There are various treatments for anxiety available today. These include drugs you can get by prescription, therapy and counseling, various exercises, natural remedies, and meditation. All of these help you to reduce anxiety. We will discuss some natural ways to relax your mind.
Anxiety is more common than you might think. While most people, almost everyone, face some amount of anxiety when they have to make huge decisions, decisions that are extremely difficult, or decisions that may be life-altering, it is not an anxiety disorder. When one starts getting anxious over trivial decisions or changes, and when this anxiety starts to hamper their normal life, it transforms into a disorder.
People try various ways to reduce it. They try to reduce anxiety with diet and use supplements like the best MCT oil, and various other resources.
Some Facts About Anxiety
- The main causes of anxiety worldwide are genetics, harrowing life events, and an individual’s brain chemistry.
- There are currently millions across the world who have some form of anxiety disorder.
- Speaking of millions, only about one-third of these people seek treatment for themselves.
- Women are more likely to develop this disorder than men by a factor of 2.
7 Natural Ways to Reduce Anxiety and Calm Your Mind
While there are a lot of ways to reduce anxiety naturally with supplements, there are various ways to reduce anxiety without medication too. We will discuss 7 natural ways by which you can reduce or even get rid of your anxiety and calm your mind.
1. The 5-4-3-2-1 Technique
This coping technique is a well-renowned technique for people with anxiety that allows them to stop thinking about things that make them anxious and allows them to focus on the current moment. This technique involves the use of all 5 senses. Before coming to the main steps, you should take a couple of deep, slow breaths.
- Step 5: Look around yourself and count 5 things that you are able to see. These are individual objects and can be anything.
- Step 4: Look around yourself and count 4 things that you are able to touch. Once again, these can be anything, even your hair.
- Step 3: Look around yourself and count 3 things that you are able to hear. These may be both inside your room and outside.
- Step 2: Look around yourself and count 2 things that you are able to smell. These may be anything with a characteristic smell.
- Step 1: Look around yourself and count 1 thing that you are able to taste.
After completing these steps, you will feel a sense of calm around you as you become sure of the environment around you. You can then focus on whatever task you were doing. This is one of the best techniques you will find when you search for how to reduce anxiety naturally.
2. Diet
While most people don’t realize it, a healthy diet can help a lot in alleviating anxiety. Just having regular meals and a controlled diet is enough. However, there are certain foods that can increase or decrease anxiety. For example, if you reduce the amount of caffeine and alcohol you consume, you can reduce your anxiousness. Including chamomile tea in your diet also helps.
3. Exercise and Yoga
Several independent and joint studies have shown that exercising regularly is a very effective way to reduce anxiety and stress naturally. It is as effective as proper medication for some people. Something as little as a brisk walk for 10 minutes can help people. This is because exercise helps to release endorphins, which are responsible for creating a calming influence and positive mindset.
Yoga is a form of physical exercise that is almost therapeutic when it comes to dealing with anxiety. It helps to reduce anxiety symptoms as well. Yoga helps in reducing your blood pressure and your heart rate. It also helps you in making breathing easier.
4. Meditation
Meditation and yoga go hand in hand. Meditation, along with many other breathing techniques, is extremely important under the ‘reduce anxiety home remedies’ section. Breathing deeply simulates parts of our nervous system, which helps in providing a sense of calmness. It also leads to a higher oxygen supply to the brain. Just half an hour of meditation in a day can improve both depression and anxiety.
5. Acupuncture
Acupuncture is extremely calming by nature. There are various points that can be tapped to reduce our stress and calm our nervous system. Acupuncture has often been found to be an effective ‘reduce anxiety relaxation technique’. Once again, this technique helps in releasing endorphins, reducing our stress. You should be careful while trying to find a practitioner. Make sure they are licensed and know how to work with anxious patients.
6. Sleeping well
It is well known that sleep loss has a direct relation to anxiety. Inadequate sleep can cause a lot of triggers, which can make someone very sensitive to panic attacks. Various parts of the brain enable us to regulate our emotions properly, thereby keeping us less anxious. These regions, incidentally, are extremely sensitive to the lack of sleep and thereby, making us less calm in general.
7. Noticing yourself
While a therapist may be able to help you with it, you can easily become aware of your triggers after some days or weeks. By getting to know them better, you can help yourself by coming up with mechanisms to cope with those triggers or by coming up with ways to prevent them altogether. An early sign or trigger is very easy to control when compared to full-blown anxiety or panic attack.
Conclusion
Anxiety is one of the most common, yet most neglected disorders in the world. Only a fraction of the people affected acknowledge it, and even fewer seek treatment. Along with everything else, we would like to ask you to slow down during the day and take a few moments to process everything at regular intervals. This will help you a lot. Anxiety is a disorder that makes it more difficult to treat compared to others. Proper reduce anxiety education must be made public knowledge so that people can feel that they aren’t alone. Do you or anyone you know suffer from any form of anxiety disorder? If so, are they seeking proper treatment? Feel free to discuss your personal experiences down below so that you can help the community.
Author – Adam Reeve is a professional personal trainer and fitness instructor for over 10 years. Also, a life coach, wellness writer, and low carb diet, enthusiast.