If you are suffering from anxiety you’re not alone. The incidence of anxiety in the US is growing rapidly. Approximately 40 million US adults suffer from an anxiety disorder. The reason anxiety is rising rapidly gives clues to what you can do about it to get relief.

Here’s a post I did on FB on Anxiety Anxiety Reset

I know from personal experience the impact of the imbalances that result in anxiety. I learned how to take back control and I want to share that with you.

I experienced some anxiety briefly following a sudden disruption in my life that was unexpected. My life was thrown upside down and my ability to function was certainly impaired. I wasn’t sleeping well and was exhausted.

That set me on a path to learn how to manage my own physiology and emotions. I researched everything I could find on how to restore balance to my nervous system.

After practicing what I am about to share with you not only did anxiety become a distant memory but my capacity to handle stress grew dramatically. In a minute you’ll learn the relationship between stress and anxiety.

When You Understand How Anxiety Develops You Learn How to Master It!

Anxiety arises after a significant stress or a period of ongoing stress. In some cases, it can be a single significant episode of stress. But, it’s not the stress that causes the anxiety so changing your stress is not likely to handle your anxiety. 

It’s more about the changes that the stress causes in your system that is the culprit. Once the changes take place focusing on stress management is ineffective.

How Does Anxiety Develop

First, let’s briefly go over the path of how anxiety develops because it gives clues to how we’re going to control it. Anxiety is the result of a series of responses in your body to stress. 

• Life is one stress after another! Stress is emotional, stress is physical, and stress is chemical. 
• Stress activates your Sympathetic ‘Fight-or-Flight’ Nervous System
• The ‘Fight-or-Flight’ system raises muscle tension and inflammation. It interferes with digestion, heart rate, sleep, repair, and healing.
• The combination of impaired sleep, muscle tension results in fatigue and this creates a self-perpetuating cycle of poor sleep, pain and tension, and fatigue.
• After a while you are constantly living in a state of ‘Fight-or-Flight’ or what is called Sympathetic Dominance.
• We are not meant to live in Sympathetic Dominance. It’s a survival state that we should only visit periodically for brief periods of time. 
• This combination of poor-quality sleep, tension, and inflammation alters your neurochemicals. These are the neurotransmitters that determine how we feel.
• For many this prolonged unrelenting cycle often results in anxiety.
• For others its depression.
• Some experience chronic fatigue.
• And some experience Fibromyalgia. 

Many people resort to medications like Xanax, Klonopin, and Valium. But these are short term patches that can be addictive. They do nothing to change the underlying chemical imbalances. In some ways they actually create greater imbalance.

Much better to change how your Nervous System works. Everything I’ve outlined so far is about the impact of this cycle of stress on the nervous system. 

If you want to change your anxiety then you must change your nervous system. Let’s explore how to do this!

Top 5 Actions for Anxiety Relief

There are a lot of actions you can take that will support you in achieving relief from your anxiety. In fact, the more of these you do the better your results will be. Here are the top 5 actions to get started with.

1. Nasal Breathing: Breathe through your nose not your mouth. If you are not eating, drinking, or talking your mouth needs to be closed and you need to breathe through your nose. This is the foundation of other breathing practices.
2. Diaphragmatic Breathing: Learn to breathe into your abdomen using your diaphragm. Practice lying on your back. Put a book or your hands on your abdomen and breathe in through your nose down into your belly. The book or your hands should rise and fall with your breathing and your chest should not move.
3. Vagus Nerve Activation: Practice activating your Vagus Nerve with a combination of these:
   1. Resonance Breathing: Breathe in for 5-6 seconds slowly through your nose and out through your nose for 5-6 seconds. Do this for 5 minutes twice a day.
   2. 4-7-8 Breathing: Breathe in through your nose for a count of 4, hold for a count of 7, and breathe out through pursed lips for a count of 8. Do this for 8 to 10 cycles anytime you feel stressed. 
4. Sleep Hygiene: Develop a consistent sleep routine and make sure you have at least 8 hours in bed. Your room should be dark and cool. Go to bed the same time each night.
5. Self-Regulation: Learn how to relax your body. I call this ease and polyvagal theory calls it safety. The breathwork above is one way. Let’s look at a few others.
   1. Nature – getting out in nature without music or your phone will relax your nervous system in a few minutes.
   2. Gentle Movement – find the movement that relaxes you. It could be walking or yoga or dance.
   3. Body Awareness – spend time each day in silence simply putting your awareness on your body. There’s an ancient practice of Yoga Nidra that is great or the more modern version of Body Scan Meditation. 

Your anxiety might have felt like it came on suddenly but the reality is it took time for it to develop. And, it will take time for you to gain control of it. But, with each of the practices above you will notice an almost immediate shift in the ease in your body.

In the beginning the ease will be short lasting but with regular practice you will cultivate a baseline state of much greater ease and safety. 

First Aid

In the event of an Anxiety Episode here’s a great First Aid tool:

Cup both hands together and cover your mouth and nose and breathe slowly in and out through your nose. Within a few minutes you will experience relief of the anxiety. The sooner you do this the quicker the relief. 

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