Anxiety is almost constant sense of worry, emotional discomfort, or nervousness about life in general or even about specific upcoming events and situations. Anxiety worsens the sensation of pain, and being sedentary worsens anxiety. The solution to both problems is to move more than you tend to. Exercise causes the body to produce chemicals that lessen anxiety and increase the sense of happiness. Let’s look at the situation a bit more, to understand what anxiety feels like, why it happens, and how prevent or to end it.
Listen to Dr. John Bergman describe a brief history of anxiety and a longer description of how to resolve it. One of the major points in his presentation is that anxiety isn’t the result of what happens in our lives, it is our response to those events that causes anxiety. Be smart: Don’t condemn setbacks and disappointments. Don’t assume the worst, either. Those mindsets create a chemical response in several parts of your body and it’s not a good one. Chemicals that generate a sense of fear, panic, misery and other negative emotions course through your body, making your mood worse over time. There’s an alternative to generating your own continued misery: Let a situation simply “be.” It is what is it is, and you can seek out solutions to solve the problem or to cope with it instead of falling apart.
Focus on things that please you. Count your blessings daily. Thank people, GOD, and the universe, whenever they seem to make things go favorably for you. Smile on purpose. That action teaches the brain to feel happy. Our physical activity literally teaches the brain how and what to think, so behave more happily than usual, even though you’re faking it. Win Oscars, so to speak, until your auto-pilot is to focus on happiness and to actually feel happy. The technique works.
Did you know that you can nourish yourself to prevent anxiety?
Bodies and brains are nourished by the foods we eat. Our moods, intelligence, and mental health are enhanced with sound nutrition, but damaged when denied necessary nutrients. A person can adjust their menu to include whole, not processed, foods that improve their nutritional intake. At minimum, we need the following nutrients:
- Magnesium
- Methylated B-complex vitamins
- Multivitamin/Mineral
- Omega-3 fats (available infish oil, nuts, chia and flax seeds)
- Vitamins A , B1, B2, B3, B5, B6 and B12, C, D, and E all contribute to optimal brain functions and/or stabilized moods PLUS
- Vitamin D3 (2000 IU at minimum, unless you aredeficient in Vitamin D and your doctor prescribes more)
Lead in the paint upon our homes and furniture, plastic food containers leaching brain-damaging BPA and phthalates into our food, synthetic chemicals in food and carpeting, furniture and cleansing plus hygiene products can damage physical, let alone brain health. Using lead-free paints, cast iron, glass, lead-free ceramics, and wooded kitchen wares can prevent bad moods.
There’s more information at the doctor’s office and among naturopaths. The western medical world is a bit behind in teaching sound nutritional principles that natural healers use with astonishing success to lower or to end anxiety.
Stay off social media, too, to avoid people who lie about their real lives. Things are not going all that well for poseurs. This video is one woman’s description of what it’s like to have anxiety. She mentions, several times, that appearances can be deceiving.
If the above ideas don’t seem to help you, or don’t help enough, there are self help anxiety tests that will check your anxiety levels. If this also fails, then you should contact a therapist who can help you to see life with a more positive perspective.