5 Tips to Help Decrease Anxiety
Anxiety is a feeling of restlessness or dis-ease, it is a feeling of fear, dread, panic, or feeling the worst is going to happen. If you are having anxiety, you may experience sweating, increased heart rate, feeling frozen, intestinal distress, nausea, dizziness, hyperventilation/feeling like you can’t breathe or pain.
Below are 5 things you can try to help manage your anxiety:
1) Music
Listening to music can not only help to distract your mind when you are anxious but can also help to elevate or alter your mood. It is often suggested to listen to a song that relates to your current mood and slowly change the music to more upbeat or optimistic songs and your mindset and mood will follow suit.
You could create your own “Change the Mood” playlist that is easily accessible when you are experiencing distress or uneasiness.
2) Exercise
Exercise has often been used to help and manage not only anxiety but several other ailments as well including pain related disorders, depression and insomnia. Exercising releases feel-good chemicals in your brain and takes your mind off whatever you are worrying about and into what you are doing. Exercise also has numerous health benefits along with increasing your confidence and feelings of self worth. All these benefits combined allow for an environment of peace within us and decrease our moments of worry and dread.
3) Breathwork
Focusing on our breathing has many benefits when we are experiencing anxiety. Once again it is taking our mind off our worries and allows us to focus on something else. Shifting our breathing can help us to calm our bodies, decrease our respiration rate, blood pressure and heart rate. One breathing technique you can try is diaphragmatic breathing, focusing on breathing from your stomach instead of your chest. You can watch your abdomen expand when you inhale and contract when you exhale. Another breathing technique that I personally find helpful is square breathing. This involves breathing in four steps. Inhaling, holding the breath, exhaling, and holding that emptiness. You can do this to whatever timing feels best. I would recommend at least 4 seconds for each step, as the goal is to slow our breathing and relax the nervous system.
4) Meditation or Progressive Muscle Relaxation
Meditation and mindfulness practices have many benefits to not only our mental health and wellbeing, but also to our physical body and how our body reacts to stressors and challenging situations. Incorporating a regular meditation or mindfulness practice into your life can help with the ongoing level of anxiety you feel. If you are looking to decrease anxiety in the moment, I would recommend a guided meditation or guided progressive muscle relaxation. Not only do these have the benefit of distracting our minds by giving them something else to focus on, but they bring a sense of relaxation to our physical bodies which translate into feelings of calmness and relaxation in our minds.
5) Aromatherapy
Some people are very sensitive to scents and there are scents in nature that naturally bring a sense of calm and relaxation.
Lavender
Lavender seems to be the most popular scent used for calming. From Lavender pillows, necklaces and pet products I am sure most of you have seen some sort of calming, anti-anxiety product with Lavender. So why not use it in a diffuser and enjoy those benefits?
Bergamot
Bergamot is another scent that has been used in reducing anxiety and improving mental health. It has a citrus, orange scent.
Chamomile
Is a sweet smelling and fruity scent. There is evidence that chamomile has calming effects on anxiety as well as helping with sleep. Chamomile is a common ingredient in nighttime tea mixtures to enhance sleep.
