Approaching Anxiety Management Naturally

So often in our soci­ety, peo­ple want those suf­fer­ing from anx­i­ety to just “get over it.” Men­tal ill­ness and anx­i­ety are often mis­un­der­stood by those who do not suf­fer from them, which leads to shame and a spi­ral into more and more anx­i­eties for those who strug­gle with them. I’ve includ­ed some ideas here that can help you han­dle mild to mod­er­ate anx­i­ety health­ful­ly, mind­ful­ly, and naturally.

Please note, if these ideas seem unhelp­ful or like they are bare­ly scrap­ing the sur­face, please reach out to a med­ical pro­fes­sion­al. You are beau­ti­ful and per­fect just the way you are, and there is noth­ing wrong with reach­ing out for help to get you feel­ing like your most authen­tic self.

1. “Feel it. The thing that you don’t want to feel. Feel it, and be free” –Nayir­rah Waheed
   First up, don’t fight your feel­ings or judge your­self for your wor­ries. Feel what­ev­er it is that your mind and body are try­ing to feel. I’ve learned from expe­ri­ence that you can­not move on until you feel it and process it in the after­math. Will this be uncom­fort­able? Yes. In fact, there are times when it will be down­right painful. But it is only through these feel­ings and these anx­i­eties that you can grow and come through to the oth­er side.
2. Take in a deep breath… of laven­der. Inhal­ing cer­tain aro­mather­a­py scents, specif­i­cal­ly laven­der, can calm and relax you. Find which scent or scents con­nect with you and help you relax. Laven­der may not be what calms you down, and you may pre­fer a lemon or orange scent, or even pep­per­mint or euca­lyp­tus. Essen­tial oils can be dif­fused in to the air, rubbed into the skin on pulse points, or car­ried with you in a purse. Find what works for you, and include your scent of choice in a relax­ing ritual.
3. Watch what you eat! Avoid cer­tain stim­u­lants, like caf­feine and alco­hol, and include more foods that boost your omega 3’s, B vit­a­mins, antiox­i­dants, fiber, and mag­ne­sium. A hand­ful of nuts, a smooth­ie with spinach, or a bowl of berries are all deli­cious and nutri­tious anx­i­ety tamers.
4. Take anoth­er deep breath in… and hold! Mea­sured breath­ing can work won­ders to help peo­ple calm their rac­ing mind. Try a 4−7−8 breath. Start by breath­ing in over a count of four. Then hold your breath for a count of 7. Final­ly, slow­ly exhale over a count of 8. Repeat 2–4 times in a row, and you will find that you are much bet­ter able to face the anx­i­eties that are wor­ry­ing you!