News of coronavirus and its impacts have dominated the airwaves for months. Millions have been infected, hundreds of thousands are dead, the economy is severely debilitated, and unemployment rates are at their highest since the Great Depression. Is it any wonder that levels of mental health concerns are also on the rise?
Filled with uncertainty, it may be impossible to reduce all our unease, but Cheryl Wilson-Stewart’s recent book, Oh, My Word, suggests some amazing tools to help reduce depression and anxiety during these unprecedented times.
For 63 years, Cheryl Wilson-Stewart has been dealing with anxiety.
“For almost as long as I can remember, anxiety has been my very annoying and disabling sidekick,” she says. “If you’ve experienced this, you know it’s like being held hostage by your own negative thoughts that loop around and around, becoming the loudest voices in your head.”
Cheryl, a native of Burnaby, was born with mitral valve prolapse, a condition where the mitral heart valve doesn’t close properly, causing blood to flow back into the left atrium, which can cause heart palpitations, shortness of breath, chest pain and a lifetime of anxiety.
Even though half her life has been spent in front of the camera, as a model, a TV host and a Gemini-nominated television actress, suffocating feelings have continued to live inside her – until recently. In her early sixties, Cheryl developed a daily routine that has diminished her anxiety to the point where it’s almost non-existent. Eager to help others combat their anxiety, she decided to write a book based on her daily ritual.
Oh, My Word is a helpful tool for people of all ages living with anxiety.
“Oh, My Word is insanely simple,” says Cheryl. “It’s based on a scientific method of journaling that can transform negative, anxious thoughts into positive thoughts. This method interrupts the negative thought loop and clears away blocks in your conscious and unconscious mind. It replaces unwanted thoughts with those you choose to think. These new thoughts become the loudest voices in your head. The journaling method is a form of active meditation.”
Before she wrote the book, Cheryl lived most of her life dealing with generalized anxiety (GAD), characterized by persistent and excessive worry, which sufferers find difficult to control. People with GAD may anticipate disaster and may be overly concerned about money, health, family, work or other issues.
Somehow, Cheryl, like many with ongoing anxiety, learned how to simply hang on and ignore those moments the best she could.
“I was always looking for relief and ways to break the loop,” she says. “I tried so many things: exercise helped; meditation was unsuccessful because I couldn’t focus.”
In the meantime, after the Gemini nomination, Cheryl decided to quit acting to focus on being a full-time mom to her seven-year old daughter, Kelly.
At 18, Kelly received a water polo scholarship to San José State and was off to university, while Cheryl was left at home with a blank canvas. With her daughter gone, a world of possibilities opened to her. What to do? At the same time, many of her friends were in a similar situation. Everyone was contemplating Chapter 2 – what would be their next adventure?
As it turns out, many of them pondered amazing ideas but ultimately went back to their daily lives. This inspired Cheryl to start a blog called “The Red Shoe Zone.”
“The idea for The Red Shoe Zone came from many heartfelt conversations with friends and, surprisingly, a pair of shoes, proving the point that insight often comes from the most unlikely places! Most of the women I knew felt excitement and joy at beginning Life Part II, but it was often short lived,” she says. “Celebration gave way to fear. The ability to dream was rusty, the thought of finding purpose or starting a new phase of life was overwhelming. Fear, self-doubt and not knowing where to start threatened to derail vibrant women who were rich with wisdom and experience. The Red Shoe Zone was created to help mid-life women fearlessly rediscover themselves.”
Today, The Red Shoe Zone is read by women across the world and has even prompted Cheryl to become a public speaker as many women’s clubs have invited her to discuss her blog with them. As an adjunct to her speaking tours, Cheryl created Red Shoe Zone workshops for women starting the next chapter in their lives.
Amazingly, women of all ages showed up, but it was a 20-year-old woman who was the inspiration for Oh, My Word. The young woman told Cheryl she only had five free minutes a day and needed to know how to better herself during that time.
When Cheryl went home, the juices started flowing. She started writing down quotes she found meaningful on index cards and tacked them to her bulletin board. Eventually, she decided to write only one word from the quote that had the most meaning for her.
“I wrote ‘joy’ and drew a big heart around it and then I dug out pencil crayons, glitter and sparkles and I started to play.”
As the day unravelled, every time she thought of the word, it was as if endorphins were being released in her brain. The anxiety she had felt all her life was slowly being replaced by feelings of positivity. The next day, she used a word from a different quote and the results were the same. The day after, another word, and the results were even better. This pattern continued for weeks.
Inevitably, Cheryl concluded, “the loop of anxiety that had been my permanent sidekick wasn’t there anymore and in its place were my intentional words and feelings that I was choosing every morning.”
Those daily words turned into Oh, My Word. Cheryl revealed it took a year to write the manuscript.
“I had people testing the strategy,” she says. “They took note of when and how they were reminded of their word and how the word was incorporated into their daily experiences. They shared their word choices with me, and I was able to see a wide range of meanings for a particular word.”
“Some of my testers identified as having anxiety while others were worried, had stress and negative thoughts. Still others just wanted to feel good and live their best life. Many embraced the project and others resisted, but it was journalers who ended up seeing the most significant positive differences in their lives.”
For the first time since she can remember, those awful feelings of suffocation are no longer part of her life. Today, Cheryl is living anxiety-free and passionately trying to help others suffering from the condition through Oh, My Word. She believes it will be a great success and help people dealing with anxiety all over the globe.
Scientists and doctors suggest a vaccine for COVID-19 is close at hand and once it is developed and distributed, the future looks promising. Until then, uncertainty can cause anxiety, but with effective strategies, like Cheryl’s in Oh, My Word, perhaps we can all breathe a little easier while we wait.
Oh, My Word is available in Chapters and Indigo and can be purchased online at Amazon.
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