Nine
More Natural Ways to Relieve Anxiety
Manage
Your Diet to Relieve Anxiety
It is just
the way that humans are wired—when we are hungry, we get
irritable and anxious. There is even a correlation between anxiety
and changes in blood sugar. If you start to feel panic or high
anxiety, this may mean that your blood sugar is starting to drop. If
you find that you are experiencing a small bout of anxiety and you
haven't eaten in awhile, grab yourself a small snack, like some dark
chocolate or a handful of pistachios. Pair it with a cup of
non-caffeinated tea or just a big glass of water.
This will
help in the short term, but you should also think about altering your
lifestyle so that your body manages anxiety more effectively in
general. Many physicians recommend eating a diet focused on
vegetables, fruits, and whole grains, with an emphasis on choosing
healthy meats such as poultry or seafood while eating much less red
meat.
Also, it
is recommended to eat a lot of dark green leafy vegetables such as
spinach in order to get folate, and including green tea is a great
way to ensure that you get a high level of phytonutrients that have
antioxidant qualities as well as anti-anxiety properties. A diet like
this will keep your blood sugar balanced and will provide your body
with all of the energy and nutrients it needs to run at peak
performance, which will mitigate anxiety in a variety of ways.
Eat
Breakfast!
A healthy diet can do wonders for your anxiety, but don't try to save
calories by skipping your breakfast. There is a strong correlation
between people that skip breakfast and people with tendencies toward
anxiety, and the reverse is true as well. Great things to add to your
breakfast are eggs and whole wheat. Whole wheat is highly beneficial
because it is densely nutritious, takes a lot of work for your
stomach to burn, which helps keep insulin levels balanced, while
providing you with a lot of energy. Eggs are great because they are
the number one source of choline found in nature. People that do not
get enough choline are more likely to experience anxiety.
Skipping breakfast is bad for anxiety, because it encourages your
body to produce unhealthy levels of cortisol. Cortisol is the hormone
which controls and balances the fight-or-flight response. Cortisol is
a necessary hormone which controls pain and helps you make split
decisions and act on impulse when needed, but when your body makes
too much, it can leave you on edge and can cause you to become more
and more unhealthy over time. People with elevated cortisol are prone
to very high levels of anxiety and are at increased risk of a number
of different cardiovascular complications, including heart attack and
stroke.
Omega-Three
Fatty Acids and Anxiety
Omega-Three Fatty Acids are essential oils that you can only get from
animal products. These essential oils are highly beneficial and
necessary to optimal health, and fish have the highest concentration
of Omega-Three Fatty Acids. These Fatty Acids have been shown to
alleviate anxiety among their other various benefits. In one study,
students were given 2.5 mg Omega-Three Capsules once per day over the
course of three months. The group that took these capsules
experienced less anxiety than those that were on placebo.
Even though supplements are an acceptable way to get your essential
Omega-Threes, nutrition specialists recommend getting them from
natural sources whenever you can. The fish with the highest levels of
Omega-Three Fatty Acids are cold-water species of fish such as
salmon. A single, six ounce fillet of salmon contains 3.5 g of
Omega-Threes.
Other
Benefits of Omega-Three Fatty Acids
Omega-Three Fatty Acids play a role in a large number of different
biological functions, and the human body is unable to produce them,
so we have to get them in our diet. There is evidence that getting
healthy levels of these nutrients can protect the heart from both
heart disease and stroke. Omega-Threes are really good for the heart
because they promote increased levels of Healthy HDL cholesterol,
which many people in America don't get enough of in their diet.
This nutrient also helps to promote normal blood pressure, and can be
used as a means to alleviate hypertension when taken in high doses
recommended by a qualified physician. The positive impact that
Omega-Threes have on cholesterol also reduces diabetes risk, because
the nutrients have a suppressive effect upon triglycerides and
apoproteins which are a diabetes marker.
Stop
Creating Disasters in Your Mind
One issue that people with high levels of anxiety face is that they
have a tendency to turn small problems into major problems in their
mind. When an episode of increased anxiety hits, many people have a
tendency to immediately consider the worst. They think about
something that frustrates them or causes them anxiety and they
extrapolate that out to worst-case scenarios, which amplifies the
anxiety and makes minor issues seem like major problems.
Think about the way you feel when you experience anxiety. Do you have
this tendency to automatically brace yourself for the worst? When you
start to feel anxiety, force yourself to calm down. Engage in a bit
of focused breathing, then take a quick walk and think through your
problem realistically rather than letting your anxiety take control.
When you take the time to evaluate your anxiety, you will find that
the root of your episode is far less of an issue than you originally
led yourself to believe, and you can take steps to further relieve
your anxiety and mitigate the situation. We have a tendency to see
far more catastrophes in our mind than actually occur in a lifetime.
Engage
in Heat Therapy
There is a reason why spending time in a steam room or sauna provides
feelings of relaxation. Engaging in heat therapy has a
medically-proven ability to reduce both anxiety and muscle tension.
Feelings of warmth seem to have the ability to manipulate the neural
circuitry which helps determine your mood. Getting in a sauna or hot
bath increases the secretion of the hormone serotonin, which is
widely referred to as the pleasure hormone.
Some medical professionals hypothesize that this increase in body
temperature may be one of the reasons that exercise has the ability
to improve mood. It also may explain a bit of why a hot cup of tea
and a warm fire have the ability to provide the same sensations of
comfort and contentment. There is no doubt that comfortable warmth of
any kind has the ability to change the way the way that we think and
we feel.
Other
Benefits of Heat Therapy
Heat Therapy is a natural form of pain relief. A heating pad or
electric blanket wrapped around an area experiencing pain can help
alleviate the impact of that pain. Heat Therapy is also good for
rehabilitation after an injury because strained or damaged muscles
and other tissues often suffer from blood vessel constriction which
slows down the healing process.
Heating pads can increase blood flow to a particular area to
stimulate healing. Heat Therapy can also be used to alleviate
headaches, which are often caused or exacerbated by stress in the
neck and shoulder muscles.
Go
Out and Experience Nature
If you are experiencing a lot of stress, there is strong scientific
evidence that going out for a walk or jog in the forest can do more
to improve your mood than physical exercise alone. Perhaps there's
something about the beauty of nature and our undeniable attraction to
it which has the ability to help us feel more at ease.
In one Japanese study, researchers took two groups of people out for
a walk. One group walked for twenty minutes in a beautiful forest
environment. The other group walked the same distance for twenty
minutes in an urban environment. They found that the levels of
cortisol and other stress hormones were lower among those that walked
through the forest landscape.
Other studies have been performed in the United States based on the
same premise, and similar results were found. Researchers
hypothesized that forests have the ability to both tranquilize those
that experience it as well as improve their overall mood, especially
if the individual has recently labored or experienced anxiety.
Learn
How to Meditate and Turn Off Your Mind
One thing that causes anxiety and amplifies stress is the fact that,
especially in the West, we have a tendency to leave our brains on all
the time. If there is one important thing to know about stress,
taking time to collect oneself occasionally is incredibly important
if one is to maintain a balanced psychological profile. In Buddhist
societies, meditation is central means to foster mental balance and
enhance the mind's connection to the body and the environment.
As scientists have studied meditation, they have found that it
produces profound benefits to not only the body, but the mind as
well. One aspect of Eastern Meditation is Mindfulness. It is
important to learn how to turn your thoughts on and off through your
sheer will and concentration. In doing so, you give your brain time
to reset itself and focus, which is a fantastic way to eliminate
anxiety. Many psychologists utilize meditation in their therapy,
because it helps give the patient the opportunity to appreciate the
moment rather than agonize over the past or the future.
Other
Benefits of Meditation
Meditation not only induces relaxation and reduces anxiety, it has a
number of other health benefits as well. There is evidence that
meditation has the ability to help people control pain, allowing
themselves to handle physical pain more easily. It actually appears
that meditation reduces activity in the portion of the brain which
registers pain. Meditation also safeguards the mind against cognitive
decline, because it encourages the prefrontal cortex to maintain its
thickness, which normally starts to lose its volume with age.
The reduction in psychological stress is also correlated with an
increase in cardiovascular health. Men and women that meditate have
healthier blood pressure, and they produce more nitric oxide, which
is responsible for expanding blood vessels. Meditation also has the
ability to reduce the body's inflammation response, which helps the
immune system stay stronger.
Be
Mindful When You Relax
This is connected with mindful meditation, but you can engage in it
at any time, even when you only have a few brief moments to
contemplate. This concept is easily incorporated into breathing
exercises, if you would like to enhance the benefits of that
activity. While you are sitting or resting peacefully, take the time
to ask questions and engage in quiet reflection. Don't allow yourself
to get caught up in things that give you anxiety, let your mind
wander.
Any form of relaxation where you exert your control over your mind
will produce both psychological and physiological benefits. Anxiety
is the mind and body's unwillingness to let go, and if you teach
yourself how to let yourself let go and distance your mind from your
troubles and your neurological quirks, you will become more effective
at removing anxiety from your health and improving your health.
Take
the Time to Recognize Your Own Anxiety
The first necessary step to controlling your anxiety is reflecting on
yourself enough to realize the impact that stress is having on your
life. Understanding your mind is the first priority when attempting
to curb your anxiety.
It's important to understand that recognizing your own anxiety is an
important factor in combating it. One of the most effective means to
mitigate anxiety is to foster this sense of mindfulness, and it is
truly a skill that has to be learned. Beyond the foundation of
self-realization, you can start to take further steps to control your
anxiety, including cognitive reframing, positive self-talk, and
strategies of relaxation and mindfulness.
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