How can you help yourself?
There are many steps you can take at home to help with varying levels of anxiety. Start with these tips.
- Talk to a trusted friend or family member
- Set aside time for worries
- Take care of your health (food choices and exercise)
- Breathing exercises
- Write in a journal
- Work with a life or health coach
Talk to a trusted friend or family member
It can be a relief to to talk to someone you trust.. That can often be the key to working towards a solution. If you aren’t able to open up to someone close to you, a life coach can help you work through your anxiety, whether it’s a singular event or a chronic problem.
Set aside time for worries
Similar to talking with a friend or family member, setting aside a specific amount of time to focus on your worries can take some pressure off of you – it can lessen the emotional and physical stress. During your “worry” time, find a quiet place to concentrate on your concerns. You can also use a journal or digital recorder to write down your worries. Some people write their worries down on small pieces of paper and fold them and place them in a worry jar or box. It’s a way of letting go of the fear and anxiety associated with a particular issue or concern.
Take care of your health (food choices and exercise)
The food we eat can have a big impact on more than our physical health. An unhealthy way of eating or chronically eating the same, limited food choices also limits the micro-nutrients we get too. All of our organs, including our brain depend on various nutrients to keep our hormones at the right levels and help us manage our emotions, including anxiety. Even when we have legitimate reasons to feel worried or fearful, a healthy diet can lessen the physical and emotional turmoil that come with varying levels of anxiety.
Exercise is equally important to maintaining good physical and emotional health. Even light exercise, such as walking or riding a bicycle in the park can increase our serotonin levels and reduce our adrenaline levels, which in the end helps us to stay calm and better handle a stressful situation. Adrenaline rushes are meant for real physical stresses and not every day challenges. This is part of our fight-or-flight response. If we are constantly in that mode, we run the risk of serious physical and mental conditions that require medical attention or hospitalization – and can start from not managing generalized anxiety.
We take breathing for granted; however, the way we breathe affects our health and how our body manages hormone and sugar levels. Most adults today are shallow breathers. Shallow breathing keeps our nervous system in the sympathetic zone. This is where our body prepares for “fight or flight.”
Diaphragmatic breathing allows your body to respond better to life and stress. This enables us to maintain better control emotionally, as we are physically calmer and can handle emotional times with more rational responses.
Practice by sitting still and taking a deep breath in through your nose and holding it as long as you can. Keep your hand on you stomach to feel your body filling with air. Then slowly exhale from your mouth until there is nothing left to blow out. You should feel your body release and your stomach flatten. Do this anytime you are doing nothing or dealing with stress to develop a diaphragmatic breathing habit. This one exercise can make a world of difference in the life of anyone who suffers from anxiety.
Write in a journal
The food we eat can have a big impact on more than our physical health. An unhealthy way of eating or chronically eating the same, limited food choices also limits the micro-nutrients we get too. All of our organs, including our brain depend on various nutrients to keep our hormones at the right levels and help us manage our emotions, including anxiety. Even when we have legitimate reasons to feel worried or fearful, a healthy diet can lessen the physical and emotional turmoil that come with varying levels of anxiety.
Work with a life or health coach
A coach in sports helps you figure out a plan of action, stay motivated and does the research so you don’t have to. They teach you how to make changes that are sustainable and lead you to a win! They keep you accountable. A health or life coach does the same thing for your personal, professional, and health goals.
When you work one-on-one with a coach, you have the opportunity to explore all of your goals and your challenges with someone who is trained to listen to your concerns and guide you to decisions that improve your quality of life by removing the roadblocks that keep you stuck at a job you don’t like, an unhealthy weight, or a myriad or other situations that hold you back.
The best coach for you is someone you can relate to, who is a good listerner, and who has been through their own struggles and learned how to ge unstuck and change their life.
Common Anxiety Disorders
Generalized Anxiety Disorder*
Characterized by chronic anxiety, exaggerated worry and tension, even when there is little or nothing to provoke it.
Obsessive Compulsive Disorder*
Characterized by recurrent, unwanted thoughts (obsessions) and/or repetitive behaviors (compulsions). Repetitive behaviors such as hand washing, counting, checking, or cleaning are often performed with the hope of preventing obsessive thoughts or making them go away. Performing these so-called “rituals,” however, provides only temporary relief, and not performing them markedly increases anxiety.
Characterized by overwhelming anxiety and excessive self-consciousness in everyday social situations. Social phobia can be limited to only one type of situation – such as a fear of speaking in formal or informal situations, or eating or drinking in front of others – or, in its most severe form, may be so broad that a person experiences symptoms almost anytime they are around other people.
