5 Ways To Relieve Anxiety Naturally Without Drugs

Let’s talk about living with anxiety. Many of us have all sorts of secret issues with anxiety. Be it social anxiety or challenges with our looks, anxiety is nothing to play with. Anxiety is defined as a ” feeling of worry, nervousness, or unease, typically about an imminent event or something with an uncertain outcome.” This kind of chronic stress can wreak havoc on our health, bodies and quality of life.

Below we have 5 ways to heal and relieve anxiety naturally without chemicals and pharmaceuticals. Adrenaline and cortisol from the fight or flight response are detrimental. Have no fear, however, counselor Jeffrey Goode is here!

Candice Harper is very familiar with living with anxiety. Recently, however, she courageously cut through her own anxiety and personal fears to present herself at her most vulnerable. Candy Sez is her blog where she creates self esteem zen for the single girl. This goddess has serious Cattitude! She writes, makes inspiring vlogs and is a cartoonist. This is more than a de-wigging. It’s a new start! You’re going to be seeing her work a lot around here. Watch the video! -aa

Hello Sacred Bombshell,

Anxiety can plague our everyday lives by interfering with some of our most common daily activities. Whether it’s sitting down to enjoy a good book, getting small tasks done around the house, focusing on schoolwork or getting a good night’s sleep, anxiety makes everyday life more difficult if it’s a common occurrence. Anxiety affects millions of people each year and is commonly treated with prescription medications. However, addictions to pharmaceuticals can come from relieving anxiety through medication – which ends up being hard on your wallet or insurance bill.

Learning different ways to cope with your anxiety and mental health issues can help you get back to your everyday life without depending on chemicals to help you relax throughout the day.

1. Heal Your Anxiety with Food.

Certain foods have been shown to help relieve anxiety; and avoiding other foods with stimulants can also help your body relax. It’s best to take on a diet that’s rich in good carbohydrates, protein, thiamin and tryptophan, which helps us relax as our brains produce serotonin. Some foods rich in tryptophan are soy, turkey, milk, cheese, bananas, peanut butter and nuts.

Foods rich in thiamin, which helps with mood stability, include pork, rice, beef, nuts and oranges. Some of these are also high in protein, which produces chemicals that boost our mood and relieve stress. Adding one food rich in protein to each meal can help ease our anxiety. Foods that are rich in protein include meat, fish, eggs, nuts, soy, cheese and beans.

Foods filled with good carbohydrates that also help us produce serotonin include whole grain. The bad carbs we should avoid to relieve anxiety are those high in sugar, like candy. It’s suggested that we drink up to eight glasses of water a day – but increasing our water intake even more, to about 10 glasses a day, can also help with irritability.

Along with staying away from sugar and candy, the stimulants in caffeine do nothing to help those with anxiety. Try to cut out soft drinks and coffee from your diet. If you absolutely need coffee, decaf is a good alternative.

2. Relieve Your Stress with Exercise and Meditation.

Yoga is a good way to combine exercise and meditation into one, as it gives you a share of physical activity while also increasing peace within your body. Physical activity helps our body produce hormones that help us relax and feel good, and meditation helps us focus in the presence of silence and peace to ease tension.

3. Use Sharing and Communication as a Tool.

Confiding in a close relative, friend or other about our your worries or anxiety may help ease the tension as well. If you keep your worries bottled inside, they can accumulate and your anxiety can become worse. Talking about your worries can give you a sense of release, which might give you a feeling of relief you’ve been seeking.

4. Breathing is Key to De-Stressing.

Getting into the habit of some breathing exercises can also help relieve anxiety. Become familiar with your breathing patterns – are they shallow, quick breaths? This can boost your heart rate and contribute to your nerves and anxiety. Start in a quiet place with some short breathing exercises. Take in a deep breath, and let it out. You can help yourself relax whenever you feel an anxiety attack or some troubling worries coming about.

5. Taking everything one thing at a time.

Do you feel yourself worrying about several things at once? Lay them out so they’re not all attacking you at the same time. You can do this by making lists; either lists of things you need to do that are stressing you out; lists of random things you worry about – and then start addressing each one down the list.

If you have things to do, tackle each task on the list one at a time. If you have a list of things stressing you out, focus on one at a time and think of a way to solve that problem or relieve that worry.

Anxiety doesn’t have to be solved through medication. Simple improvements throughout your day can help relieve your anxiety or keep it from happening to you in the first place. Find which natural remedies are most effective for you and make a healthy lifestyle out of them today.

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Jeffrey Goode is a counselor and writer who has written many helpful articles and contributed to non-fiction publications like this resource.

Featured image: License: Creative Commons image source.

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