How to Overcome Stress and Anxiety
“If you are depressed, you are living in the past.
If you are anxious, you are living in the future.
If you are at peace, you are living in the present.”
The modern world has made us believe that stress and anxiety are normal. It is time to wake up from that deep and limiting belief. Instead of popping pills or chemicals into your body to numb the symptoms of deep-rooted issues, it’s time to address the root cause.
Stress is caused due to several issues. Anxiety is of several types. Some are just for a couple of minutes, like stage fear or getting anxious over performance review. While other types of anxiety lasts forever and it becomes a chronic disorder. We are not going to get into details of the different types of anxiety nor is this article is written to provide any kind of medical diagnosis or medical treatment. We are mainly going to talk here about the holistic approaches to stress and anxiety. We are going to focus on learning to overcome temporary stress or anxiety before it becomes a long term chronic disorder. Learning to create a balanced life by nourishing the mind, body, and soul.
Most of the time anxiety, stress, and worries are imaginary. 90% of the time, things which we worry about are not even going to happen. It is time to stop thinking about pleasing others and start taking care of yourself first. It is time to detox your mind from negativity. It is time to mind our own business.
While there are several things which a person can do to help themselves overcome anxiety, stress, and worry, here are a few easy tips:
1) Observe your emotions and body
Anxiety, stress and worry create some changes in the body. They activate the sympathetic branch of the autonomic nervous system which results in symptoms like sweaty palms, fast heartbeats, dry mouth, shortness of breath, just to name a few. Be mindful of these symptoms and track the thoughts which created these changes in the body. Your brain becomes highly active and enters fight and flight mode during an anxiety attack. It is important to be mindful and stop the thoughts as soon as they occur.
2) Learn to calm your mind and body
It is important to calm the mind as soon as we feel the above-mentioned symptoms. Talk to yourself. Say, this is just a thought. It is not real. All is well. Tell yourself “I love you”. “Everything is going to be okay”, “This shall pass”. You can keep a small mirror with you and when you feel anxiousness, look in the mirror and tell yourself “Everything is fine. We got this. This is just temporary”. Use positive affirmations to calm yourself. If you experience frequent anxiety attacks, tell your near and dear ones to write you small love notes. Keep them with you and read them when you feel anxious or stressed. Keep pictures of your pets or family members. When you feel anxious or stressed, take out the picture and tell them how much you love them. This will help you take your focus off yourself. What goes around, comes around. When we send love, we get it back.
3) Mindfulness and living in the present
Take your surroundings into notice. The best way to do this is to look around, touch and feel physical objects around you. Quiet your mind by just focusing on your breaths. If possible, mentally visualize a stop sign so that you can stop the thoughts which led to stress or anxiety. There are several other mental exercises that you can do to control your thoughts. If you are driving, pull over for a minute, take deep breathe, tell yourself all is well.
4) Meditate
Meditation has tons of benefits. Meditation helps us activate our Parasympathetic nervous system. It calms our brain, improves our efficiency, strengthens our immune system. It gives us confidence and the ability to respond to situations more calmly. Learn mediation and take out a few minutes in the morning to develop a routine.
5) Get a good night's sleep and relax.
Sometimes we get so worked up with the tasks on hand that we do not give ourselves time to wind down. Our brain is in overdrive 24/7. Technology has taken over our lives. It is important to wind down, get a good night's sleep and relax. DETOX from technology after 8 PM at night till 7 AM in the morning. Read a good book, take a bubble bath, listen to good music, develop some hobbies like dancing, singing, painting etc.
6) Eat right
Nourish your body with wholesome fresh food. Say no to processed foods or fast food. Keep in mind, longer the shelf life, shorter your life. Include fresh fruits, vegetables, nuts, legumes in your diet. Also, it is important that you do not eat anything 4-5 hours before bedtime so that your body gets enough time to digest the food. This will improve the quality of sleep.
7) Exercise
Today’s sedentary lifestyle has led to a situation where our brains get tired before our bodies which results in mental disorder. During the ‘60s and ’70s, people used to work in farms and factories where there was a lot of physical labor. This resulted in tired bodies, Due to which at night they would get sound sleep. Nowadays with the rise in technology, most of the people work desk jobs and wear out their brains by the end of the day but their body is not tired and hence they don’t get sound sleep.
Hence, it is important to exercise and remain physically active at least for 30-40 minutes a day / 5 times a week. Also, it has been proven that exercise releases endorphins / feel-good hormones which calms down our nervous system, boosts immunity and improves organ function.
8) Surround yourself with loved ones
Spend some quality time with your loved ones. Fill up your emotional cup. Human beings are social animals. We all need to be loved and give love. Say no to gossip and criticism of self and others. Develop authentic relationships with friends and family by spending quality time. Tell your near and dear ones, how much you love them. Let go of EGO. You can either be right or be rich in relations. Keep in mind, wound caused by words takes a long time to heal. Choose your words wisely. Join a book club or attend meetups with like-minded people and build new friendships. Take short trips or weekend picnics with friends and family. Build loving memories and let go of grievances.
9) Compassion
Most of the time people are very compassionate towards others but hard on themselves. Show some compassion towards yourself. Cut yourself some slack. Practice self-love. Say no to self-criticism, self-doubt and self-pity.
10) Time and Money Management
Lack of time, lack of money or a lack of both are the major causes of stress and anxiety. Most of the people tend to spend the money they don’t have to impress the people they don’t like. It is important to learn time management as well as proper money management. Form a habit to save at least 10% of your income on a monthly or weekly basis. If you cannot afford to save 10%, go through your expense list and cut down unnecessary expenses. It does not make sense to spend the money which you don’t have on expensive vacations, expensive coffee, or expensive dinners. In short, say no to credit card expenses. If you cannot pay in cash or with debit, don’t spend.
Balance your activities so that you have time for yourself and your loved ones. Don’t bite more than you can chew. Plan and manage your calendar.
It does not make sense to spend time to chase money at the cost of health and relationships but majority of people do that. Then later in life, they spend the money to get their health and relationships back.
11) Power of prayers and attitude of gratitude.
Most importantly, change things which are under your control. Don’t sweat over things which are not under your control. Gain the wisdom to understand the difference and leave the worries to the higher power. Let go the need to control everything.
Also, majority of the people focus on things which are not going well instead of focusing on things which are going well. If you learn to shift your focus to things which are going well, your stress or anxiety will disappear. Hence count your blessings. There might be 10 things which are going in your favor versus 1 -2 things which are not. It does not make sense to ruin the 10 good things by focusing on 1-2 which are not going as per your wish.