Natural Anxiety Relief Solutions: Nutrients and Botanicals.

Got Anxiety? 

Anxiousness, restlessness, agitation, or panic? Anxiety is not a pleasant experience. At times, it may feel as though you are trying to "crawl out of your skin" just to experience some calm. That craving to feel more relaxed, more peaceful often arises when you are battling insomnia, wanting more energy because of a complete exhaustion, needing to eat yet feeling nausea, seeking to sit yet pacing, and so on. Sound familiar? 

Anxiety is a sense of worry, a feeling of dread, anticipation, or a sensation often triggered by your emotional area of the brain. That signaling shuts down your prefrontal cortex, the thinking part of your brain, and subsequently results in a physical state of what we describe as anxiety. The symptoms associated with that states, vary of course, these may include restlessness, dizziness, nausea, fast heart rate, sweating, muscle tension, headache, and many others. One of the most common triggers of your emotional brain is "fear" of some kind of danger. In other words, your unconscious mind perceives as though there is danger, yet it is not physically present. On the contrary, having a physiological response of anxiety is healthy during those times when the actual physical danger is present, because that is what allows you to run away from "the tiger". 

There are times when conventional therapeutics come to the rescue, just to alleviate the symptoms. Treating the symptom can at times be immensely helpful, because it can offer a sense of "ok, I feel a little peace, and I have the endurance to dig in deeper and do the work to really address the underlying root...". However, conventional medications may be appropriate for some, and not for others. My goal is not to discuss whether or not you may or may not need one approach over another. Instead I wanted to share a few non-pharmacological considerations for those of you who are interested in exploring natural anxiety relief solutions for yourself.

Similarly to the conventional approach, these nutrients or botanicals are not focused on addressing the "root cause" or the "underlying issue" that causes you to experience anxiety. Instead, these can be immensely helpful when you are looking to "just take the edge off". 

Lifestyle.

This is a must. How you live, what you do or don't do is vital to helping yourself when you are experiencing anxiety. No matter how many nutrients or botanicals you take, the basics of your mental hygiene, training your mind is essential. Taming your mind is essential. How do you do that? Yes, meditation. What?! I can't sit and meditate. It's ok. Do you like to breathe? Start there. I generally recommend starting with daily, at least ten minutes in the mornings, breathing.

Breathing, meditation

1. Choose a quiet place, where you will not be interrupted. 
2. Sitting is best, but you may choose to lay down if you prefer. Sitting on the floor, on a cushion, a stool, a chair, or any way that you feel most comfortable.
3. Have a face mask to block out the light. It takes out one of your sensory experiences, visual, which can help quiet your mind and deepen your breathing experience.
4. You may choose to listen to something with a pair of headphones. If you do, I generally recommend soft waves crashing on the beach. This is one of the most therapeutic sounds to the human ear, since this is what you heard while in-utero. 
5. Finally. Taking deep, abdominal breaths. On a count of 3 breathe in, and on a count of 6 breathe out. Repeat this type of breathing for a series of (ideally) 100. This should take about ten minutes or more. When you aim to take one hundred slow breaths, you will not need to watch the clock.

Exercise, movement

• Choose your favorite
  • yoga
  • Pilates
  • Barre3
  • aerobic
  • weight training
  • running
  • Tai Chi
  • QiGong

Here, comes your favorite...maybe

You may already know what makes you feel worse, or anxious, or edgy. Simply, take it out. If you are not making any correlations, then at least consider caaafffeeeinne. Yes, caffeine is a stimulant, and can ramp things up. It comes in many forms and shapes.

• Coffee
• Tea
• Chocolate
• Soda
• Caffeine-containing medications
• Others

Nutrients in foods, or supplementation

• Magnesium - a few examples of foods
  • very dark chocolate (yes, it does offer quite a bit of magnesium, but it often has enough caffeine for some to exacerbate anxiety)
  • nuts and seeds
  • legumes
  • leafy greens
• B vitamins - a few examples of foods
  • leafy greens
  • legumes
  • fish
  • eggs
• Phosphatidylcholine - a few examples of foods
  • fish
  • eggs
• L-tryptophan - a few examples of foods
  • seeds
  • oats
  • fish
  • eggs
• L-theanine
  • green tea (when you steep it for 2 minutes or less, you will receive the benefits of the compounds in the green tea, without the caffeine)

Botanicals, plant medicine

• Chamomile
• Oats
• Passionflower
• Oats
• Hops
• Valerian

Still need more support?

There are times when you still need additional support, and that is where I come in. Begin your work with me to uncover additional natural holistic anxiety solutions, and help to rewire your anxious mind to experience a more vibrant you.