Conference debrief: If you’ve been following along on BlueSky you know that overall, things went really well! In fact, thanks to my self-care plan, things went even better than I had hoped! But there is one thing I would definitely do differently next time—bring napkins to go with the food I brought from home. It seems trivial, but actually, that’s exactly the point.
Besides being the 5 year old girl who desperately wanted a suitcase to feel prepared for a hurricane, I was also a 7 year old girl who wished she had one more warm layer at recess in elementary school, an 11 year old girl who never had enough Chapstick to survive winter in middle school, a 15 year old girl who wished she had cough drops, a pocket pack of tissues, and a water bottle during cold and flu season in high school, and the lack of self-care resources went on.
The needs might seem small, but actually, they were HUGE. Every one of those small details would have made a big difference in how I felt each day.
Through counseling, I have discovered that my anxiety builds up in layers. So, for my self-care plan to be effective, it needs to address the small needs on each level before they can snowball into something overwhelming. But learning to identify each layer and each need has been an ongoing process.
Although I learned early on that I feel trapped when I sit at the front or middle of a room, I have also had panic attacks in the back of a room. In order to be proactive, I now plan to specifically sit at the end of a row near an exit in the back if at all possible. But even armed with this understanding, at last week’s conference I discovered yet another trigger for this anxiety layer—transitioning from session to session can be tricky. I don’t feel good herding out the door with everyone else, but I also don’t feel good skipping out early to make sure I get my very specific seating preference in the next room. So, before I attempt another major conference like this, I will need to think through this new understanding and figure out how to adjust my self-care plan accordingly.
Here are a few other things this conference brought to light about what I might want to add to my self-care plan in the future:
If you are a fellow writer struggling with anxiety, don’t count yourself out of the conference scene. With the right self-care plan, not only is attending a major writing event possible, it can also be a positive and rewarding experience.
Whether or not your anxiety builds up in layers, what details would help you to feel better in a conference setting? What needs can you proactively prepare to meet for yourself?
Free Resource
Even with a solid self-care plan and an action plan for implementing it, the conference may still bring unanticipated anxiety triggers to light. Download a copy of my Lightbulb Moments Journal Pages below to record those moments as they happen. Then use this new understanding to make a plan for how you want to handle these triggers moving forward.
Note: In case my usual dark coral orange color is not your anxiety journaling speed, choose a more soothing color from the options below:
Kristen C. Strocchia—Children's Writer & Speaker 