Simple Tips to Calm Stress and Anxiety
Lately, I’ve been sharing short videos with simple stress and anxiety management tips over on LinkedIn. They're short and sweet methods for managing our emotions using breath, movement and mindset to bring things back into balance, sometimes within just a few minutes.
A number of My Prana clients come to me for help managing chronic stress and anxiety.
And when we work together they experience relief in ways other approaches haven’t been able to match.**
We live in a world filled with anxiety triggers. Some of us have a tendency toward worry, fear and anxious thoughts. And stress has become normalized as a part of life so that some people lose the ability to let go, fully relax and enjoy their down time.
You might...
- feel "keyed up" all the time
- have trouble sleeping
- get angry or agitated easily or
- begin to have physical symptoms (like digestive upset or shortness of breath) but medical tests show no identifiable cause.
AND yet, we can all learn to manage our thoughts, emotions, reactions, and behavioral tendencies to reclaim the calm and peaceful nature that every one of us was born with.
Look, I was a poster child for anxious reactivity for many years of my life. It was an exhausting and unpleasant way to live - both for me and for my loved ones. I was all up in my head about what my mistakes might cost me, or if I was being a good enough parent to my kids. I feared bankruptcy, that my marriage would fail (it did and that turned out to be just fine!), worried that I’d make mistakes I couldn't bounce back from, so I needed to avoid mistakes at *all* costs.
Trying to be prepared for every possible situation and trying to never mess up created more stress! And man, my self talk when I made mistakes was brutal. I could go on, but you get the picture.
I probably wasn’t much fun to be around because I’m sure my angsty energy hung all around me. And I rarely stopped moving around “fixing” and doing things. Plus I wasn't setting a good example for my kids about how to show self compassion or manage emotions in healthy ways. But, that's a topic for another day!
Eventually, my health began to suffer. I was diagnosed with an autoimmune disease, thyroid condition and leaky gut. It still wasn’t entirely clear to me how working to calm my mind and soothe my nervous system would improve my overall health. But something finally clicked when my yoga teacher training program presented the lessons on our mind/body connection - discussing the layers of our being (from deep inside our mind and spirit to the outer physical body) and how they are inextricably interconnected.
I finally fully understood the mind/body connection and learned ways to let go of this pent up stress and anxiety I’d been experiencing and holding in for years. I learned how to:
- make simple, impactful self care practices a part of every day
- take radically good care of myself so I can navigate life from a place of unshakable calm within me
- remember that the peace within me is *always* there for me - no matter what's going on outside
- use my own breath and body awareness in ways that calm anxiety, reduce stress, relieve symptom flares and re-balance my nervous system
- practice, study and learn new methods, so I can share them with my clients, and the larger world.
My big goal is to create a more peaceful, healthy and just world one individual at a time. Because I am certain that when a single person feels at peace, healthy, more emotionally grounded, less afraid and stressed, that person can affect every single other person they come in contact with in a more positive way.
That makes us all healthier and better able to tackle the difficult problems that come up in our individual lives and in the larger world. I aim to be a channel for sharing more of that peace, tranquility and wellbeing across the planet by guiding others to learn these simple healing, calming daily practices.
So in the coming weeks I’m going to share more simple ways to reclaim that unshakable calm that’s always present inside YOU.
Even if you feel...
- stressed beyond belief
- out of your mind with anxiety
- emotionally unsteady and easily upset
- experience symptoms and pain flare ups regularly
- and are unsure how to get out of this cycle
I help clients reconnect with their wise, strong, steady inner peace and invite it back into the driver’s seat so you can feel safe, capable, comfortable, emotionally steady and able to enjoy every precious day as much as humanly possible. Because reconnecting with the natural peaceful state you were born with is one of the foundational keys to helping you feel better.
Until next time, consider this:
How would it feel to dial your stress, anxiety or flareups down to a level 1 or 2?
How would that change your life?
I would feel honored to support you in doing just that.
Schedule a short call here so we can chat about what YOU need and how I can help.
** P. S. My Prana client Mike B. recently said,
“I gotta tell ya Cath - this is the one thing I do that completely takes my mind away from everything and totally relaxes me.”
New My Prana 1:1 sessions starting the week of Sept. 9. That's next week!
Sorta, kinda wondering if My Prana might help you? Schedule a short call here to discuss your unique situation, what your custom tailored mind/body program can look like, and how working together can help you meet your goals.
P. P. S. Connect with me on LinkedIn -linkedin.com/in/cathyreads - to view these video posts and try some simple ways to kick stress and anxiety to the curb and feel more relaxed and in control in minutes!
