Anxiety Management

Anxiety management includes a combination of mental, physical, and lifestyle practices.

Mental Approach

• Practice Mindfulness:

  • Focus on the present moment with meditation, deep breathing and grounding exercises.

• Challenge Negative Thoughts:

  • Cognitive-behavioral techniques can help you identify and reframe fears or worries.

  • Write down anxious thoughts and assess their validity objectively.

  • Use these self-inquiry questions developed by Byron Katie

    • Is it true?

    • Can you absolutely know that it’s true?

    • How do you react when you believe that thought?

    • Who would you be without the thought?

This exercise can help to reframe and shift our internal narrative about a feeling or situation

• Visualization:

  • Close your eyes and imagine a calming scene or a successful outcome to a situation causing anxiety. Athletes use visualization techniques to mentally experience that they can and will complete a task successfully.

  • Including slow, deep breathing for added relaxation can help during visualization.

• Focus on Gratitude:

  • Keep a journal to list things you're grateful for daily, in order to shift the attention and narrative from negativity and worries to positives.

• Break Tasks into Steps:

  • Overwhelming tasks can heighten anxiety. Simplify them into manageable steps to reduce stress. Writing down the steps and when you will complete them can also make them feel more manageable and give you a plan to stick to.

Physical Approach

• Deep Breathing:

  • Use techniques like diaphragmatic breathing (inhaling for 4 seconds, holding for 4 seconds, exhaling for 6 seconds) to calm your nervous system.

• Regular Exercise:

  • Engage in physical activities like walking, running, yoga, or dancing to release tension and boost endorphins.

• Progressive Muscle Relaxation:

  • Tense and then relax different muscle groups, moving systematically through the body.

• Limit Stimulants:

  • Reduce caffeine, nicotine, and sugar, which can make anxiety symptoms much worse.

Lifestyle Practices

• Establish a Routine:

  • Regular schedules can provide structure and predictability, helping to manage stress.

• Prioritize Sleep:

  • Aim for 7–9 hours of quality sleep. Develop a bedtime routine, avoid screens before bed, and create a calming sleep environment.

• Stay Connected:

  • Share your feelings with trusted friends, family, or a support group. Social support is key to managing anxiety.

• Healthy Nutrition:

  • Consume a balanced diet with foods rich in magnesium, omega-3s, and B vitamins to support brain health.

• Limit social media time and exposure

  • Time on social media can make us feel disconnected from ourselves and others. Alotting certain times of the day and lengths of time for social media can help us feel more in contol of our use and engagement with it.

  • A digitial detox (see blogpost about this)helps us avoid overstimulation and comparison triggers

• Soak it out

  • Mineral rich baths, at home or at a hot spring, can do wonders for enhancing a sense of calm and relaxing the body and mind

• Herbal supports

  • Magnesium, L-Theanine, Holy Basil (Tulsi), Lemon Balm, Chamomile, Valerian, Passionflower and several other herbs are wonderful, gentle and effective

    
    
    
    

    supports to help manage anxiety

Stress Reduction Practices

• Meditation and Yoga:

  • Both help relax the mind, reduce stress hormones, and improve focus.

• Spend Time in Nature:

  • Go for a walk in a park, forest, or beach to benefit from nature's calming effects.

  • Being close to moving water we experience the abundance of negative ions from the moving water. This naturally stimulating environment automatically increases our serotonin levels, we absorb more oxygen into the blood  and our bodies can better filter toxins.

• Art or Music Therapy:

  • Creative activities like drawing, painting, or playing an instrument can provide an emotional outlet and put us into a meditative state where we are focused on the present moment

Professional Support

• Therapy:

  • Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) is particularly effective in helping reduce anxiety.

  • Other approaches like acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT) or dialectical behavior therapy (DBT) can also be beneficial.

• Biofeedback:

  • Biofeedback uses frequency and communication between the body and biofeedback device to restore balance in the body's physiological responses, such as heart rate and muscle tension, to reduce anxiety.