Mental health can be a delicate beast: you can do one day and the next feeling as if the world crashes around you.
I live with generalized anxiety and a panic disorder for more than a decade, and even if I grew up a lot to manage my symptoms with drugs, mindfulness and therapy, they sometimes appear without identifiable reason.
It happened to me last week, after several months of uninterrupted calm.
My symptoms of anxiety are often very physical: manifesting itself as pain, stomach aches and heart palpitations, as well as thoughts and feeling of fear generally associated with the condition.
But, even when you feel symptoms like these, the requirements of life do not get up, and above all, the dog still needs walkies.
After having had periods of agoraphobia in the past, it is extremely important for me that I continue to leave the house, even just for short spells, to prevent my world from becoming smaller. Dog rides are a great way to do so, and they are running out of a little cardiovascular exercise in my day and provide me with a precious affair with my pet.
But in the mental state in which I was, I needed a tool to keep my concentration from my spiral thoughts away and keep part of the idea of getting out. This is where I came across the colors.
What is colored walking?
The idea behind the colors are simple: you select a color and try to spot it wherever it appears during your walk.
Here is Tiktok Creator Hand jaz demonstrating a promenade of colors where she seeks the yellow color.
You can add a level by taking photos of the place where you see the color, or simply make a mental note when you observe it and take a few moments to appreciate it.
The trend encourages participants to reflect on color, notice the exact shadow and see how it fits into the environment and interacts with other visual aspects, such as light and texture.
By doing this, you get involved in your environment and enjoy the details.
How does the colored walk helped me
Having managed to try Yoga on footI wanted to try an equally conscious practice, but which was slightly less concentrated on what my body felt, because I suffered a lot.
Having seen colleagues trying the colors, I decided that it could be a good option to try myself, so I laced my walking shoes, I left my dog and I went out to look for yellow things.
(Image Credit: Getty Images / Kosamtu)
It gave me something to focus on
I can give myself panic attacks while sitting in a dark room without external stimuli – they are a consequence of my thoughts, which can become uncontrollable very easily. There is not always a defined trigger.
Consciousness practices are useful in these situations because they interrupt thoughts before being able to spiral and fill the space in my head which would be otherwise taken up by anxiety.
Instead of concentrating inwards on my thoughts and how anxious I felt, I could think of spotting yellow, then a more yellow, and a little more.
I found the yellow in surprising places: blue flowers with yellow centers, the yellow flash on the tail of a green peak, even graffiti on a trash can. I was so absorbed by my quest that I was able to put aside my anxiety.
As I got home, I was calmer, happier and I had done something. All the big victories during a bad mental health day.
It applauded me
I chose yellow because it was my favorite color since I was small. Something about the lively shades of sunflowers, bumblebees and lemons has always raised my mood, and this is the color that I choose to paint my nails when I feel particularly sad.
It is also one of the first colors of the spring where I live, appearing in rods and buttercups, which means that I also associate it with the promise of the sun and longer days.
The search for small plots of yellow pointed out to me how much there is in the world, which helped me to feel happier, despite my anxiety.
It helped me manage my anxiety
Anxiety management can take many forms, and although I try to look towards holistic techniques such as mindfulness and meditation, I also need medication.
However, taking a powerful benzodiazepine Whenever I want to go out is neither practical nor in good health. They are an addiction construction medication and that I try not to take unless it is absolutely necessary.
So, instead of bursting a pill before leaving the house, I started in my kitchen (the first room in my house), which is strewn with yellow pots, pots, plants and dishes. I started my colored walk inside, looking for my color chosen in my own house before I get out.
This transition period helped me to adapt to the task to be accomplished, without feeling outdated. By thinking of what I did as “looking for yellow color” rather than “getting out much more intimidating where there are people, cars and all kinds of other triggers and terrible things that could go wrong”, it took part of the fear of experience and made it more manageable.
I relied on color walks on this horrible week until I finally started to feel more stable, and I will continue to do it on difficult days to feel calm, comfortable and perhaps even a little happier.
