Natural Ways to Help With Anxiety & Stress – 12 Habits That Helped Me!

Does anxiety come at you in the most inconvenient times? Do you suffer from not having the right tricks to help reduce your anxiety on the spot? If you’re an anxious person, then you know how difficult is to find relief when you need it instantly. Some people are able to meditate or use deep muscle exercises when they time. Most of us don’t have time to indulge in exercises that takes time and concentration.

The truth is that the majority of people find it embarrassing to talk about anxiety because of the stigma that surrounds it. The misconception that anxiety is a weakness means that more people suffer in silence and ignore help. Nobody should suffer in silence. This is not a quick fix but instead the following habits to reduce your anxiety will offer relief when you need it the most.

I suffered bad with depression, stress, anxiety and panic attacks for 4 years, therefore I think it’s important to share what has helped me overcome these illnesses to live a happier and healthier life.

Here are 12 habits that helped me turn things around!

Disclaimer: I am not in any way a certified therapist so all the advice is given from my own experience and should not be taken as medical advice. 

Take in nature

When you ground yourself in nature, you discharge negativity, and even more importantly, you recharge yourself with the loving and nurturing energy from Mother Earth.

After grounding yourself you’ll feel renewed, refreshed, centred, and balanced. Whether you simply walk barefoot in your garden, or go to the beach or the wood, just get out in nature, allow yourself to be present by opening all your senses: see, taste, hear, smell and feel.

If you live in a big city or work in an office, you may feel you don’t have much opportunity to connect with nature.

Nature time could be:

• Spend time in your garden.
• Walk around a park.
• Go to the woods.
• Plan your next vacation around nature time.
• Visit a lake or river

This is also where crystals, essential oils and houseplants come in. You may want to bring little bits of nature with you and consciously tune into them at home.

Move your body

One of the best things to do to raise your vibration is without a doubt moving your body. Think about it: your body has been lethargic and lying down for 6-8 hours, your muscles are probably still sleeping and need to stretch.

Now, I don’t expect you to do a full 45-minutes workout when you’re still feeling sleepy and unmotivated, but if you force yourself to move your body (even with some low-intensity exercises) for as little as 10 minutes, it will be a game changer, I promise.

It’s been proven that working out in the morning – even with some light exercise – can boost your metabolism up to 22% for the rest of the day and reduce tremendously sugar cravings.

Moving in the morning will get your heart pumping, your metabolism to speed up, while also making you feel more alert and active for the rest of the day.

Practice Mindfulness

When you put Mindfulness into practice your anxiety and stress will reduce massively!

I can’t explain how much this practice has changed my life. When you’re mindful your life will transform massively.

By living in the present moment, you become at peace with your past thoughts and illusions made up in your mind.

Observe your thoughts, become at peace with them, take away the emotional attachment.

When you find your mind wandering, revert back to the present moment.

The more you live in the present moment, the mind quickly loses control over you. The mind is a tool that should be working for you, not controlling you.

This takes a lot of practice, as your mind has spent so many years in control. The mind has been projecting its illusions on you all your life.

Purchase a book, research it on YouTube. The Mindfulness practice is life changing when used consistently and persistently!

Meditation

I thought this was complete nonsense a few years ago, now I love it.

The one thing that calmed my mind beyond belief, if done properly, is meditation.

This helps you become at peace with your thoughts, and also mindful meditation helps you stay in the present moment.

Try to meditate before breakfast, if not, then late afternoon/early evening is a good time to do it.

Meditation will seem like a chore at first, but the more you practice, it will become more of an enjoyable experience that you will look forward to.

There are tonnes of videos on YouTube to help you get started.

Making time for what you love doing

One of the main reasons I was so stressed when I was in the midst of my anxiety disorder was I was on total autopilot. Whilst mindfulness can bring you more awareness, making time for what you’re passionate about is the next best thing.

I had given up what I liked doing, the things that have always made me feel that bit more alive and that get a kick out of.

Yes, sometimes it’s hard to make a bit of time for your passion or hobby but even half an hour a day can be enough to de-stress.

For me it was always exercise that made me feel excited and good. Half the battle is allowing yourself to do what you love. With the many responsibilities we have in life, we can feel guilty doing something that we like.

These can be anything;

• Reading
• Cooking
• Weight training
• Running
• Writing

Whatever it is that you love to do, let yourself do it and plan to make time for your passion or hobby. This is one of the best ways to reduce stress and anxiety yourself. If you feel like you don’t have a passion or hobby that you can find stress relief in, try something new.

Don’t Get Involved

Avoidable stress can also take form in getting wrapped up in other people’s issues. Some of us feel as if we have a place in forcing our views on others or we simply want to be part of the conversation. This type of behaviour is amplified with social media where it’s easy for someone to comment on something that has nothing to do with them in an attempt to stir the conversation or voice their opinion.

Whilst you can argue that some people just like drama, this is totally avoidable stress. The issue with getting involved with the things that have nothing to do with you is the negative feedback. When we get involved in other people’s issues, we can get negative feedback which can make us very stressed. With social media like Facebook, it’s easy to become very anxious and stressed whilst we wait for the conversation to unfold.

If you find yourself getting involved in other people’s drama, it’s time to step back and think about why you’re doing it.

Keep A Routine

Sticking to a regular routine can help you regain a sense of stability and keep a better structure to your days during a time when it feels like we can’t even keep track of what day it is.

Have you ever slept in way too late and just felt like your whole day was ruined and like you were so behind on everything? I have for sure and it’s not a good feeling! So, try to wake up and go to bed at the same time every day, and stick to somewhat of a consistent routine to reduce your stress.

Try Journaling

Typically, us millennials don’t write things down – we use the notes or other app in our phone. But too much technology actually contributes to stress in a big way, so get a notebook and start physically writing in it and put your phone away for a bit.

You can practice gratitude journaling and write about things that you’re grateful for, or just write out how you’re feeling on that particular day. Writing can be very therapeutic and it will bring you more in tune with yourself so you can better understand what you need to do to make yourself happy.

Improve Sleep Quality

Anxiety and worry can keep you awake at night, but not enough sleep can also cause anxiety.

When you’re sleep-deprived, you’re less able to handle stress and anxiety. In contrast, getting enough sleep keeps your hormones in check, which is necessary for managing anxiety and worry.

Play Relaxing Music

Gentle instrumental music helps to lower blood pressure, heart rate, and stress hormones and is great for relieving anxiety.

Nature sounds are also calming and you’ll find these often in relaxation and meditation music. So, whenever you’re anxious put on your headphones and listen to relaxing music.

Reduce Your Screen Time

Going along with the above point, technology can sometime

s really do more harm than good, especially in times like these. In order to reduce stress during the quarantine period, it’s a really good idea to limit how often you’re on your phone checking the news and social media.

Find something else to occupy your time instead – I read a lot, and it is so relaxing. I also limit times I spend on social media. Facebook, Instagram etc are great for keeping in contact with people, but they can take over your life if you allow it.

Use Essential Oils

Essential oils are known to be very soothing, so I recommend getting a good diffuser and your favourite scent and letting it freshen up your living room area for an hour or two a day. When my apartment smells good, I automatically feel a little bit more together and less stressed because it signals a clean space!

Natural ways to help with anxiety & stress – Final thought

There are a ton of ways you can reduce stress and anxiety, it’s all about trying things to what works for you. Sure, you can use essential oils like mentioned above, but if you find yourself becoming stressed often, or most of the day, it’s a good time to make some long-term lifestyle changes.

I’d love to hear your ways of reducing stress in the comments below.

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Adam

Hello! My name is Adam and welcome to my space on the internet. Here you can find me writing about topics such as lifestyle, self-care, self-development, finance, saving money and making money. Come and join the community!