Tips For Feeling Calm And Easing Anxiety

We are all currently living in uncertain times. The coronavirus pandemic has drastically altered most people’s lives, leaving us shocked and terrified.

The average person is currently experiencing anxiety, tension and difficulties sleeping. People who previously were living with anxiety are much worse off. Anxiety, depression and insomnia can significantly impair an individual’s ability to work, take care of children and manage day to day life. In this article we aim to provide you with strategies to take care of yourself physically and mentally. The pandemic will pass. It’s important to look after your health so that you can cope with this troubling time as well as possible.

1. Try to pay attention to your breathing and muscle tension in your shoulders
   When you are anxious, rushed or stressed, your shoulders tend to creep up towards your ears. If you are like that all day, you will develop a great deal of muscle tension in your shoulders and that can adversely affect the quality of your sleep or promote headaches. Try to consciously relax your shoulders throughout the day. Also, stressed and anxious people tend to either hold their breath or shallow breathe. Try to slow down your breathing and remember to take full and deep breaths.
2. Take a magnesium supplement
   Magnesium relaxes the nerves and muscles of your body. Magnesium is found in foods like green leafy vegetables, nuts, seeds and whole grains. If you are in optimal health and you’re a calm person, you can probably get adequate magnesium from these foods. However, feeling stressed makes you lose magnesium from your body. When you feel stressed, your adrenal glands release adrenalin into your bloodstream. Adrenalin promotes the loss of magnesium from your bones, into your urine and out of your body. Therefore people who have experienced long term stress inevitably become magnesium deficient. Being magnesium deficient worsens anxiety and is likely to make you feel edgy, tense and prone to insomnia. Magnesium is then required in supplement form to correct the deficiency. People who take stomach acid blocking drugs don’t absorb magnesium as well from food and may require a supplement. Diabetics lose more magnesium in their urine.
3. Try not to overdose on caffeine
   Caffeine is in a lot of foods and drinks; not just coffee. There is caffeine in tea, chocolate, some soda, some sports drinks and some diet pills. Caffeine raises the level of stress hormones in your bloodstream. Even if you find stopping to have a cup of coffee relaxing, it will raise your level of stress hormones and long term this will leave you feeling more anxious or stressed. If you are prone to anxiety, don’t have more than one caffeine containing drink per day and have it before lunchtime. Green tea is much lower in caffeine and full of antioxidants, so you can have several cups a day if you wish.
4. Help your brain to produce neurotransmitters
   Neurotransmitters are the chemical messengers that enable your brain to function, and determine your mood and state of mind. Most neurotransmitters are made of amino acids; that’s why consuming sufficient protein is so important. I call tyrosine mood food because your brain requires it in order to manufacture the neurotransmitters dopamine and noradrenalin. They help to keep you feeling calm, focused and motivated.
5. Try to move your body each day
   If you are working from home at the moment, you may have more time in the morning. Try to do something physically active. It can help calm anxiety and put you in a more productive state for the rest of the day. Gentle walking, yoga and stretching will help to rid the body of stored tension; however, exercise that makes you huff and puff and sweat releases a whole lot of endorphins into your bloodstream. The endorphins act as powerful tranquilizers and can keep you calm all day if you exercise vigorously in the morning.
6. Try to stay away from sugar
   People don’t realize how much sugar can destroy their mood. If you eat a lot of sugar or foods that get digested into sugar (such as bread, breakfast cereals, pasta, rice and foods made of flour), your blood sugar level will rise after eating them. If you eat foods like this regularly, your blood sugar level will go up and down all day. This is a major trigger of anxiety, depression and mood swings. Try to base your diet on vegetables and protein (fish, poultry, eggs, meat), fruit, nuts, seeds and good fats such as olive oil, macadamia nut oil and organic coconut oil. A lot of people just can’t do moderation when it comes to sugar. Once they start eating it, they just can’t stop. This is dangerous if you are currently staying at home, as the kitchen is only a few steps away. Don’t start with sugar or high carb foods in the first place. Your future self will thank you.
7. Take care of your adrenal glands.
   When you feel stressed or anxious, your adrenal glands release a burst of stress hormones (adrenalin and cortisol) into your bloodstream to help you cope with the current situation.  Unfortunately many people lead chronically stressful lives, and this really forces their adrenal glands to pump out high levels of hormones all day. If this continues, some degree of adrenal gland exhaustion is inevitable. Unfortunately caffeine, sugar and nicotine also stress the adrenals, and stressed people commonly rely on these substances. You can support the production of cortisol and adrenalin by your adrenal glands with my supplement Adrenal Natural Glandular capsules.
8. Do one thing at a time
   You may think you are being more productive by multitasking, but really you are more likely to feel overwhelmed and rushed and you are more likely to make errors or have an accident. Try to focus on what you are doing while you are doing it. Complete one task fully before starting the next. It usually means you will complete each task in a shorter amount of time.

The above statements have not been evaluated by the FDA and are not intended to diagnose, treat or cure any disease.

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