[Exposed Day 8]- 15 years ago I was barely functioning.
I was in my mid-20’s, living in the Bay Area with my boyfriend, partying on the weekends with friends, and appeared to be loving life (aren’t we all so good at pretending all is good), but what so many people didn’t know was I was suffering with severe anxiety.
I mean I regularly waking up in the middle of the night in a full blown panic attack, not flying for 8 years because I was so terrified, constant chest pain, and 3 separate trips to hospitals to get EKG’s because I was sure I was dying and of courses all the tests showed nothing was wrong with me physically.
Anxiety wasn’t new to me at the time, I had had it since I was a kid, and the list above is only a very small example of how it effected my life over the years, but this was the worst it had ever been. If you have suffered from anxiety and panic attacks you know how helpless you can feel.
I had resigned to anxiety just being a part of my life. But, a few years ago, when I started to seriously embark down my spiritual path and the rediscovery of my truest, highest self something amazing happened.
My anxiety disappeared!
It wasn’t my intention to rid myself of anxiety, but it was a byproduct of taking care of myself more deeply.
Standing here at the age of 38, I can say I do not suffer from anxiety anymore. My last panic attack was in those days of my 20’s, I haven’t had chest pain or fear of dying for years, and I fly on planes now whenever without much concern.
Here are the 3 main things I did to get rid of anxiety for good
Daily Meditation
When I started meditating every day it allowed me to clear my mind, better understand the patterns of my thinking, and learn how to stay centered and grounded throughout my day. I became much better at being aware of my thoughts and guiding them in a much more supportive direction before they started spiraling out of control. Even just 10-15 minutes a day was enough to make huge shifts in my life.
Daily Yoga
I’m not overexaggerating when I say yoga changed my life. It has changed my life in so many ways, but to stay focused on the topic at hand it was profound because it was the first time I ever really connected to my body and my breath. On my mat, I focused on full, deep breathing, which calms the nervous system. I also connected deeply with my body in a way that I never had before. So much of my anxiety manifested somatically (in my body) and gaining a greater awareness and a tool that helped me be able to calm and nurture my body was transformative. Even if I only did yoga for 20 minutes a day it made all the difference for setting my body and mind up for success and out of anxiety. And, I could take that connection both to my body and my breath off the mat and into my day.
Cut Out Sugar
I initially chose to cut out sugar to relieve brain fog as I heard it can be a culprit in that, but it not only relieved the brain fog, it also had a great effect on reducing my anxiety. It’s known that the food we put in our body not only effects how we feel physically, but also how we feel emotionally and mentally. I have seen and heard this time and time again, and it was absolutely true for me. I started by reducing all sugar which meant no processed foods, low sugar fruit, no sweeteners, and obviously no desserts of any kind. I did this for about a month to really get the sugar out of my system and to get out of the habit of craving sweets (which luckily for me was never to big). I saw the level of my anxiety reduce pretty quick. After about a month, I slowly started to relax on being really strict on my sugar consumption as I wanted to see how I would feel if I added it back in a bit. Now, I can have sugar occasionally without an increase in anxiety.
I am not saying this is the cure all for everybody or that you shouldn’t see a doctor if your anxiety feels unmanageable, but I wanted to share what has worked for me. The me of 15 or even 10 years ago couldn’t imagine a life without anxiety, but after I started to regularly meditate, do yoga, and consume little sugar it has almost disappeared completely. And, when anxiety does show up now it is in a small way and I have the tools above to help relieve it before it ever gets close to feeling overwhelming and unmanageable.
So, if you are looking for a more natural way of reducing or eliminating anxiety from your life try the above 3 things in ernest and it may be just the thing that helps.