There are many ways to reduce anxiety, and what works best for you may depend on the severity of your anxiety and the specific symptoms you experience. Here are a few strategies that may be helpful:

1. Practice relaxation techniques: Try techniques such as deep breathing, progressive muscle relaxation, or mindfulness meditation to help you relax and manage stress.

2. Exercise regularly: Physical activity can help reduce anxiety and improve your mood. Aim for at least 30 minutes of moderate-intensity activity, such as brisk walking, on most days of the week.

3. Get enough sleep: Lack of sleep can contribute to anxiety, so it's important to get enough rest. Aim for 7-9 hours of sleep per night.

4. Eat a healthy diet: A healthy diet can help you feel better physically and mentally. Avoid caffeine and sugar, which can increase anxiety, and focus on eating a variety of whole foods, including fruits, vegetables, and whole grains.

5. Talk to someone: Sharing your feelings with a trusted friend or family member, or a mental health professional, can be a helpful way to cope with anxiety.

6. Avoid or limit alcohol and drug use: While it may seem that alcohol and drugs can help reduce anxiety in the short term, they can actually make anxiety worse over time.

7. Engage in activities you enjoy: Taking time to do things you enjoy, such as hobbies or spending time with friends, can help reduce anxiety and improve your overall sense of well-being.

It's important to remember that seeking help from a mental health professional, such as a therapist or counselor, is often an effective way to manage anxiety. They can work with you to develop a treatment plan that is tailored to your needs.

Top 6 Things That Will Trigger Your Anxiety

Anxiety disorders are incredibly common, as are many of the things that will trigger anxiety. For most people dealing with anxiety, they find that they have multiple triggers, while other people’s anxiety attacks are triggered for no reason at all. If you want to gain control of your anxiety, it’s important to discover any triggers that you may have. Here are six common triggers that can cause your anxiety to rise.

Health Issues

A diagnosis of a medical condition, like cancer or a chronic illness, can trigger anxiety or make it worse. This is a powerful trigger because of the immediate and personal feelings that it tends to produce. You can help reduce your anxiety by being proactive and engaged with your doctor.

Medications

There are certain over-the-counter and prescription medications that can trigger your symptoms of anxiety. Many of the active ingredients in some medicines may make you feel unwell or uneasy, which can set off a series of reactions in your body and mind that may lead you to experience anxiety.

Caffeine

Your morning cup of coffee may be triggering or making your anxiety worse. According to a recent study, people with panic disorders are especially sensitive to the anxiety-inducing effects of caffeine.

Skipping Meals

Not eating will cause your blood sugar to drop, which can lead to jittery hands and can trigger your anxiety. Eating balanced meals is important because it will provide you with energy and essential nutrients.

Negative Thinking

Much of your body is controlled by your mind, and it’s certainly true when dealing with anxiety. When you’re frustrated or upset, the words that you say to yourself can trigger greater feelings and increase your anxiety. If you tend to use negative words when you think about yourself, you need to learn how to refocus your language.

Financial Concerns

Worries about your lack of savings or massive debt can trigger anxiety. So can unexpected bills or money fears. You might have to seek the help of a professional, like a financial advisor, to learn how to manage these kinds of triggers. It can help to ease your concern if you feel as if you have a guide through the process.

Identifying your anxiety triggers might take some time, but it is essential so that you can learn how to manage your symptoms and hopefully, you can eventually overcome it and get back your life.

Small Steps You Can Do to Better Manage Your Anxiety

Anxiety is a regular and predictable part of life; however, if you suffer from an anxiety disorder, your anxiety can quickly take over your life. The good news is that there are small steps that you can take to help manage and minimize your anxiety. Here are some small steps that you can take today to help you better manage and hopefully overcome your anxiety.

Take a Deep Breath

Breathing deeply through your diaphragm triggers your relaxation response and helps you to switch from the fight-or-flight response to a more relaxed and balanced state of being. Inhaling slowly to the count of four and holding your breath for a count of four, before slowly exhaling to a count of four can significantly increase your state of relaxation and calm your anxiety symptoms.

Get Physical

One of the most critical things you can do to cope with your anxiety is to participate in a regular cardiovascular exercise. If you're not in the habit of exercising, you can start by taking a walk. Take some time and create a list of physical activities that you enjoy and place them on your weekly schedule.

Get Enough Sleep

When you don't get enough sleep, it can trigger your anxiety. If you find sleeping a nightly challenge, try engaging in a relaxing activity right before you go to bed. If your brain starts to buzz right before you go to bed, try jotting down your worries for 10 to 15 minutes, earlier in your day.

Say an Encouraging Affirmation

Reciting positive, accurate statements to yourself can help you put things in perspective. You can try telling yourself that “anxiety is just a feeling, like any other feeling,” to help you gain perspective over your anxiety symptoms.

Avoid Caffeine

Managing your anxiety is as much about the things that you do as it is about the things that you don't do. There are some substances, like caffeine, that can significantly exacerbate symptoms of anxiety. The last thing you need to do, if you suffer from anxiety, is drink a substance that makes you feel more excited.

Take a Break

Building breaks into your daily schedule can be beneficial. Breaking from concerted effort can be incredibly refreshing. A simple change of scenery or pace or switching to a different task can be constructive.

Anxiety can be incredibly overwhelming and can make you feel as if you are being weighed down. Taking these small steps can help to minimize your anxiety symptoms and help you effectively cope.

Quick Ways to Relieve Your Anxiety

The horrible thing about anxiety is that the very feeling makes you even more anxious. It tends to create a feedback loop that can leave you feeling helpless and trapped, which leads to you feeling even worse. If you suffer from anxiety often, here are some quick ways that you can start to relieve your anxiety.

Make Yourself Comfortable

The first thing that you need to do when you are experiencing anxiety symptoms is to make yourself as comfortable as you can while the feeling passes. It is important to remember that your anxiety will pass, so you need to try and concentrate on making yourself comfortable, both emotionally and physically.

Use Calming Self Talk

If you’re like most people who suffer from anxiety, much of what you say to yourself when you are experiencing anxiety actually causes you to become even more anxious. To help relieve your anxiety instantly, tell yourself calming phrases like, “this feeling will pass,” or “I am feeling anxious now, but soon I'll be calm."

Acknowledge and Accept Your Anxious Thoughts

When you fight the anxiety, you are only making it stronger. On the other hand, when you can accept that you are feeling anxious can help make the anxiety go away. Facing your fears is a great way to get relief from your concern quickly. You can try this powerful anxiety treatment strategy to learn how to accept your anxious thoughts.

For ten minutes, make yourself as anxious as possible. Try to get your anxiety to increase to the highest level that you can handle. When your anxiety level reaches a ten, try to keep it there for at least five minutes. You will probably find that you can’t keep your anxiety at a high level. This kind of exposure technique has you facing your fears to the point where they vanish.

Distract Yourself

An effective way to put your mind at ease and relieve anxiety is to distract yourself from the thoughts that are causing your symptoms. It is tough for your mind to focus on more than one thing at a time. If you find something that you can focus intently on, your mind won't be able to maintain the anxiety for long.

Use Relaxation Techniques

Relaxation exercises and techniques can help to reverse the stress response in your body, which makes relaxation your body’s natural cure for anxiety. Start by using a quick relaxation technique that can help to induce the relaxation response. This will help to counter your body’s stress response and reduce anxiety symptoms.

Dealing with the onslaught of anxiety can be incredibly overwhelming. Using these five techniques can help you quickly relieve your anxiety and get on with your life.

If You Suffer From Anxiety, You’ll Want to Avoid These 5 Foods

You are probably already aware that your emotions can significantly influence what you eat. However, did you also know that what you eat can dramatically affect your mood? If you didn't already know, some foods could worsen your anxiety. According to research conducted by Harvard Health, simple food choices can make a difference in how you feel. Here are five foods that you should avoid if you suffer from anxiety.

Wheat Bran

Even though experts have been touting wheat bran as a superfood with its high fiber content and complex, nutty flavors, it can significantly increase your anxiety, thanks to its high concentration of phytic acid. Phytic acid binds to essential mood minerals like zinc and limits their absorption by the body. People who suffer from anxiety need adequate levels of zinc to keep their symptoms at bay.

Soy

Soy products, while packed with lean protein, is also packed with protease and trypsin inhibitors, which are enzymes that make digesting the protein difficult. Soy products, like tofu, are also high in copper, which is a mineral that has been linked to anxious behavior. If you have to eat soy, get rid of the tofu and veggie burgers, and try fermented varieties like miso and tempeh, which are much easier to digest.

Coffee

Coffee is one of the highest concentrated dietary sources of caffeine which can make an anxious brain even worse. Research has shown that people with anxiety disorders are particularly sensitive to feeling the nervous side effects from small amounts of caffeine. Caffeine can also impede the absorption of vital mood-balancing nutrients like B vitamins and vitamin D.

Whole Wheat Bread

For many anxious people, gluten is a sticking point, especially with patients who have celiac disease. Most non-organic wheat is treated with an herbicide called glyphosate, which has been shown to cause a nutrient deficiency of mood-stabilizing minerals.

Apple Juice

Unlike whole apples, apple juice is devoid of the slow-digesting fiber and are often packed with refined fructose. This results in blood level spikes that can trigger a flood of adrenaline and result in symptoms that look a lot like an anxiety attack. Fructose can actually alter how the brain responds to stress on a genetic level.

Anxiety isn't a fun condition to have to deal with. However, you can reduce your symptoms and overcome your fear by avoiding these anxiety-inducing foods.

How to Treat Anxiety Without Medication

Unfortunately, too many people who suffer from anxiety, are put on prescription medications that aren't doing anything to help them manage their anxiety and might even be causing them more harm. Fortunately, there are several ways that you can control your anxiety without resorting to taking a bunch of prescription medications. Here are some tips to help you manage your blood sugar naturally.

Maintain Stable Blood Sugar

Our Western diets do nothing to promote healthy and stable blood sugar levels, and every time we experience a drop in our blood sugar we can start to feel anxious. To maintain your blood sugar levels, you need to incorporate plenty of proteins and healthy fats into your diet and avoid sugar and refined carbohydrates.

Avoid Caffeine

You can't underestimate the relationship between caffeine and anxiety. Caffeinated beverages amp up our nervous systems getting us ready for a fight. Try to reduce your intake of caffeine gradually to avoid any withdrawal symptoms. Within a few weeks, your anxiety symptoms should start to decrease.

Get Adequate Sleep

Your best protection against your anxiety symptoms is to get enough sleep at night. You can start to get better sleep by reducing or eliminating caffeine, work on maintaining your blood sugar levels and find ways to unwind before you go to bed.

Get More Exercise

Participating in more physical activity on a regular basis is a great anti-anxiety alternative to prescription medications. If you struggle to fit in regular exercise, start by taking a brief walk outside or participate in simple mini-exercises from the comfort of your living room. In general, you need to try to sit less and stand more. Try to get up and walk whenever possible and lower your standards for exercise. Yoga and Tai Qi are incredibly beneficial for anxiety, but you need to find something that you enjoy to increase your odds of sticking with it.

Increase Your Magnesium

Many people are deficient in magnesium since our food is produced in magnesium-deficient soil. You can supplement your magnesium in a few different ways. You can take a daily magnesium supplement, try a topical magnesium gel, or enjoy a nice relaxing Epsom salt bath.

Anxiety can have a significant impact on your quality of life. Finding natural alternatives to prescription medication can go a long way toward reducing your symptoms of anxiety. By making simple changes to your lifestyle, you can stop anxiety and finally get your life back.

5 Useful Tips for Managing Your Anxiety

It's estimated that almost 18 percent or 40 million adults in the United States suffer from anxiety, which makes it the most common mental illness in the country. Anxiety can impact anyone, regardless of the kind of life they lead. Unfortunately, many people suffer in silence because they are ashamed to admit their struggles with anxiety. If you are one of the millions who suffer from anxiety, here are five useful tips to help you better manage your condition.

Tip #1 – Watch for Your Triggers

If you know what triggers your anxiety, you can then effectively plan your day around them. If there are times throughout the day that you know your anxiety is likely to be triggered, plan time-outs, or periods of exercise during these times. Having an understanding of your danger spots can help to lessen your anxiety.

Tip #2 – Start Exercising

Regular daily exercise has many benefits, including helping to alleviate the debilitating symptoms of anxiety. If you haven't made regular exercise a habit in your life, its time you start. You don't have to spend hours in the gym, even a short walk around the block every day can significantly impact your life and decrease your anxiety.

Tip #3 – Take Some Time to Breathe

When your symptoms of anxiety start to rear their ugly head, taking some time alone to breathe can be highly effective in managing your anxiety. Deep breathing exercises can help to calm your heart and help you instantly feel at peace. It can also aid in our ability to make rational decisions.

Tip #4 – Talk to Someone You Trust

You don’t have to suffer in silence. Reach out to someone who will treat you with understanding and kindness. If you don’t have any support at home, or with friends, then you can look up local support groups near your home or place of business. There are always resources available, all you have to do is reach out.

Tip #5 – Understand That You’re in Control

While it may not feel this way when you're in the midst of a panic attack, it is essential to understand that you have the power of your life. Even if you feel trapped, or out of control, you have to realize that you have control over every decision that you make in your life.

You don’t have to let your anxiety rule your life. Incorporate these tips into your life daily and take control of your anxiety and take back your life.

5 Tips for Facing Your Fears and Overcoming Your Anxiety

If your fears and anxiety are holding you back from living the life you want, you’re not alone. More than 40 million adults in the United States suffer from an anxiety disorder. The good news is that there are studies that show by facing your fears you can gain the courage you need to overcome other concerns that you may have. Here are five tips for facing your fears and overcoming anxiety.

Don’t Go It Alone

When you are facing down your fears, it can be beneficial to have someone along for the journey that can cheer you on. Perhaps you know someone who has the same fear as you, that can partner with you so that you can encourage and cheer each other on.

Boost Your Confidence

When you are getting ready to stare down your fear, it can be immensely helpful to remember all of the other courageous things that you've accomplished in your life. Remember how it felt to achieve your goal. Recognizing previous acts of courage can go a long way in helping you face your fears.

Acknowledge the Fear

Many times our fears are relegated to the back of our minds, unacknowledged and ignored. Even when faced with anxiety, we often choose just to feel the issue, and never really take the time to understand our fear. Start paying attention to how your body feels and acknowledge the sensation as a symptom rather than something more significant.

Keep a Gratitude Journal

There have been many studies over the years on the positive effects of keeping a gratitude journal. These studies suggest that people who practice gratitude had higher levels of positive emotions, a stronger immune system, felt less lonely, and had more happiness in their lives. Rather than focusing on the negative in your life, be thankful for everything that you have.

Expose Yourself to What You Fear

Even though it can be terrifying, if you want to overcome your fears, then you just have to face them. Sit down and define the worst-case scenario of the unknown outcome, an realize that the worst scenario rarely happens. Doing this you’ll start to notice that each time you do the scary thing, it gets a little bit easier.

It is possible to face your fears and overcome your anxiety. Facing your fear will lead you to live a better life, free from stress and anxiety.

5 Things You Can Do Now to Stop Anxiety

When excessive fears and worries plague you, it is critical to figure out what you can do to stop the anxiety so that it doesn't completely take over your life. If you have an anxiety disorder, it's essential that you find simple strategies that can help you manage or reduce your anxiety. Here are five things that you can do now to help stop your anxiety before it gets out of control.

Understand the Anatomy of Your Anxiety

When you understand what your anxiety attack is, what causes them, and how your body responds, you can keep from becoming scared of the symptoms. When you can become unafraid of your anxiety symptoms, you can quickly put a stop to them when your mind starts to race with anxious thoughts. Knowledge is power, and the more you can understand your anxiety, the faster you can stop it from controlling your life.

Stop Scaring Yourself

Fear is the most common culprits behind anxiety. When you can refuse to allow, yourself to become scared you can effectively remove the primary reason for your anxiety. When you eliminate fear from your life, you can gain more control of your body's emergency response system and take control of your anxiety.

Calm Yourself

Being able to calm yourself down helps to shut off the mechanism in your brain that causes anxiety attacks and ends your body's stress response. The more you can calm yourself down, the faster you can stop the anxiety attack and start to feel better. A sure way to end, control, and prevent future panic attacks is to find out ways to calm yourself down.

Distract Yourself

Most anxiety attacks are caused and fueled by anxious thoughts. When you can distract your attention, you can effectively prevent anxious thoughts from taking over. As you prevent your thoughts from turning anxious, you can also put an end to voluntary anxiety attacks.

Know That Anxiety Attacks End

No matter how powerful an anxiety attack can be, it will always end. While you can stop them faster by implementing some of the above techniques and methods, you have to remember that all anxiety attacks will end. Riding out the anxiety attack and knowing that it will end, can help you to stay calm and shut off the stress response and anxiety attack.

You don’t need to suffer needlessly. You can eliminate your anxiety attacks naturally with these simple tips.

5 Signs That You’re Experiencing an Anxiety Attack

Anxiety attack symptoms tend to mimic many of the same symptoms as a heart attack and can come on you without any warning. You don’t need to have a diagnosis of an anxiety disorder to suffer from an anxiety attack, they don’t discriminate and can strike anyone. Here are five signs that you might be experiencing an anxiety attack.

Sudden Terror or Sense of Impending Doom

One of the most common signs that you are experiencing an anxiety attack is the overwhelming fear or sense of impending doom. The terror that you experience can be paralyzing and is a result of adrenaline flooding your body due to the perception of immediate danger.

Chest Pains

This is the most common symptom that might have you feeling like you’re having a heart attack. The pains that you feel in your chest during a panic attack can be severe and choking. If you are experiencing chest pains, its best to get checked out by the doctor to rule out a heart attack.

Difficulty Breathing

A panic attack can have you struggling to breathe properly, or you may feel like you're having to gasp for air. With high levels of anxiety, you can end up hyperventilating, which can cause an imbalance in the carbon dioxide levels in your body. This can lead to dizziness and other symptoms.

Increased Heart Rate

When you are experiencing an anxiety attack, your body responds as if it is facing imminent danger. Nervous signals activate the fight-or-flight response in your body, which produces a rush of adrenaline in your blood stream. This surge in hormones causes many symptoms, including an increased heart rate, which can make you think that you are suffering from a heart attack.

Feeling Out of Control

The intense fear and physical symptoms that you experience during a panic attack can often leave you feeling out of control. This can significantly heighten the fear that you are already suffering and may lead you to feel disconnected from yourself. The surrounding environment may feel distorted or foggy.

The symptoms that you may be experiencing during a panic attack are much like the fight-or-flight response that is encountered during a dangerous situation, but they tend to come from nowhere when you are dealing with an anxiety attack. Fortunately, there are several things that you can do to help alleviate your symptoms and stop the panic attack in its tracks.