Quick ways to relieve anxiety and anxiety-related symptoms
by Ask a Healer
Related Articles and Remedies:
Anxiety Reduction Tips
If you ask anyone who really knows me to describe me, they'd say I only really have two speeds - full on or totally still. I go non-stop unless I'm meditating or in the healing room and then I am so deeply still that I feel invisible. So, going full speed as much as I do, I don't always notice when my natural way of being has become an anxious or stressful way of being.
That being said, if these tips work for me, they probably will work for someone else because anything that takes the edge off anxiety for me is really doing something, ha!
ANXIETY REDUCTION TIPS
One of the most common anxiety-related symptoms I get is restless sleep. I toss and turn and can't seem to find a way to be comfortable. This is typically due to my body being tense from stress, worry or pain. Two things I've tried really help whenever anxiety interferes with my rest:
1. I place a tiny amount of table salt under my tongue and let it dissolve. I forget where I heard about this but something in the salt sometimes helps the body release and relax. It works for me a lot of the time. So does drinking natural calm magnesium in hot water.
2. I take Hyland's Homeopathic for restless leg syndrome. I don't always get restless leg as an anxiety-related symptom but even if I don't have that symptom, the quinine homeopathic helps me go to sleep.
Important Note: Products containing quinine may be contraindicated if you are prone to irregular heartbeat or arrythmia. Check with your doctor before taking.
Sometimes, anxiety can strike during the daylight hours and that may be even more challenging to deal with for one may be at work or around a lot people and it may feel more awkward to cope with than at night when one might be alone. For anxiety-related symptoms that appear in the daytime, I have had good results with these tips:
1. Take a brisk walk.
2. Deepen breathing and, focus intent on releasing anxiety with each out-breath.
3. Find something funny to watch -- a good comedy, kids playing or cats and dogs doing what cats and dogs do.
4. Dance it out -- pretty much what Yang and Meredith do on Gray's Anatomy, and it is more powerful with a friend. Choose a friend who can get into it with you and not be outside of it, judging what might looks silly or goofy. Go for it with abandon!
5. Primal screaming -- I used to live on 180 acres so I could just go outside and let it rip. Now, I would park somewhere isolated, with windows rolled up, and yell it out.
Mental Health Disclaimer: NONE of the anxiety reduction tips at Ask a Healer are presented as any replacement for counseling, medication or treatment prescribed by mental health professionals. If your anxiety-related symptoms are affecting your quality of life or ability to function, you should immediately seek help.
