Tips For Calming Down An Anxious Mind

The modern world can be a highly stressful place to live. In the past couple of years, most people have experienced intense and prolonged stress that they’ve had to find ways to cope with. Long term stress is bad for your mental health and bad for your physical health as well. Sadly, a lot of the stress people have experienced is out of their control. I’d like to offer you some tips on how to calm yourself in healthy ways, to minimize the negative impact of stress on your mind and body.

1. 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 Plus Support tablets.
2. Try to minimize sugar
   Most 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 can be 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, animal fat 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. Don’t start with sugar or high carb foods in the first place. Your future self will thank you.
3. Make sure you’re getting enough magnesium
   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.
4. Be aware of muscle tension
   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.
5. Don’t over rely 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.
6. Support optimal neurotransmitter production
   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. Tyrosine is found in protein rich foods such as meat, poultry, fish and eggs, but is also found in bananas, avocados and almonds.
7. 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.
8. Exercise can help you get out of your head
   Try to do something physically active each day. 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.

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