This blog post is by Shannon Rollins, Clinical Hypnotherapist and host of The Well-Balanced Mind.
Anxiety can create several problems in your daily life. It can be difficult to concentrate, sleep, and can have a negative effect on your health. Fortunately, there are ways that you can alleviate anxiety to live a more relaxed life.
These issues often affect perfectionists more than others. This is because perfectionists feel that nothing they do can meet their expectations of themselves. If you don’t find a way to relieve these feelings, you’ll only feel more pressure and anxiousness.
Anxiety affects people in different ways. Most people experience an increase in their heart rate, sweaty palms, and overthinking. However, you might feel it in your head or in other ways.
The best way to relieve anxiety is to stimulate the vagus nerve. The 10th cranial nerve, the vagus nerve controls your parasympathetic nervous system, commonly referred to as rest and digest. This system is attached to all areas of your body, including your heart, lungs, and facial muscles.
This system is best stimulated by interrupting your pattern of thought that is causing your anxiety. Here are five tips to help you alleviate anxiety.
5 Tips for Alleviating Anxiety
#1 – Movement
Movement gets your blood flowing and allows you to interrupt your pattern of thought. This can be any type of movement that you enjoy, such as walking, running, jumping jacks, or dancing. Playing music while you move will increase your ability to distract yourself and rid your mind of this stress.
#2 – Practice Diaphragmatic Breathing
When your heart rate increases due to anxiety or fear, you’ll breathe faster. Rapid breathing doesn’t solve the problem but makes it worse. Diaphragmatic breathing lowers your heart rate and allows you to regain control.
Most people breathe down to the lungs. Diaphragmatic breathing sees a person breathe all the way down to the diaphragm. Breathing this far down gets all the trapped air out of your body. You can complete this method by breathing in for four seconds, holding for four seconds, and releasing for four seconds.
#3 – Listen to Music
As previously mentioned, this third tip can be combined with the first tip of movement. Listening to music is a great way of distracting yourself from your anxiety. Feel-good music can also release endorphins in your brain that can make you feel better and more relaxed.
#4 – Tapping
Also known as the emotional freedom technique, tapping is a method that can be done anywhere at any time. People have nine different energy points in their body, called meridian points. Tapping allows a person to reach all nine of these points.
You can help to alleviate anxiety by tapping lightly on four points of your body. This includes above the eyebrow, to the side of the eye, underneath the eye, and on the collarbone. This tapping allows you to access your body’s energy and sends signals to the brain to control stress.
#5 – 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 Technique
The 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 technique involves pointing out objects around you. This allows you to focus on something other than your fear or anxiety. These can be any objects, so you can do it regardless of where you are or what you’re doing.
This technique starts by identifying five objects that you can see. Then identify four objects you can hear, three objects you can feel, and two objects you can smell. Finally, you can end with one object you can taste.
Our internal perceptions of the world can have a tremendous impact on our perception of the world around us. When we feel stressed, it can negatively impact our feelings, causing us to see the world as being against us. When we feel relaxed, everything seems to be going well. These tools and techniques will allow you to turn these perceptions around, creating a positive outlook.
If you’re looking to relieve anxiety and create a better overall mindset, book a free consultation through Shannon’s website. You can also watch her weekly show, The Well-Balanced Mind, where she provides insights into understanding your mind and behavior.
Do you find that you have anger, stress, or sadness and are looking for a change? Hypnotherapy might be a good fit for you. To schedule a consultation with Shannon call, click here.
Do you find that you have anger, stress, or sadness and are looking for a change? Hypnotherapy might be a good fit for you. To schedule a consultation with Shannon call, click here.