Its wild times right now, the last 2 years have seemed like a bombardment of bad news one after the other. Anxiety is natural when a sense of impending doom looms, so how do we manage it?
We first got to remember that anxiety is a biological reaction that stems from fear. We physically feel nervous, shaky, sweaty, panicky, and shortness of breath all because we are EMOTIONALLY FEELING fear. Meditation is a helpful tool to separate the physical sensations of the body from the emotional triggers caused by the mind. Look within to discover the root cause of your fears and try to feel them to really heal them.
Secondly, a lot of things are simply out of our control. We cannot control what others do or say, or what is going on in our external world, for example, the weather will be something we can never control. So from that perspective it’s good to be aware of what you CAN control and what you CAN’T control. At the end of the day, the only thing we really have control over is ourselves, how we react to certain situations or current events. Our reactions to anxiety provoking news, which is inevitable in one’s lifetime, is how we manage our anxiety. If something in particular is triggering your anxiety, remove that trigger as best you can.
When life throws adversities your way, it ok to feel anxiety, because remember, feeling is healing. However, find the opportunities and learn lessons from that unfortunate circumstance instead of being a victim of your circumstance. You can either let something bad turn you angry, bitter, and depressed or you can let it empower you to make lasting change within yourself and help those around you. Let something negative allow you to grow mentally, physically, and spiritually. How can you solve the problem instead of dwelling on it?
So feeling anxious? Try a grounding exercise where you use your senses to navigate back to the present. REMEMBER TO TAKE DEEP BREATHS! Observe how you breathe when you feel anxious, usually its shallow breaths, taking deep breaths helps with alleviating anxiety. Now look for 5 things where you are, touch 4 things, listen to 3 things, smell 2 things, taste 1 thing. When we feel anxious it’s generally because we are not in the present moment, we are either in the future or the past. When you’ve achieved a state of calmness, journal about your experience. Write about your anxious thoughts, how it made you physically feel and usually when you see your thoughts written down on paper its easier to see how far-fetched some tend to be.
Anxiety and depression has been linked to the state of our gut health. Our gut is connected to our brain via the vagus nerve, so if our gut is in dysbiosis, as will our mind. Serotonin and dopamine are neurotransmitters that give us the feeling of happiness and pleasure, and they both are created in the gut so it’s important we feed ourselves with the proper foods to make sure our gut is happy. Limiting sugar, caffeine, alcohol, processed foods, artificial flavors and replacing them with whole foods rich in lean proteins, healthy fats, and a variety of fruits and vegetables will take you a long way! We are what we eat, so if we are eating foods that cause chaos in our gut, then it will cause chaos in our minds as well. Eating fish, magnesium, and probiotic rich foods, or supplementing them will help with mental health in the long term.
Staying active, exercising at least a minimum of 30 minutes whether it be intense running, biking, weight training or tai chi, yoga, gardening, can significantly improve anxiety and depression by simply releasing endorphins that make us feel better. Getting a minimum of 8 hours of sleep is essential as well. Sleep debt is a real thing, if you are constantly losing an hour of sleep each night you will reach a deficit that will compound until it starts manifesting as anxiety.
These are simple habits that can be added each week to feel overall a better state of wellbeing. It’s not hard or expensive and doesn’t include a prescription, the hardest thing is choosing one good habit and sticking to it! Some supplements that are natural and can help with stress and anxiety include ashwaganda, L-theanine, lemon balm, and passionflower.
Remember to be kind to yourself, anxiety is natural and being aware of it and wanting to manage it is a huge step in helping yourself heal. When you notice feelings of anxiousness coming on, take a pause, limit the trigger, decide what you can control in that moment and do something you enjoy. Listen to your favorite song or read a book, dance, walk, jog, drink water, hang out with a friend, use aromatherapy, these will all help you flip the script by creating new neural pathways in the brain!
Health Energy 