Heart rate when walking

[Braylie]

Not sure if anyone here can give me some insight. I live a pretty sedentary lifestyle, even with two kids. My anxiety is keeping me from doing a lot, like at all. I am working on it slowly and making some lifestyle changes (no caffeine, stress management) I am terrified to get my heart rate up, like at all.

But today I decided to not worry about it and go take my oldest to the park. He played and I just slowly walked around watching him. We walked form one end of the park to the other, very slowly. It seemed like the longer I was standing upright the higher my heart rate got. So by the time I was ready to go (about 30 minutes) it was beating so fast, I really wasn't anxious about, I just wanted to get out of there and go home to lay down. I wasn't dizzy or lightheaded or having an attack. Once I got home and laid down for about 20 minutes I was back to normal. Why would just the bare minimum of walking slowly elevate my heart rate that much? Is it because I get zero physical activity in? Do I need to keep pushing myself?

My hearts been tested multiple times, its perfectly healthy.

[Hidden]

Your ‘heart’ health anxiety did flare up and while you feel you weren’t anxious, you were on a subconscious level as you are hard wired to worry about your hear rate. At the end of the park this somehow signaled a fight or flight situation (adrenaline surge) and when you got back home to your safe place you were able to calm.

Do I think pushing yourself is the answer probably not.

It is true that one way to combat our fears is to do the thing that we are fearful of, but with health anxiety avoiding anxiety attacks via putting forth a plan in place so that activity can be added in a manner so that you can revert quickly to a safe zone, this will entail you learning coping strategies as you need to be equipped to handle the anxiety trigger.

Today I think you did well, the anxiety came, you fleed the stress trigger, went home and was able to calm. As long as the rest of your day wasn’t spent thinking and ruminating over today and the snxiety stopped as soon as you calmed, this is what I call a job well done, and you can take note of this progress and perhaps build on it slowly if you are comfortable.

[Braylie in reply to Hidden]

For sure. Once I was home and laying down it returned to normal and I got back up and went on about my day so I would say successful..I just wish I would have spent more time outside, but I knew if I did then I probably would have ended up with an anxiety attack. It's just the mom guilt