Feeling worried all the time? Learn how to tame anxiety using four simple tips
Do you feel on edge? Can you sit still regularly and feel at peace, or do you feel uneasy?Do you feel you constantly have something to do? Is it difficult to stop checking text messages or emails without feeling you are missing something important? Do you lay awake at night reciting your to do list in your head? When you are feeling worried do you also feel restless and irritable?
If your answer to these questions was “yes” you might be suffering from anxiety . Anxiety is a normal response to a stressor, but when prolonged and hard to control, it can become pathological. It is constantly feeling overwhelmed.
If you are feeling anxious you are not alone. . Anxiety disorders affect about 40 million adults in the United States. I
You might wonder what is so wrong about being worried?
Anxiety is a form of stress, it causes the release of stress hormones such as adrenaline and cortisol. They give you a quick boost of energy when you need to flee a dangerous situation. The problem is your body doesn’t know the difference between an overwhelming day and being chased by hungry tiger. For this reason your cortisol levels can remain at “high alert” status even when you are just feeling a little anxious and are not actually in danger. This is an unfortunate inheritance of our ancient nervous system.
Over time, chronically high cortisol levels can stress your adrenal glands, create hormonal imbalances, increase your blood pressure, and “rev” belly fat, sugar cravings, and insulin levels.
Before you start feeling anxious about what you just read let me give you tips to tame anxiety naturally.
Tip #1 Do not let your sugar drop abruptly
When you go too long without eating, it can cause you to feel anxiety-like symptoms simply because your brain isn’t receiving enough glucose to function properly. Simply balancing blood sugar might be enough to get rid of your anxiety completely. Please use healthy small snacks. Sugary or processed snacks will spike your blood sugar which activates the release of the hormone insulin. Insulin will then reduce the sugar quickly creating a the low blood sugar anxiety cycle.
My go-to best snack? Clean protein/fat like almonds.
Tip#2 Say goodbye to coffee.
Consider this: using coffee to increase your energy levels is like using a credit card to buy something you cannot afford. It feels really good—until the bill arrives! In this case “the bill” is imbalanced hormones, jitters, anxiety, and belly fat.
When you first drink a cup of coffee, your adrenaline and epinephrine levels go up, this is why you feel like a rock star for the first 15 to 20 minutes. But after that, something else happens. You start to feel jittery and anxious.
Drink decaf coffee instead. It still contains a small amount of caffeine, which I find is enough to feel noticeably more alert but without the anxiety.
Consider switching out coffee for organic black and green teas, which contain much less caffeine. Green tea in particular has many health benefits, including modest risk reduction of cancer, diabetes, arthritis, cardiovascular disease, stroke, genital warts, and obesity.
Tip#3 The power of “NO”
If you feel very proud of the fact you are a star at multitasking, think again. Multitasking is associated with poor attention skills, depression, anxiety, and a decrease in gray matter density in the brain.
We tend to overextend ourselves, create impossible to-do lists and say yes when we really shouldn’t.
Here goes my go-to phrase, it will do wonders, just try it. “Probably not, but let me get back to you.” Do yourself a favor and start using immediately.
Tio #4 Pause and breathe.
Deep breathing is even more beneficial when it is coupled with meditation or mindfulness. Meditation lowers cortisol levels and raises serotonin, the “happy” brain chemical in charge of your moods, sleep, and appetite.
Start with 5 minutes of deep breathing and meditation. Simply take three belly breaths whenever you enter your passcode on a hand-held device. Even just a few seconds of quiet contemplation and deep breathing will help you hit the reset button.
Remember, anxiety is another form of stress. It is really important that you pay attention and counterattack, manage stress before stress manages your life.
Take a deep breath,
Dr. T