Anxiety can be a damaging condition that’s accompanied by long-term stress and a decline in your overall health. If you are having to deal with anxiety on a regular basis, medication doesn’t have to be your only treatment. To calm your mind and cut stress, try utilising these simple self-care tips into your daily routine.
Diet
Avoid Sugary and Processed Foods
Sugar and refined carbohydrates can give you blood sugar highs and lows throughout the day. This can increase your anxiety, nervousness and fatigue. These foods can also cause mood swings and alter your energy levels, making it more difficult to get your anxiety symptoms under control.
If you are looking to improve your anxiety try to stay away from refined foods.
These include:
- Baked goods
- Sweetened drinks
- Fast food
- Fried food
- Processed meats
- Refined grains
Eat a Well-Balanced Diet
Eating too much or too little can increase your anxiety symptoms as well as any other psychological or emotional disorders you may have. Research shows that a poor diet can lead to a spike in many anxiety symptoms such as moodiness, fatigue and abnormal blood sugar levels that cause nervousness and the jitters. A poor diet can also lead to weight gain. This can impact your body image and self-esteem which, in the long run could bring on feelings of worthlessness and self-doubt.
To improve your anxiety symptoms, make sure to add vitamin B foods, magnesium rich foods, foods high in calcium and omega-3 foods to your diet.
Foods such as:
- Wild-caught fish
- Grass-fed beef
- Organic chicken
- Nutritional yeast
- Eggs
- Yogurt or kefir
- Leafy greens
- Fresh vegetables
- Fresh fruits
- Healthy fats
- Beans
- Legumes
- Nuts
- Seeds
- Unrefined grains
Lifestyle
Get involved with regular physical activity
We all know that regular physical activity has a myriad of health benefits. It will help with improving your quality of sleep, reduce inflammation, boost confidence, improve energy levels and ease stress and tension. Those that suffer with anxiety can really benefit from exercises like yoga, pilates and tai chi because they utilise deep breathing techniques and promote relaxation.
If yoga isn’t your thing then there are plenty of other exercises you can practice. For example, running, walking or hiking outdoors, lifting weights and even dancing can help to combat stress.
Try meditation & Self hypnosis
Meditation and hypnosis is an amazing natural remedy for anxiety. Research says that mindful meditation helps to reduce your cortisol levels, improve your sleep quality, boost your productivity at home and at work and treat your anxiety.
If you are new to the whole meditation/hypnosis thing then don’t worry! There are hundreds of guided meditation videos and podcasts available to you online – Try YouTube as a start, or go to my website https://hypnotherapyandhealth.co.uk/shop/ where you will find a variety of different tracks to help you.
Get a good night’s sleep
A lack of sleep can seriously amplify your anxiety by stimulating regions in the brain that are associated with emotional processing. This means sleep deprivation can contribute to common anxiety symptoms.
You can combat your anxiety by developing a proper sleep pattern (and sticking with it!). This can reduce your worry, tension and feelings of fear. Everyone is different but try and aim for around 7 to 9 hours of sleep every night in order to reduce stress, balance your hormones, prevent moodiness and reduce fatigue.
If you fancy it you can also light a lavender or chamomile candle in your bedroom to enhance your relaxation.
Find Support
If after everything you are still struggling to overcome anxiety then please find support. Whether this is from your family, friends, a community or a professional therapist – talking to someone can be extremely helpful.
If you want to take control back, get on with life and stop seeing it pass you by, get in touch through facebook or visit my website www.hypnotherapyandhealth.co.uk
I focus on where you want to go next and help you to get there in a rather short time. This is great for people wanting help with Low mood or depression, anxiety, stress, panic attacks, OCD, IBS, fears & phobias, anger issues, performance anxiety, pain management, skin disorders, weight control – and the list goes on.