5 Natural Ways to Ease Anxious Feelings

After spending so many years suffering from anxiety I came to learn many different ways to ease the symptoms.  I am going to share 5 of the amazing and natural ways that have worked for my anxiety.  There are a variety of tricks and strategies you can employ to ease the discomfort of feeling anxious. While working with your doctor and a mental health professional for therapy, medication, or a combination of the two is the most effective treatment method, there are tons of different ways you can enhance the way you care for yourself.

Natural remedies for easing anxious feelings also exist and can be used in conjunction with your medical or mental health professional’s guidance to soothe anxiety.

Natural Way 1: Make sure you’re getting plenty of joyful movement and exercise into your day.

 Joyful movement and exercise are different from regular old hit-the-gym types of exercise (although if you really love going to the gym, then do it!).

You are more likely to consistently engage in exercise and movement you seriously enjoy and look forward to doing. For example, if you really like taking nature walks, going to your hip hop dance class, or kayaking, you are far more likely to make time for those exercise activities on a regular basis because you actually want to do them.

People who force themselves into exercise or movement that doesn’t excite them won’t consistently incorporate them into their schedules. For example, if you loathe walking on the treadmill, you’ll eventually stop using your treadmill because the activity feels too forced and unappealing to continue.

The most important key to getting joyful movement and exercise to ease anxiety is consistency. When you exercise, your body releases a feel-good chemical called endorphins. When the endorphins flood through your body during and after exercise, you feel an instant mood boost. For example, runners often describe experiencing “runner’s highs” after finishing races – this is really the major rush of endorphins they’re feeling!

Natural Way 2: Squeeze a wide variety of nutritious foods into your daily diet.

 The human body requires lots of vitamins, minerals, and nutrients to function at its very best. Make sure you’re filling your diet with plenty of nutritious foods to ensure you’re getting your fair share of everything your body needs to function well.

There are a variety of products used in processed foods such as artificial sweeteners, artificial colorings, artificial flavors, sugars, and preservatives that are linked to mood swings and other temperament issues in people. Plus, eating a diet full of sugars can lead to blood sugar issues, which can cause mood shifts to happen quickly.

Your anxiety isn’t going to lower when you aren’t feeling and functioning at your best, so limiting your intake of processed foods and increasing your intake of nutritious foods may help calm you and take the edge off your anxious feelings.

Natural Way 3: Make getting a good night’s sleep one of your top priorities.

 Sleeping is the body’s natural cure for just about everything. A good night’s sleep can help solve a lot of issues; because it’s the time your body uses to rest, repair, and prepare itself for the next day’s activities, it’s crucial to make sure you’re giving your body enough chances to get the quality sleep it needs.

If you do not get enough sleep, you are certain to see an increase in issues with anxiety. However, anxiety issues can make sleeping well a big challenge. Do everything you can to ensure you aren’t making your sleeping schedule suffer – for example, create a bedtime routine that allows you to relax before bedtime, choose to go to bed at a reasonable hour, and make your sleeping space relaxing. While anxiety may make sleeping feel like a challenge, making simple sleep habit changes like these ensures you’re doing everything you can to not make the issue even more difficult.

Natural Way 4: Add chamomile into your day.

 The idea of sipping a warm cup of tea is a relaxing thought all on its own, but when you take a closer look at the research that suggests chamomile may be a strong ally for folks with generalized anxiety disorder, it looks even more appealing.

A 2014 study published by PubMed Central showed that participants who took German chamomile in capsules up to five times daily during their study showed an immense decrease in anxiety-related stressors versus the group who took placebo capsules instead. In a different 2005 study published in the Biological and Pharmaceutical Bulletin, chamomile was shown to help rats who struggled to fall asleep actually fall asleep more quickly and effectively than rats in the study who were offered a placebo option.

Natural Way 5: Avoid consumption of products linked to neurotransmitter effectiveness, such as alcohol and caffeine.

At first, alcohol may seem like an easy way to take the edge off anxious feelings. It’s easy to access, tasty to consume, and widely accepted by society as a way to kick back and relax. But believe me when I tell you alcohol dependency to manage anxiety symptoms can lead to even more anxiety – and an alcohol dependency issue in some people. It is common to see alcohol use disorder and anxiety disorders forming and existing together.

While anxiety may increase temporarily in the early stages of someone’s sobriety, once they have an opportunity to allow their brain chemistry to adapt to the lack of alcohol, the anxiety will taper off and improve.

Caffeine intake can also exacerbate anxiety symptoms. There is ample research to show that caffeine and anxiety are not an ideal pair. Since caffeine causes jitteriness and jumpiness, it can send anxiety symptoms over the edge, making them feel much worse than usual.

While a controlled, moderate intake of caffeine (much like a controlled intake of alcohol) is safe for most people, folks suffering with various anxiety disorders should strongly consider limiting how much they consume each day. To begin to feel the effects of lowered caffeine intake, remember to start slowly – taper off your caffeine intake slowly to decrease the chances that you’ll suffer any caffeine withdrawal symptoms, such as nasty headaches.

What are some of the natural ways you ease your anxiety… I would love to know.