Natural ways to reduce anxiety – Part 3
What I want to share with you know is probably the simplest and easiest method of reducing anxiety, you can do it anywhere and it costs nothing. Its called breathing. Yes I know we do it all the time. But when you get anxious we begin to breathe rapidly and shallowly from our upper chest. This breathing breath from your upper chest is why you get tight neck muscles as they can get overused as they help to move the top rib we breathing.
What I am talking about is breathing deeply or calm breathing.
- Take a long, slow breath in through your nose, first filling your lower lungs – put your hand on your belly and you should feel it move out as your breath in. Then breath into your upper lungs.
- Hold your breath to the count of “three.”
- Exhale slowly through pursed lips, while you relax the muscles in your face, jaw, shoulders, and stomach.
Calm breathing you can stimulate the body’s parasympathetic response. This is the body’s equally powerful and opposite system to the flight or fight response and is often called the relaxation response. When you trigger the body’s relaxing response, your
- heart rate slows
- blood pressure decreases
- muscle tension decreases
- growing sense of ease in body, calmness in mind
So you stop anxiety in its tracks!. I recommend you practice this calm breathing for several times a day (up to 10 times) for several weeks until it becomes natural.
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Sleep – So you aren’t sleeping well, what can you do?
So you have checked out my tips for having a good night’s sleep and you still aren’t sleeping well, so what can you do? First remember that we are very resilient and our bodies are built to cope with the odd poor night’s sleep. We have an inbuilt ability to deviate from the “normal” pattern of sleeping which can be a big advantage in today’s demanding world. Napping If you imagine your cave man ancestors, with predators lurking around it wouldn’t always be possible to find a nice comfortable cave and sleep for 7 or 8 hours! There is evidence that hunter-gatherers slept in short bursts of time throughout the day. This sleep pattern is still around today in babies and young children. In 2002, Ellen MacArthur competed in the Vendee Glob and set a new world record for fastest circumnavigation of the globe as a solo sailor. During this 72 day race she had 385 naps the longest of which lasted 35 minutes. So if you don’t have time for a long sleep or aren’t sleeping well, try napping! Keep your perspective Research has shown that people with SAD or depression often spend more time in bed, but not actually sleeping — leading to misconceptions about how much they sleep. So while I would not recommend watching the clock – as it only makes people more concerned about not sleeping, it is useful to examine your thoughts about sleep. For most people not being able to sleep properly is a temporary setback—uncomfortable and mildly debilitating, yes—but remember you WILL sleep again. Insomnia Insomnia is usually a symptom, typically secondary to something else. It is best characterized as the inability to fall asleep, stay asleep, or waking too early in the morning. These types of sleep disruptions are often indicators of other medical or psychological problems, such as sleep disorders or depression and anxiety. Insomnia symptoms that last longer than 30 days are usually identified as “chronic” or severe. Treatments for Insomnia Cognitive behavioral therapy, or CBT, has become widely used to treat many symptoms of insomnia and is especially useful for relieving chronic or severe insomnia symptoms. Alternative therapies such as melatonin, valerian, acupuncture and other holistic or compliment treatments including reflexology are also being used for insomnia.
