One of the most commonly experienced human emotions is anxiety. It is defined by The American Psychological Association (APA) as “an emotion characterized by feelings of tension, worried thoughts and physical changes like increased blood pressure.”
Humans, like all animals, have evolved to be able to identify threats and potential dangers. In the past, our stress response helped keep us alive. You might have heard of the ‘fight-or-flight’ response before. The response is an automatic reaction that occurs whenever the human body feels under threat. The perception of danger causes the body to release adrenaline and cortisol, enabling humans to react quickly when under threat or to flee to safety. When the body releases adrenaline and cortisol, these distress signals help us act faster by making our hearts beat at an accelerated rate, sending blood to where it is most needed. These feelings of stress and anxiety are necessary for our survival.
For most of us in the modern world, however, running from predators and danger is no longer a serious concern. Our anxieties now revolve around school, work, family life, and other issues. Understanding the body’s stress response can help us cope in certain stressful situations and can be a reminder to remain calm and relaxed.
When the stress response is excessive or persistent, feelings of anxiety can take their toll on our physical and mental health. Anxiety not only increases the risk for other psychiatric disorders including depression, but it can even contribute to cardiovascular problems and diabetes.
Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, we find that anxiety has risen all over the world. The pandemic has certainly triggered an array of negative emotional symptoms, including anxiety. In this article, we are going to cover some coping methods you can use to reduce your feelings of anxiety in your day-to-day life.
Exercise
Exercise is usually the first step in improving lifestyle choices to help prevent or manage diseases, both physical and mental. The World Health Organization (WHO) recommends physical activity to improve and maintain good health.
A new study reported in Frontiers In Psychiatry calculated the immense impact regular exercise had in reducing anxiety. When the Swedish researchers studied nearly 400,000 people, they found that those with an active lifestyle were 60% less likely to develop anxiety compared to those who were less physically active over a 21-year period.
Exercising can help decrease anxiety in a number of ways. Not only does exercising help divert our attention from the things we might be anxious about, but it also decreases muscle tension. Also, when we exercise, our brain chemistry changes. During exercise, the brain starts releasing anti-anxiety neurochemicals like serotonin, endocannabinoids. gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA) and brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF). These neurochemicals help improve brain plasticity, which can prevent or delay cognitive decline.
The type of exercise you choose doesn’t matter too much, the point is to get your body moving and to exercise consistently.
Tips to maximize your benefits:
- It’s always more effective when you choose an exercise you enjoy because you’re more likely to stick to it.
- To further lower your anxiety, it’s a great idea to exercise in a green space or in nature.
- Try to get your heart rate to go up. High-intensity exercise and cardio are great for this.
- Work out with a group or with friends and enjoy the added benefit of social support.
Eating right
Another lifestyle change you can make to greatly help reduce and manage your anxiety is through diet. Jodi Godfrey, MS, RD, a health and nutrition educator, explains: “Researchers now refer to the gut as the second brain. When essential nutrients are not sufficiently available, there is a direct effect on the production of neurotransmitters and brain chemistry that can increase or lessen anxiety-related behaviors.”
The modifications you make to your diet can be as simple as switching out foods that aggravate your anxiety with foods that lessen it. Instead of opting for comfort food that is processed or high in sugar, choose something that won’t cause high and lows in your blood sugar levels, which is great for further alleviating anxiety. Sugar is awful for anxiety.
You’ll also want to avoid anything that can mimic the symptoms of anxiety. This means avoiding caffeine, alcohol, and smoking. Drinking excessive alcohol can lead to its own set of problems which isn’t good for your mental health. While nicotine doesn’t cause anxiety, nicotine withdrawals can raise the heart rate and blood pressure, both symptoms of anxiety you want to avoid.
Try and work towards a well-balanced diet that has everything your body requires: lean meats, vegetables, fruit, and an adequate amount of healthy fats. Healthy and nutritious food will not only keep your energy levels high, but you’ll feel great afterward. Taking note of how healthier dishes make you feel afterward will make you feel better for taking care of your body, alleviating feelings of guilt that come with consuming unhealthy junk food.
Staying hydrated is also incredibly important. Even mild dehydration can sometimes negatively affect your mood.
Tips on improving your diet:
- Take a daily multivitamin for additional supplement support to help reduce your anxiety. Always make sure to consult your doctor before you start a new supplement.
- Omega 3s are great for your health. They have anti-inflammatory properties of EPA and DHA, which are two potent omega-3 fatty acids, both of which have been shown to lower anxiety symptoms. They’re especially useful if you can’t consume two servings of fatty fish a week.
- Magnesium is another great supplement shown to have anti-anxiety effects. It’s also been connected to better sleep which helps decrease anxiety.
- Try taking some Vitamin D. It helps with the production of serotonin.
- Drink herbal teas like chamomile and green tea. They have high amounts of antioxidants which reduce the inflammatory markers of those suffering from anxiety.
- Foods rich in antioxidants are also great for alleviating the symptoms of anxiety. Think dark chocolate, pecans, strawberries, blueberries, kale, broccoli, eggplants, and spinach.
Focusing on your breathing
Although the symptoms of anxiety differ from person to person, one of the common reactions we experience is rapid and accelerated breathing and an increased heart rate. Focusing on your breathing can be a great way to relieve anxiety and stress and reorient yourself. Breathing exercises can be done anywhere, anytime, and you don’t need special tools, making them one of the best methods for reducing anxiety quickly, especially before a stressful event or situation.
Focusing on the breath is a common feature used in these techniques to evoke a relaxation response. The relaxation response was developed at Harvard Medical School by cardiologist Dr. Herbert Benson in the 1970s to help invoke a state of relation for anxiety sufferers. It can be invoked through a variety of ways, including yoga, meditation, and progressive muscle relaxation.
Deep breathing goes by several names, including paced respiration diaphragmatic breathing, abdominal breathing, and belly breathing. Deep breathing is great for expanding the diaphragm’s range of motion, which encourages full oxygen exchange while slowing your heart rate.
Tips for practicing breathing techniques:
- Try to practice daily for at least 10 minutes each day. You want to establish a habit.
- Start by inhaling and exhaling through your nose and make note of how your stomach and chest move as you breathe.
- When you get distracted, gently bring your focus back to your breathing.
- Don’t be so harsh on yourself if you make a mistake, since this can cause you to tense up.
Creating words of affirmation
One of the best ways to tackle anxious thoughts is through creating words of affirmation. Humans tend to get anxious when they perceive a lack of control, but self-care can help us feel more in control. We highly recommend you choose a set of your favorite mantras and keep them easily accessible for when you’re feeling stressed or anxious.
Positive affirmations can help you feel calmer, release tension and enable you to practice self-compassion. It’s best to try and practice your affirmations on a daily basis. It’s the same as building physical fitness, you need to train your mind to think positively, consistently. A single trip to the gym isn’t going to give you the results you want. In the same way, you need to practice reading your affirmations daily. One of the best ways to incorporate your words of affirmations into your day is to include them in your morning or nighttime routine.
Tips for creating your words of affirmation:
- When writing your daily affirmations, consider using the common affirmation: I am fearless. Repeating the affirmation over and over can help make it self-fulfilling.
- Look for affirmations that remind you to be forgiving and compassionate to yourself.
- Keep your affirmations in the present tense and begin with ‘I’ or ‘my’. A first-person perspective makes affirmations easier to believe as they become tied to our sense of self.
- Connect your affirmations to your core values to remind yourself what’s important to you.
Get involved in other activities
Whether it’s a cooking class or playing a sport, getting involved in other activities not only helps us challenge ourselves and learn new things, but being productive with our time can lead to improved self-confidence and feelings of empowerment.
If you have social anxiety, gradually being social and facing your fear of social interactions can really help you overcome your fears. Building positive relationships with others can also reduce our feelings of stress and anxiety, and those relationships can help support our mental health too.
Getting involved in the community can be another great way to help improve our mental health. Supportive connections with others can lead to healthier patterns of behavior and they can also reduce feelings of loneliness and isolation. Getting involved in your community can also help develop a sense of purpose and belonging, both of which are vital for our mental well-being.
Tips for finding suitable activities:
- Find out what events or classes are running in your community and sign up for anything that interests you.
- Listen to music, read a book, write, journal, paint or watch a good film. These are all great ways to dissolve some of your anxiety.
Learning about what triggers your anxiety and certain ways to combat it
Lastly, learning about anxiety triggers and figuring out ways to combat those triggers can go a long way in helping us overcome them. A good way to figure out what causes your anxiety is to take note of the times you’re most anxious and write down what triggered the range of emotions you experienced.
Understanding our triggers and becoming aware of them is very helpful because it can inspire us to mentally prepare ourselves when faced with difficult situations and events that may trigger our anxiety. Being better informed and educated about your triggers will also enable you to make efforts to research resources and tools to tackle your anxiety.
Tips for identifying triggers and combatting your anxiety:
- Try keeping a notebook and write down all the things that trigger your anxiety.
- Once you’ve identified your triggers, it will become easier to manage them. For example, you might find that you get very anxious about health issues. To reduce your health-related anxiety, be proactive and speak to your doctor about your concerns.
Conclusion
It’s important to learn to manage your anxiety so that it doesn’t negatively impact your daily life and well-being. Remember that feeling anxious is completely normal.
However, if your anxiety is ongoing and hard to control, it can be a sign of a mental health problem and it is advisable to seek professional help. Call the Alvarado Parkway Institute or get in touch today to put an end to the anxiety that’s hindering your life.
