Episode: 15: Managing your Anxiety and Helping Your Kids Through Theirs

* This podcast episode was recorded during the Hebrew month of Elul 5780, the last month of the Jewish Calendar cycle. During this month, Jewish People prepare themselves for The High Holidays and strive to improve themselves for the year ahead.We all experience anxiety in one form or another. For some, the extent of anxiety is defined by the experience of occasionally having some butterflies in one’s stomach; for other people, they feel burdened by anxiety to a point where it defines their life experiences. In this episode, Jodi sits down with Dr. Leah Katz, a clinical psychologist, to discuss the difference between the normal, biological feeling of anxiety and clinical anxiety. Dr. Katz also explains how to manage one’s own anxiety as well as how to be aware of its manifestation and existence in one's children. After listening to this podcast, you will walk away with some of Dr. Leah Katz’s best tips and advice regarding ways to cope with your own personal anxiety and how to properly support your loved ones through their experiences of anxiety too. 4:30 Introducing Dr. Leah Katz"I've been working in clinical practice for many years now (...) I work mostly with teenage girls and women; so that’s kind of been my speciality, and I work with a lot of anxiety and depression.” 5:45 What is anxiety versus clinical anxiety?“Oftentimes when we talk about anxiety, it’s adaptive, it’s our body’s adaptive response in preparing itself for a threat and that works well when there’s an actual threat. Clinical Anxiety is when it crosses the line over from an actual danger and something that  we really need to gear ourselves up for, to something that’s more of like a false alarm." 8:00 Tips of how to deal with anxiety“If we could rewind a little bit, and press pause and learn to create more of this awareness of what’s happening to me right now, that piece can be so, very powerful."11:10 Helping kids with their own anxiety“If I hear a theme, you know like the same kinds of things or worries come up, like that’s a clue, okay, this is really taking up space in their brain, like this is something they’re thinking a lot about. So, that’s one thing: just paying attention to what they’re talking about, what they’re thinking about” 17:00: Identifying Anxiety being overboard and signs of truly needing help“If it’s interfering with any kind of functioning, (...) then that’s a clue that it’s getting higher and getting some support would be helpful.” 18:15 Last thoughts on Anxiety“We always want to meet ourselves with self-compassion, like judging ourselves kindly, talking to ourselves kindly, being okay and embracing our feelings, and we really, really want to do that in times of stress."Continue the conversation with Dr. Katz at:Instagram: @drleahkatzHer website: https://www.drleahkatz.com/Host: Jodi FriedGuest: Dr. Leah KatzEditor: Matthew Feiler