4 Powerful Ways to Calm Anxiety and Live your Best Life
Anxiety is tough, nobody likes it, it needs to go take a hike quite frankly….but I am grateful there are so many resources and teachings at our fingertips to help ourselves heal and live a more fulfilling life.
Yes, there are tools to help! Stick around for 4 of my favorites to turn your body and mind around, kick out the anxiety, and go to the calm.
It's normal to feel anxious from time to time. Life is full of stressors and it's natural for our minds and bodies to react.
For some people, however, anxiety can be debilitating. It can keep you from living a full life and enjoying your day-to-day experiences.
What’s more, there are different periods of our life that can be more stressful than others. These peak times of stress are when we really need to use and cultivate our mindfulness tools. But we also need to educate ourselves on what stress is and what we can do about it.
For some, these periods of peak stress are identified as adolescence, college, first career/life change, middle age with children, high-stress career peak, and old age.
In these pivotal times in one’s life, we really have to be mindful of our mental health, and practice self-care.
If you're looking for ways to calm the anxiety of the mind-breathwork, yoga, meditation, and journaling are all great options. Each of these activities can help you find peace and quiet within yourself.
So if you're feeling overwhelmed by anxiety, try one (or all) of these methods to find some relief.
When we feel overwhelmed and anxious, our minds can be a mess. It seems like everything is spinning out of control.
If this sounds like you, don't worry, you're not alone. In this blog post, I'm going to share 4 ways that you can calm the anxiety of the mind. These include breathwork, yoga, meditation, and journaling.
The result? Each of these activities can help you find peace and quiet within yourself.
Breathwork
Let’s start with Breathwork. This is one that is easy to do when you don’t have the appropriate clothes or space to do yoga or exercise and you’re not at a convenient place where you can meditate.
Or maybe you are at work and you need to quickly calm your body and mind.
But more so than convenience, it really is a super powerful and quick way to ease anxiety.
I believe that’s why it has become so popular lately. Even in our public schools we are doing rainbow breath and talking about box breath.
So let’s go over a few of my favorite breathwork pieces you can use for anxiety and calm the mind.
Box breath
I like this one because it is simple: you’re doing a pattern of 4 4 4 4
breathe in for four
hold for four
breathe out for four
hold for four
It should always be in multiples of four.
Here is a really simple video to demonstrate:
A quick note on breathwork, I believe this is the same thing that the ancient sages and Yogis have been calling pranayama for thousands of years. So you will hear me using the words interchangeably sometimes.
You know, sometimes we like to reinvent the wheel.. Whatever name you want to call it, just know the sole purpose is to help you feel better and calm the mind.
Caution!
I do not recommend holding your breath for long or doing this without the guidance of a pure and super-knowledgeable teacher.
Here’s why I mention it, because it can make your brain overheated.
Doing heavy pranayama is also discouraged in the Yoga scriptures without the guidance of a proper teacher. It also says that one shouldn’t be doing a lot of intense pranayama without the first steps that should be taken into account such as needing to be pure -be celibate, eat clean, etc.
So that’s just a note of caution. I’ve also heard many stories of it causing asthma in people so I never recommend holding your breath more than four counts unless you’re with a guided professional.
You can hear more about that topic below from Dr Hansaji Yogendra, Director of the Yoga Institute.
2. Belly Breathing, Nostril Breathing and Bhastrika Pranayama
From the Art of Living, (I love them), we have Dr. Nisha Manikantan explaining 3 great pranayama techniques for anxiety.
It has 3 different pranayamas: belly breathing, alternate nostril breathing and Bhastrika Pranayama.
If you want to skip ahead to any of the following breathing exercises below I have them marked for you.
5:32 Belly breathing in sitting pose
9:40 Belly breathing lying down on the back
13:17 Alternate Nostril Breathing (Nadi Shodhan Pranayama)
17:42 Bhastrika Pranayama
Play the video below and follow along….they work!
3. Rainbow Breath
This one is for the children. I have noticed in my years as a public educator that students are getting more and more anxious even at younger ages. They need a way to quickly calm and this one works like a charm.
The rainbow breath is really as it sounds, children move their arms in a long movement as if it were a rainbow. Check out the video below and pass this article along if you have friends or family who could really use this.
4. Bee Breath
Ok this one is great for quickly calming the mind! It might be my favorite. However, not one you probably want to do at work or in public, unless you want people staring at you…but you do you:) It does require plugging your ears and humming (buzzing) like a bee.
Check out the great demonstration below and follow along.
Yoga
I love to do yoga when I’m really stressing out….especially when it’s that time of the month and my anxiety is at an all time high! Give me an amen if you know what I mean ladies!
Here’s my routine I have used for years. Of course, you can google all kinds of yoga for anxiety and there are some great ones, but this is simple and effective.
Here it is:
Start with a couple of rounds of salutation to the sun and then just hold plank pose as long as you possibly can.
Plank pose is the key— and then come back up and do a couple more salutations to the sun and then plank pose again.
Plank Pose
I also like to grab some 10 lb dumbbells or whatever weight you are comfortable with and just do some bicep curls as long as you can in between salutation to the sun sets for an extra heart pumping.
And no, I am not the best at exercising being an overworked, hardworking momma (I know …excuses) but this is really one of the best go-tos for stress.
I love this simple video below you can follow along with in case you are not familiar with salutation to the sun.
Meditation
And number three is the glorious meditation. My lifeblood…and hopefully I convince you to feel the same. Speaking of, I offer free meditation classes, so sign on up and join me.
Careful, however, if the mind is super agitated and really stressed out and depressed then you shouldn’t be doing meditation intensely or just do it for a few minutes if you can handle it.
Otherwise, if you can handle meditation when you have anxiety, that will really help!
Especially if you don’t have a solid practice down yet with meditation.
The longer you do a consistent and solid meditation practice, the easier time you will have slipping into meditation and start to calm your mind and body.
Journaling
Last but not least is journaling. Really sit down and intentionally write and write and write. Write about your fears, write about what is blocking you, write about what would make everything better.
Also, some art therapy in your journal will help too. Many therapists recommend drawing out your issues. They can look like a 3-year-old drew them, it doesn’t have to be great. But draw the issue, however, you want to represent it, draw the stress.
So for example, I am an overworked mom with too many things to do, and one time I just drew myself caged in a box with a horrible drawing of a stick figure lol, but it worked. This art therapy kind of works magically and helps clear up the issues. Try it in your journal alongside your written journaling pages and see what you think.
I’ve written a post in detail how journaling helps us, with over 20 prompts to get you started, read about that here.
You can also download both of my free journals. Here is the info on your free spiritual journal. And if you want a journal to follow along with the cycles of the moon, here is more info on your 2023 moon calendar and journal.
This is not medical advice, these are just three things that I have used for many years now to help anxiety. I am very prone to anxiety, I get it a lot but it’s definitely gotten better as the years go on. And I believe these practices have helped me immensely. When I really feel it starting to come on, I use these techniques.
Hopefully one or more of these techniques will help you get your peace of mind back too!
Share yours. Let’s grow and learn together.
Looking for more resources? Visit my most read blogs and get tons of good info and tips
Meditation for Beginners -Aids to Help you with Your Practice
Numerology 101-How to Lead a More Divinely Guided Life with Numerology
With all the Love and Good Wishes your Way. I’m literally cheering you on.
Heather Hathaway, M. Ed.
Certified Meditation Teacher
