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Hello my friends! Welcome back to a new video or WELCOME if this is your first time watching!
I started this video series because I wanted us to actually be ABLE to improve our everyday lives. So- the topic this week is part of the personal growth playlist and I’m going to share some quick but natural approaches to relieving anxiety and many of them can work in just a couple of minutes.
There are 3 other playlists where you may find videos that interest you, one is about Relationships & Sex, another is on Fashion & Beauty and then of course, Career & Money.
I hope you’ll enjoy watching! Please subscribe if you find value in these videos and good luck because the double international giveaways I have currently running, end tonight at midnight, so you can still enter to win the YouTube beauty prizes and the GoPro Hero I’m giving away on Instagram. Links to the video with all the details is below in this description. So yeah, have fun with it and keep watching because I have another GREAT surprise for you, coming THIS month.
About today’s topic, I have a very hyper personality in general – if you can’t tell from my videos, I naturally run on high intensity, I don’t drink coffee except very rarely and that’s typically a sweet iced drink like those bottled Starbucks Frappuccino’s in Mocha flavor (mmmhhmm), and I don’t drink energy drinks either, the last time I had a red bull was 2 yeas ago and ironically Red Bull does not give me wings, it actually always makes me sleepy which is so weird.
But anyway, with that natural high I’m also very prone to anxiety as well. What I’ll share today comes from personal experience but I’m not a doctor, so please consult with a doctor before trying anything. I … had to say that!
Now, you’ve probably heard this tip before, but tell me if you’ve heard it like this.
So the first thing to do when you’re feeling anxious IS to breathe. Now here’s what!
The most powerful breathing technique is actually breathing from your diaphragm, because it will activate the body’s response to relaxation. So rather than breathing like this – from your chest, slowly fill your belly first, then your chest, fill in to expand your ribs, and your back, and then very gently hold that breath for 3 counts: 1-1000, 2-1000, 3-1000 – then AH exhale.
There is an abundance of information online about how to breathe from your diaphragm, one thing that I do is I always stand up or if seated I make sure my posture is straight- otherwise it’s hard to breathe from your diaphragm, and then once I’m straight, I place my right fingers on the small of the back and the left fingers on the abdomen right here. As you breathe in, you should feel the expansion in your belly, your back pushing out too, that’s how you know you’re really taking it all in.
So count to 3 with that breath, slowly release, then repeat 2 more times.
This is a very powerful way to relieve anxiety through breath.
Now If you’ve watched my video on how to not take things personally, you remember I shared with you my trick to silence the thoughts in my head – and if you remember, that approach was the polar opposite of what you typically hear out there. Since then, I’ve gotten messages from viewers who’ve tried that method and finally got to meditate for the first time in their lives, yeay… that makes me super happy btw, thank you for sharing your stories with me too.
But… essentially the exercise I’m going to share with you next is a little more unconventional like that too, and it was recommended to me by my doctor.
Most people will tell you to relax your body and take a chill pill when you feel anxiety. This exercise is the opposite.
ok, it’s gonna be awkward explaining this from my chair, but visualize and you’ll get the gist. (please watch video)
– lay completely flat on the bed
– no pillow
– arms by your side
– you’ll take one deep breath in, slowly.
– As you breathe in, contract your muscles from your toes to the top of your head. So clench the toes, ankles, your calves, go up your legs, your stomach, upper body, arms, hands, face muscles.
– When you’re done with your breath you should also be in that contracted pose. You should feel like a wooden board, if somebody throws a coin on you, it would bounce off, like in a cartoon. You’re gonna look a little funny doing this exercise, so for that reason I usually do this when I’m alone because I want the freedom to be and not feel self-conscious.
So once you’ve finished your breath, and your whole body is contracted, hold the breath shortly, like 2 seconds, don’t hold it to pass out, just a couple of second and when you exhale, exhale just as slowly as you breathed in, except this time, release the muscles, but from the top down.
So you breathe in contracting from the bottom up, hold, then exhale releasing the muscles from the top down. You contract on one breathe and relax on one breath – I hope that make sense!
When you’re completely done, your body will feel really loose, and noodly. And you’ll need to repeat this exercise twice more, so you’ll do it for a total of 3 times. Takes 5 minutes, if that.
It will take you a little getting used to it, I don’t know who gets it right the first time, it took me several infuriating attempts. But with practice, you’ll figure out the pace of the breath, you’ll be able to focus on the body areas and control, all you have to do is practice.
I actually found that this exercise also helps me if I happen to have a hard time falling asleep. By the 3rd round, I’ve already dozed off, because it’s very relaxing.
This type of Progressive Muscle Relaxation exercise works for MY body, please make sure that it will work for yours too, BEFORE doing it.
3rd and 4th tips are about getting you present and in control again over how you feel.
In the video I mentioned earlier about not taking things personally, I went in depth about how to be present, so I don’t want to repeat myself, the video is linked below, please watch that so it all makes sense.
As far as the anxiety is concerned, asking yourself the question "How am I feeling right now?" is very effective. It works with practice though, and I explained in that video how to make it happen. Start practicing today so when and if that time comes, when you have an anxiety episode, you’ll have the experience to know how to tap into that question.
After you take the 1 minute to figure out how you’re feeling, and you asses that -I’m out of breath, my heart’s racing, I’m sweating, I’m feeling anxious – etc, so as you wrap your head around how you feel you’ll also start essentially calming down a little bit in the process:
The next thing you have to figure out is:
“What’s causing this right now?” – for me for example, the whole wedding planning that I’m doing right now is giving me some anxiety. My husband and I got married last year at the courthouse just with our parents there, so NO- we did not elope, but this June we’re having the big shindig with everybody, and I feel overwhelmed sometimes because I have very limited time to plan, like maybe half of a Sunday a week to get things done. So anxiety comes like Oh my God, I don’t know if I can pull this off….
To give you an example, I didn’t buy a dress till last week end when I started looking, with less than 2 months away.
So anyway, identify that reason that gives you anxiety and then ask yourself 2 simple questions:
"Is this worry realistic?"
and
"Do I know 100% that this [ insert worry ] WILL happen? "
As an example, do I know 100% that this wedding will be a disaster? No – I don’t know that!
If that worry is not definitely going to happen, then you need to acknowledge that you’re putting yourself and your body through hell for no concrete reason.
If what you’re concerned about is absolutely going to happen on the other hand, and it is an absolute fact, then add a 3rd question:
“What can I do to prepare for what’s coming?” And then shift your attention from that space of anxious chaos, to order and planning and figuring this out as opposed to just panicking.
When we’re anxious, we take a potential reason for concern and make it THIS BIG in our heads. So this process will help you target the reasons causing the feelings of anxiety.
#5. When you’re feeling jittery, a cup of chamomile tea could help calm you down, because some of its core blends attach themselves to the same brain receptors that drugs like Valium do.
You can drink a cup of chamomile tea or take it as a supplement – talk to your doctor and see if you could do that, because that could be a great option for you!
Another idea is to heat up your body a little. Research found that sensations of warmth reduce muscle tension and anxiety, and alter some of the internal circuits that control the mood.
That could be in the form of a warm heat wrap placed on your neck and shoulders for 10 minutes, lying out in the sun or a few minutes in a hot bath, Jacuzzi or sauna after work or in the evening.
Tip #7. If you are predisposed to anxiety, what I recommend is being prepared and when that time happens, to have a playlist of songs already created, that you can just start listening to. For some people, the sounds of ocean waves are soothing, for others rain sounds or birds chirping. For me I need different sounds happening in the same time, to get distracted, so I listen to the music from a CD I bought years ago. It’s very soothing, but it features different sounds and melodies.
If that doesn’t work, maybe more upbeat tunes are the alternative for you, so crank those up, but no matter how you look at it, there are so many benefits to sound therapy like lowering blood pressure, heart rate and anxiety, and I’ve talked about that before in one of my past emails.
Taking about the email that goes out every Thursday to my beloved viewers who subscribed for my newsletter, more natural tips to reduce anxiety have been emailed this morning; if you’d like to get on my email list, please SEE BELOW. After you confirm your email, I’ll send you a “Welcome to the family” message with a link to all the previous private content you may have missed so far. That content is password protected and available only for my email subscribers. I hope you’ll join us, connect with me on Facebook and instagram, please subscribe to my YouTube channel and get all these videos, and good luck if you’re entered or you’re about to enter in the giveaways.
I’ll see you next week in a new Relationships & Sex video. I love you for watching, good luck and lots of success to you!!
— kisses —
