance a full-time job and getting my masters degree.
My routine doesn’t have an exact timeline, but I know that when I get home, I shower and then eat dinner. After that, I do school work, and if I have, I will read a chapter of my pleasure book.
On the days where I go to the gym, it is the same routine just pushed back a bit. I try hard not to freak out when something happens, and I can’t do as much school work as I wanted, or I go to bed a little later than planned.
I try hard to remind myself that it is one night. It won’t kill me or make me fail. I focus on relaxing and figuring out what I need to do for sure that night and what can slide for a day.
Routines that break
The ability to relax when a routine is broken is a critical part because if you just let anxiety get the best of you, life will be very miserable.
I am not perfect. I am still working on not getting all worked up when something unexpected takes priority. Taking steps toward being okay with broken routines are essential to living an overall happy life.
I have found that one thing that works for me is telling the people around me that if I can have
Routines are great, but life is full of unexpected events. Allowing them to come and go with ease is the key to a less stressful life.
If you want more information about my brain injury, please click here.