Managing Anxiety

Over the past few weeks I have received so many calls and texts from family and friends saying that they are so anxious right now. I am with you. I had dealt with anxiety for a big chunk of my life but there are a few key things that have really helped me along the way.

Things that help me:

1. Journaling! Sometimes we just need a place to dump our thoughts.

2. Staying away from sugar! I can’t say  this enough. It gives me the shakes and puts me on an emotional roller coaster. Check out this article here. 

3. I listened to Dr. Joan Roseburgh’s Ted Talk on The Gifted Wisdom of Unpleasant Feelings.  Dr. Rosenburgh talks about how most of us don’t really know what true anxiety is. We get it confused with inexperienced and unexpressed feelings. She talks about naming the emotion that you are feeling rather than labeling generally as anxiety. The 8 most common emotions are sadness, shame, helplessness, anger, vulnerability, embarrassment, disappointment, and frustration. These emotions often conflict at an intersection with reality.  When we identify which emotion it is that we are feeling it, we can start investigating and asking ourselves why? Why am I feeling this way? What is this way of feeling getting in the way of?

4. I stick to the things that I know make me feel good. For me it is exercising and eating well. Personally, I have been going on jogs outside and doing these quick at home strengthening workouts.

5. I ditched alcohol. This one is HUGE. I don’t think this needs much explaining. Drinking alcohol temporarily took away my anxiety, but it caused so much more anxiety in the long run.

6. I got on a schedule. Our brain and body craves consistency!

• Get into a morning and evening routine.

I make a conscious effort to put my phone away an hour before bed. I turn on my essential oils (see below), I take my supplements (see below), I sip on my favorite nighttime tea (licorice root), and I journal about my day for 5 minutes.

 My body has specific scents and tastes associated with bed. For example, every night my body knows its time to wind down when I drink licorice root tea and diffused lavender essential oils. In the

 morning, the first thing that I do is workout. It makes a big difference for me not to be on my phone first thing in the morning.

My favorite remedies:

1. Magnesium glycinate. It is nicknamed the original chill pill.  This supplement has helped me so much!! I take 4 capsules of this brand every night an hour before bed. It helps me fall asleep and stay asleep more than any other. I sleep like a baby! My fiance and I have a running joke at night when I say I am ready for bed, he always says “did the mag hit?” because I get so sleepy. I only buy this brand here.

2. Espom salt baths also really help me. They are made from a form of magnesium. I like to take a bath right before bed with a few drops of lavender oil. It is the best!

3. Essential oils. I use lavender oil in my diffuser every night. I like this one.
   

4. CBD. I love Nutritional Frontiers Full Spectrum Hemp capsules. I get them from my doctor – Valerie Donaldson, MD at the Regenerative Medicine Center. She sells supplements to non-patients. You can find her info here.