5 Tips to reduce anxiety by Phoebe Greenacre
Anxiety - we have all felt it creeping into our bodies at least once or more times in our lives. From being nervous about a first date, or a job interview, the nervous sensations are a normal emotional response that occurs in our body.. But when anxiety starts to control how we feel on a daily basis, we need to start looking at what we can do in our lifestyle to reduce these feelings.
THE PRESENT IS THE PRESENT - Anxiety is a future-oriented emotion, and anticipating the future induces anxiety largely because the future is intrinsically uncertain. Try to live in the present moment, rather than thinking about the future. When anxiety strikes, a effective technique is to start naming the objects around you. The tree, the car, the bus, the handbag you are carrying etc. This helps your mind to come back to the present moment.
MEDITATION - The most transformative activity I have added to my self care routine to reduce anxiety, is adding meditation to my daily routine. Meditation helps to slow our nervous system and be in the present moment. We learn to sit with our thoughts, rather than attach to them, we can let them bubble up and then disappear.
YOGA - The overall practice of yoga can elicit the relaxation response, allowing both the body and mind to gain a sense of calm and ease. Yoga postures help ease the physical discomfort that is caused by anxiety. These poses work to stretch, lengthen, and balance the muscles that can also assist in releasing built-up muscle tension and stiffness throughout the body. Even if it’s 20 minutes a day - every minute helps the connection between the mind and body.
TAKING A BREAK FROM CAFFEINE - If you are a coffee or cocktail lover like me, I know it can be hard to break the habit. But giving up coffee really helped my anxiety. Caffeine speeds up our nervous system and can put us into fight or flight mode which is not great when we are suffering with anxiety. Swap your daily grind for something caffeine free and see what effects it has on the body.
YIN THERAPY - Lastly but not leastly, during the Covid lock down, I started a new online class called YIN Therapy. YIN Therapy is a soothing meditative style of yoga that targets the deep connective tissues, bones, fascia of the body combined with my somatic emotional healing letting go techniques. I’ve had more than 1500 people attend the class, and a lot of the clients were suffering from some type of anxiety which helped them like nothing else. Join me for the live class every Sunday 7pm BST or sign up to receive the recording. www.phoebegreenacre.com
Phoebe Greenacre is a Holistic Therapist, Meditation + Yoga Teacher and Self Care expert. Her mission in life is to help people come back to their bodies in order to heal and feel and thrive. Phoebe has just launched her latest project - The Self Care Space. An online membership which creates a sacred space of yoga, yin therapy, meditation and self care rituals. For more information, please visit members.phoebegreenacre.com and use BYBI50 for 50% off your first month.