Different Ways to Relieve Stress and Anxiety

   If I had to choose the #1 problem I’ve had most of my life it would definitely be anxiety. When I was younger, I actually used to believe having anxiety was this rare problem I had, which is kind of laughable to me now since it’s rare NOT to have anxiety these days. Because there are so many different types of anxiety, I am going to focus on generalized anxiety and stress in this blog. Everything I talk about can also help with depression symptoms as well, which often coexists with stress and anxiety.

By definition, anxiety is “a feeling of worry, nervousness, or unease, typically about an imminent event or something with an uncertain outcome.” according to dictionary.com. 

When I first read the actual definition, it honestly sounded so simplified to me and not really a big deal. Living with anxiety however, is a HUGE deal to the person living with it. It dictates your entire life-social events, grocery shopping, work, school, family etc. I personally had panic attacks half my life and most of the time I didn’t even know what was causing them. I am going to assume most people reading this blog either have anxiety of some sort and/or knows someone with anxiety so you most likely understand what it is and how it effects one’s day-to-day life so I am going to just jump into the different ways that have helped me to ease my stress and anxiety. Most of these suggestions will be familiar ones and some not so much!

The #1 way I have eased my anxiety over the years is probably the most difficult solution for many people and that is with diet and exercise. We all know we should eat healthy and exercise, but how many of us actually take it seriously? Some people stress eat (me!) and some people can’t eat at all when they’re stressed. Having a steady blood sugar throughout the day can do wonders for your anxiety. Eating a lot of refined cereals, candy, pastries, chips etc. will ease your anxiety for a short time, however, the consequence is your blood sugar will raise which is not so great for your anxiety. Once your blood sugar spikes, it will then start to drop which can increase anxiety even more! I myself get very shaky, nauseous and lightheaded when my blood sugar drops which in return causes me to have more anxiety because of the way it makes me feel. Having too much caffeine can increase your anxiety as well so try to decrease your caffeine intake especially if you’re going through a high anxiety time in your life. When you eat better, you feel better and even though most of us are aware of this, it is still hard to break out of our cycles of eating bad to ease our stress and anxiety. I personally try to follow the 80/20 rule by eating healthy around 80% of the time and letting myself have more freedom to eat what I want 20% of the time. I find this to work the best for me because it is sustainable, I don’t have to starve myself at all and I feel like I can just enjoy life more this way. 

Along with diet of course always comes exercise which is very beneficial for our mood, so I feel like it is a must if you seriously want to feel better and ease your stress and anxiety. When I was experiencing my highest amount of anxiety at around 19 years old and having panic attacks several times a day, every day, I completely stopped exercising and going to the gym. Not only did I gain weight which just made me feel worse about myself, but it made my anxiety worse. At the time, my anxiety was pretty severe so my goal was to try and stay calm as much as I could and working out raised my heart rate of course which I was trying to avoid so I just stopped. It all sounds crazy now as I type this, but that’s what anxiety does-it makes you do absurd things just to feel some kind of relief. After a year maybe, I finally started to go back to therapy and it was my therapist who pushed me to start exercising again. I would have panic attacks when I walked into the gym, so I started out going on short walks outside. It was this one, small change I made in my daily routine that drastically changed my life. I now have anxiety if I don’t workout (which probably isn’t the healthiest either, but hey I never said I was perfect lol) My point is this-move your body in anyway you can to help release that excess energy you have from the anxiety and boost those feel-good hormones. Go for a walk in nature, stretch your body, go on a bike ride, dance, do yoga, lift weights, play a sport, walk your dog-literally anything to get your body moving. Try to make it part of your daily routine so it becomes a habit for you overtime. At first, you may have to force yourself a little (or a lot), but it will help relax you and make you feel so much better in the long run. You don’t have to go to a gym or have a whole workout routine planned out, all you have to do is start small and do something you already enjoy doing that gets you moving. 

Next up-MUSIC! An easy, effective way to ease stress and anxiety is listening to your favorite music. Listening to music not only decreases my anxiety, but I also do this when I feel depressed or when I’m just in a weird funk. I personally listen to music throughout the day (when I get ready in the morning, in the car, when I workout) but the time I listen to music to specifically help with my mood/anxiety is at night when I am getting ready for bed and it helps me tremendously. I made a “good vibes” playlist (I suggest everyone do this if you don’t already have one) and I blast it while I am doing my night routine. This may sound like an odd time since I should be trying to wind down, but I notice my anxiety is worse at night (and full disclosure, sometimes I will even dance a little and it helps to get rid of that excess energy before bed and shifts my mood completely!). Then when I get into bed, I do a 360 and switch playlists to my meditation/sleep music and try to journal, read and/or meditate. Music is such a powerful, yet underrated tool to use for stress and anxiety, especially an old, favorite song that reminds you of good times. A very helpful type of music to download to relieve stress and anxiety as well is Chakra Healing Music. I play this when I do Reiki on myself or others and it works so well! Chakra Healing music uses sound to balance the seven energy centers (chakras) in your body and helps to release blockages in your physical and energetic bodies. You can look it up on YouTube to try it out and if you like it, download it and listen to it anytime you feel anxious.

Live in the present more. Sounds easy, but can be so difficult in this day and age. I just published a blog a week ago on How to Live in the Present so you can read that if you haven’t already to help with this step. Most of the time, our anxiety is coming from worrying about the past or the future and we get so caught up in this way of thinking that we forget to live in the here and now.

Take a mindful walk outside. Instead of thinking about everything you need to do around the house, at work, errands you need to run etc. take time to look around you and engage all your senses. What do you hear? See? smell? Be aware of your breath, your feet hitting the ground with each step you take, the birds chirping around you, the wind blowing on your face, the sound of the ocean, the warmth from the sun and so on. 

Lose yourself in the flow. I talked about being in a flow state in my “Find your Life Purpose Blog” and this is such a great way to live in the present moment. Think of what makes you lose track of time and do that, whether it’s playing a sport, writing, reading, working out, painting, playing with your kids or pets etc.

Connect with friends, family and/or a therapist in person or on the phone. Get lost in a good conversation. Lean on them for support. Try to remember so many people experience anxiety so it is nothing to be ashamed of.

Try to enjoy a nice, hot cup of tea (so many calming teas out there!) and take your time to slow down and focus on each sip. This is something you can possibly even do while at work, depending on your job of course. 

Meditate. I find meditating to be very hard when I am anxious and the easiest way for me to get into it when I feel like this is listening to meditation music and every time a racing thought pops into my mind, I try to focus back on the music and continue doing this process for 10-20 minutes. Many people focus on their breath which is great too, but focusing on the music is just easier for me.

Get lost in a good show or movie. I know disconnecting from electronics can be so helpful when you’re trying to relax, however, I find it is nice to escape reality sometimes and get sucked into a good show to get my mind off whatever is giving me anxiety. 

FEEL to HEAL. This is completely opposite of what I just said, but we need to allow ourselves to feel the emotions of the anxiety to work through it and feel better too. We can’t always do things to escape reality otherwise we would never actually heal ourselves!

Get yourself some Crystals, Reiki and do some grounding! Yes some of these or all of these may be too “out there” for some people, but they work wonders for me so I had to include them! There are so many calming crystals out there such as amethyst, moonstone, rose quartz, citrine, celestite and amazonite being my favorite which is why I chose to sell amazonite bracelets on this blog. You can wear them as jewelry, hold them, keep them on your nightstand or in your car. I am sure I will be writing a whole blog on crystals at some point though so stay tuned for more on them. Also, Reiki Energy Healing is pretty much what cured my panic attacks as a teenager which is why I became a Reiki Practitioner. There will also be a whole blog focused solely on Reiki for people who want to learn more. ( I also offer distant and in-person Reiki sessions if interested 🙂 ). Lastly, grounding is when you connect yourself to the Earth by walking barefoot on grass, sand, mud, swimming in the ocean or lying on the ground which provides you with grounding energy from the Earth itself. Grounding helps to relax us as our bodies become in sync with the Earth’s energy and you can feel it almost immediately if you pay close attention to how you’re feeling.

I can go on and on when it comes to this topic since there really is so much information around it and it is very personal to me, but I think that is enough info for 1 blog. I hope this blog helps to alleviate some of your stress and anxiety and in return, helps you to live a more blissful life ♡