5 Steps to Reducing Anxiety During Challenging Times

When I was younger, until into my 20’s, I believed that everything on the market shelves was safe to use or consume. I had this belief that we were protected as citizens by our government, and this belief allowed me to defer responsibility for my own well being to others and ignore my intuitive knowledge about my body, mind and energy.

As we sit in the middle of a great pandemic, it is natural to recoil in fear and I look towards the leaders to lead us to safety. This mythology and wish is as old as time. Adding this to the media that promotes the scariest scenarios and keeps us collectively in a state of fight, flight or freeze. This continuous state of fear and worry damages our immune system and well being, making us more susceptible to illness, both physical and mental.

Being of this world, we cannot be guaranteed safety, but we can shore up our well being and at the same time creating a sense of internal power even when the world indicates we should feel powerless.

When we take care of our physical well being we are also taking care of our psychological well being. The Mind and Body are intimately connected.

Below you will find some simple ways to show great care and respect for your body and well being:

1. Eating Well. Making fruits and vegetables the highlights of our meal plates. They are the powerhouses to that fuel and heal our bodies.

2. Hydrate with a lot of water to flush out toxins. Most people find themselves inadvertently dehydrated, which puts a great strain on the physical body and allows unwanted toxins to accumulate. Start your day with a large glass of water after many hours of sleep.

3. Get outside into the fresh air and do some exercise. Just walk around and breath fresh air. Nature has a way of creating great healing. If you can’t exercise, then even just sitting outside can create some of those benefits. As humans, we were built for being outside in nature.

4. Get adequate sleep. It’s common for many during these unprecedented time to be online, watching movies, engaging in social media. Many of these practices can interfere with sleep. Using these devices at night can stimulate the brain into thinking you are supposed to be awake making sleep more difficult and causing insomnia.

5. Meditate to soothe your nervous system. The blessing of access to YouTube is there are numerous free mediation videos that can allow you to relax your body and mind for 20-40 minutes. Taking time out each day to consciously realign your energy will grow resilience towards stress that you can’t control.

All these things cost you nothing, but will help ensure that if you do get sick (with anything) you are more likely to rebound easier. Taking conscious control of your well being during a pandemic or just in life will bring you a greater sense of peace.