Anxiety is among the leading causes of mental health issues, affecting more than 19% of adults in the U.S. alone. Oftentimes, these individuals face some anxiety symptoms, namely agitation, a racing heart, chest pain, nervousness, and tension.
The good news, however, is that these symptoms can be treated with some natural remedies.
5 Things to Help with Anxiety
Here are the five best things to help with anxiety:
Aromatherapy
Aromatherapy is the use of some natural plant extracts and essential oils to improve your mood and promote the health and wellbeing of your mind, body, and spirit. It can reduce anxiety because it helps you relax and sleep, boosts your mood, and lowers your heart rate and blood pressure. The essential oils can be inhaled directly or added to a diffuser or warm bath. Some of these essential oils include bergamot, lavender, clary sage, grapefruit, and ylang ylang.
Deep Breathing
Deep breathing can also help you deal with anxiety. By practicing deep breathing, you can learn to control your breathing and possibly prevent hyperventilation in the event of anxiety. To practice deep breathing, you need to sit down with your back straight, breathe deeply to try to get as much air as possible into your lungs, and then slowly exhale through your mouth once your lungs are full.
Journaling
Journaling means keeping a personal journal where you enter or record your thoughts, experiences, etc. on a daily basis. Journaling is a way of reducing anxiety. Beyond that, it can also help you achieve your goals, track progress and growth, gain self-confidence, find inspiration, strengthen your memory, and improve your communication skills. You can start journaling and all you need to get started is to find techniques that work for you, let go of judgments, write about whatever comes to mind, use journal prompts, and get a bit creative.
Meditation
Meditation is a mental exercise that involves concentrating or repeating a mantra to help you reach a high level of spiritual awareness. With meditation, you can focus your mind on a particular activity, object, or thought in order to train your attention and awareness and achieve a calm and stable state. This helps you to better understand the source of your anxiety, relax your body, and deal with the anxiety. Meditation can also improve the quality of your sleep, thus reducing anxiety. You can practice meditation by sitting in a quiet place, focusing only on breathing deeply, and acknowledging and letting go of any thought that tries to enter your mind.
Yoga
Yoga is an ancient spiritual and ascetic discipline of the Hindu people that is practiced for health and relaxation. It usually involves breath control, meditation, and the adoption of some bodily postures. It’s an age-old practice that can help reduce anxiety as well as stress and depression.
In a nutshell, the five best things to help with anxiety are aromatherapy, deep breathing, journaling, meditation, and yoga.
How CCHC Can Help
The Center for Connection, Healing, and Change takes an interdisciplinary approach, interweaving psychotherapy and neuroscience with the timeless wisdom of mindfulness and meditation.
We promote connection, healing, and change in the following areas: couple and family relationships, substance use and processing addictions, depression and/or anxiety, self-worth and identity, sexual life, baby bonding and communication, attachment, experiences of trauma, abuse, and PTSD, childhood experiences and family of origin work, chronic pain and physical illness, military life, parenting, stress management and resilience building, emotional regulation and wellbeing, anger management, spiritual life, behavioral issues, and sexuality.
Our therapists work with couples, children, teens, families, and adults—all from a systemic and holistic perspective. We are particularly committed to providing services grounded in trauma-informed care, somatic and body-based approaches, and attachment-focused ways of working.
Schedule a free consultation with us today, or visit our offices in Woodbridge or Fairfax.