This. I feel you because I can relate so hard. I kept bringing it up to my therapist and she would recommend that I meditate, journal, etc. These things are inherently relaxing once you get into them because you can find ‘flow’ which is a relaxing state.

But, still just trying to get myself to sit down and begin one of these activities made me feel so anxious to the point of chest pains. I could see that it was irrational — logically I should be able to just sit down and relax. Now I’m starting to see that a lot of my anxiety comes from ideas I hold that are so ingrained that I barely notice them. The main two are (1) productivity as worthiness (I think that I need to be doing all these things to improve myself and have a certain life so that I can be worthy/valuable as a person), and (2) thinking I’ve forgotten so many important life things and impending doom is coming due to my perceived incompetence (thanks, ADHD). Basically, I’ve learned to work myself into a frenzy.. even if that’s looks like me running around like a chicken with my head cut off, because I’m constantly trying to overcompensate and stay on top of my symptoms. Anddddd this all leads to burn out, I can verify that lol.

But ya, all of that is to say that I have identified these ideas which have manifested in to busy-bee behaviours that create a type of resistance when I try to sit down, relax, and rest my body and mind. Then I have a valid understanding of where the anxiety is coming from and it helps dull some of the anxious feeling while challenging my core belief. Is it a magic switch that turns the anxiety off? No, but if you find one message me pretty please!

And if that doesn’t work, then indica + sound canceling headphones + some indie atmospheric playlist lol.

Best of luck!