What Has Helped Reduce My Anxiety

Anxiety is relatively new to me. I remember the first time I experienced an anxiety attack, and not knowing what it was because I’ve never felt anything similar to it. Terrifying. It’s like suddenly falling into the middle of the deep dark ocean, unable to see or do anything.

Like swimming desperately to come up for air, and not being able to reach the surface.

I also know I am not the only one who has experienced this paralyzing feeling at least once, and we all have gone through it for different reasons. It’s funny because although you are literally unable to do anything when anxiety hits, it feels like all the energy you have is being drained away completely, like going up a never ending set of stairs as fast as you can. And we don’t need to go through a terrible situation to have anxiety. There are low stressors in our daily lives that accumulate and trigger this feeling.

The culture of always being busy, of working working working, social media and technology that demands our constant attention, long commutes, all these activities that we do on the daily take a toll on us, especially if we don’t process them and release them.

I’d say that having awareness and knowing my body has been the biggest aid to keep my anxiety at bay. Asking myself how do I feel and what is wrong, having an honest and kind conversation with myself, has been the biggest helping hand I could have given myself. I have also listed other lifestyle changes that have made an impact on how I feel throughout the day.

DIET

Probably not a shocking one. I constantly talk about the importance of eating fresh foods on my social platforms. This not only has benefits on how you look but also on how you feel. Having a whole foods diet with well-sourced proteins, green and starchy veggies and plenty of healthy fats balance our blood sugar levels. Everything works and flows better within our bodies. Refined sugar and flour cause the opposite.

EXERCISE

Another obvious one? Maybe. For me one of the best medicines for anxiety. And I am not referring to obsessive exercising (that ain’t healthy either sugar!). Sometimes some exercises are anxiety generators too for some people. Here is where listening to your body is key. Listen to what kind of exercise it needs and do that. Let go of any generated idea about exercise and just do what your body is asking you to do. Maybe going for a run? or yoga instead of a HIT workout?

SLEEP

I am not particularly good at this one, but I have noticed that when I really focus on getting my hours of sleep I present myself better in different scenarios during the day. However, I know sometimes we struggle with sleep or falling asleep. I’ve applied a few changes that have made a huge HUGE impact on my sleep, like switching the blue and bright light on all my screens to warmer tones, using these blue light glasses, avoiding falling asleep with my phone in hand, actually, stop using the phone at least 30 minutes before going to bed. I also got these pink salt lamps and have them all over my house to turn them on at night time. The dimmer light on them assist the production of melatonin, contrary to bright electric lights.

REDUCING CAFFEINE

Coffee is my favorite ritual. My favorite moment of the day is my mornings during my coffee time. In the afternoons, I can’t wait for the next morning when I get to have those few minutes where everything is silent and calm and early and smell like coffee. That’s how much I love coffee. However, we all have read about the connection between coffee and anxiety, and I have learned that more than two cups of coffee a day is a recipe for disaster. I have slowly decreased how much coffee I drink a day and how I drink it too. I have switched that afternoon coffee for green or mint tea, and have stayed away from those lattes. Unnecessary high dose of sugar that serves no one, not even your teeth.

MEDITATION

I have a whole blog post about my experience with meditation and talk pretty frequently about it too. The key to meditate is to, honestly, just do it. There is no technique for it, just your willingness to do it. To let go. Demystify it, lower your standards on how it should look and feel like. Also, avoid the self-talk of “I can’t do it, seating still gives me more anxiety”. It is just about practicing awareness of the present moment, being here right now. It is not a failure if your mind wanders because it will. Meditation is about kindness, which brings me to the next point.

SELF COMPASSION

We are our worst enemies. I catch myself speaking so cruel to myself at times. We do this unconsciously, we tend to think we are falling short all the time, self-imposing anxiousness. Although it is hard to recognize at times, what has helped me understand I am as worthy as everybody else, no more or less, is being compassionate, kind and loving towards myself. Setting healthy boundaries, not only with people, or work, but with food and activities.

and lastly, CHANGE THE CONVERSATION

Reframe it. Anxiety is not something that we will get rid off one day and will disappear. It’s our bodies communicating there is something wrong, out of balance. Something that we need to pay attention to. I believe our bodies react to what our minds ignore, so take a moment to be quiet and still to listen to that tiny voice somewhere within you.

We all experience anxiety differently, but we all can ask our bodies what is our anxiety trying to tell us, what needs to be changed in our life or routine so we can live better and freely.

Thank you for reading, I left a few links of some of my favorites below.

Xoxo,

Esther