10 Tips for Anxiety 😰

Hey guys, Natalie Moore, Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist here, and I'm excited to talk to you guys about my 10 best tips for anxiety. So number 1 is gonna be diaphragmatic breathing. I know that probably sounds like a long and scary word, but really it just means breathing into your belly. Instead of up here into your chest. So typically when we're feeling stressed or anxious, our body will actually go into fight-flight-freeze mode, and this actually dramatically alters our physiology and changes the way we breathe. So we start breathing up here in short and shallow breaths. What that does is that actually perpetuates the cycle of feeling anxious, and so one way to break that cycle is to actually breathe more deeply and into your belly. So the way that I teach clients this is to have them put one hand on their chest, one hand on their belly, and as you breathe in, your belly should actually stick out like a Santa belly, and it should fall with each exhale. So that's tip number 1. Tip number 2 is mindfulness of thoughts. So I know that if you've dealt with anxiety, you know what it's like to have a ruminating thought that just circulates almost like a hamster on a wheel, just round and round in your mind. So one thing that tends to happen when we start having anxious thoughts is that we actually start to judge those thoughts. We criticize them as bad and wrong because they cause us discomfort, and in doing so, we're creating this mental resistance. What we resist persists.. And so what I want you to remember is that mindfulness is all about bringing an awareness to what's happening in the moment and bringing a non-judgmental awareness to what's happening. So the thoughts drift in and we say, "Oh, those are those anxious thoughts again. I remember those." And actually, when we just notice them coming and going almost like clouds in the sky, they have less hold on us. Okay, number 3 is know your triggers. We all have triggers that bring up our anxiety and our stress, and if we have an awareness of what these triggers are, we can better plan our day around them. For example, I'm the kind of person who really likes being on time, and when I'm running late, I get really stressed and anxious about it. Obviously, that's something that I need to keep working on so that it doesn't negatively impact my day, but in the meantime, I just know that for me, Planning my day around knowing that I can get places on time really helps me keep my stress and my anxiety in check. Okay, number 4 is eat well. So I know that you have probably at this point, if you're watching a YouTube video about mental health, have probably been interested in reading about health and wellness, and I'm sure you know at this point, everybody knows that diet is so important, not only for our physical health, but for our mental health. The one thing I think that people don't really know is why it's important for our mental health, so I like to remind people. So, the— there are chemicals in our brain that send messages between neurons, and these messengers basically tell us how to feel. They're called neurotransmitters, and two of the common neurotransmitters that are responsible for pleasant moods, like happiness, calmness, feeling a sense of satisfaction, are called dopamine and serotonin. This is how antidepressants work, is they keep those, most of them are called SSRIs, so they keep serotonin in the synaptic gap longer so that people feel happier and calmer for longer periods of time. So what most people don't know is that actually 90% of our serotonin is created in our gut, and up to 50% of our dopamine, which is kind of like the love, happy hormone, is also created in the gut. And so eating has an immediate effect on your— eating well has an immediate effect on your mood, just how we— just like how we know that eating poorly has an immediate negative impact on our mood. Okay, number 5 is exercise regularly. Again, this comes back to chemicals in the body. So I'm pretty sure you guys have already heard at this point that exercise releases endorphins into the body, but you might not know what endorphins actually are. So endorphins are short for endogenous morphine. So morphine obviously being a painkiller, and endogenous means that it comes organically from within your own body. And so this actually calms us and makes us feel happier and in a better mood. So if you can exercise regularly, that's gonna have a cumulative effect on your mood as well. Number 6 is set boundaries. One thing that can cause and kind of trigger anxiety is in relationships that we have. And if there is a relationship that you're in in which if somebody is not respecting your boundaries and your needs, that's going to kick up your anxiety even more. So setting boundaries is lovingly telling people how to treat you. When they treat you poorly, you confront them and say, "That's unacceptable." And obviously when they treat you well, you're going to have positive interactions, and so that's going to be naturally reinforcing as well. Number 7 is lean into the discomfort. This kind of goes back to what you resist persists. Often when we feel anxious, we want to make the feeling go away, and so what do we do? We seek distraction. We go on Netflix, we go on Instagram, we busy ourselves with tasks and work and cleaning and all kinds of stuff. What this actually does is it kind of robs us of the opportunity to work through that anxiety and that discomfort, and that's where the healing actually is. So as hard as it is, lean into the discomfort. Number 8: Take a media break. I don't know about you guys, but when I look— when I spend too much time on Instagram or any social media platform— I actually try to avoid them as much as possible unless I'm posting content to try to help you guys— I start feeling stressed and anxious about where I am in my life, and I feel like I need to do more or do better. And so it actually behoves me when I want to reduce my stress and anxiety to actually take time away not only from social media but also other forms of media like the news. I'm a really sensitive, empathic person, and so watching the news actually has a really big impact on me, and I notice it right away. And so taking a break from the news— I constantly tell my clients that unless you're in that field and it's your job to be on top of it, I think it's perfectly acceptable, in my view, perfectly acceptable to take prolonged breaks from, from watching the news. Number 9 is learn about mental health. Honestly, I can't tell you how relieved I see my clients in session when all I've done is simply inform them about anxiety and teach them about how it impacts the brain, how it impacts the body, ways that they can reverse that cycle. It's just a really empowering, really uplifting thing to know more about what it is that you struggle with. On this note, my friend Kate and I, we started a podcast called Infinite Well, and part of our mission is to teach people all the stuff that we've learned along the path, whether it's in our profession, whether it's in our education, our professional training, and also most, most impactfully, I think, in our personal lives, how we've used these tools. And so along with learning about mental health, I encourage you to surround yourself with positive voices. You know, if you're gonna follow people on Instagram, follow really positive feeds. If you're gonna watch YouTube, follow a channel like mine. You know, the more positive messages you can fill yourself with, the better your mood is gonna be and the lower your anxiety will be. And number 10 is seek support. Don't be an island unto yourself. You know, we didn't evolve to live as individuals. We evolved to live in families, friendships, communities, tribes, all of this kind of stuff. So if you need help, reach out for support. Text a friend, call a hotline, make an appointment with a therapist. If anything that I've said today resonates with you, and if you live in the LA area and you think I might be a good fit for helping you with your anxiety, please give me a call. My number is 323-558-2055, and I offer a free 15-minute phone consultation for anyone who wants to get a sense of what it would be like to work with me. So I hope you found these tips helpful, and good luck in reducing your stress and anxiety. I know they can be a monkey on the back if we don't know how to deal with them. Okay, till next time. Bye, guys.