5 Daily Tips for Reducing Anxiety
“I feel so emotionally drained after spending time with people.”
“My anxious brain won’t let me fall asleep.”
“I don’t know how to stop feeling so physically anxious all the time.”
“I just feel stuck worrying each day.”
Have any of these thoughts crossed your mind before, leading you to feeling trapped and defeated with your anxiety? If so, you’re not alone. For folks who struggle with social anxiety, panic attacks, or even chronic worrying, it can be a lot of trial and error to find what works best for managing your anxiety.
As a licensed mental health therapist, I wanted to offer some helpful tips which I have seen—and personally experienced—that have helped rewire the anxious brain. In reality, every person should try to achieve these daily, but especially anxious folks stuck worrying, ruminating, or panicking most days. Because as you may already know, worrying won’t make the situation any better.
Although these tips will be more generalized, I encourage you to narrow in on what works best for your schedule, lifestyle, and desired outcomes for anxiety management. When we work towards decreasing our anxiety, it involves a shift towards holistic healing.
Holistic healing is therapy that addresses the whole person–the mind, body, and spirit–rather than focusing only on one specific issue. It allows for you to feel more productive with your healing journey when you see the interplay between mental and physical health, as well as spiritual and social well-being.
5 tips to build a day with less anxiety:
Body Movement is key for working through the physical (and even mental) aspects within anxiety. When we move our body, it releases endorphins which have mood-boosting and stress-reducing effects, improves our sleep, regulates our stress hormones, and helps shift our focus from anxious thoughts.
Some examples of body movements include dancing, running, exercising, yoga, stretching, shaking out your arms and legs, walking outside, and so much more! Just move your body each day.
Eating Protein is an essential component of any healthy diet, but often neglected when our anxiety or stress makes us lose our appetite. Whatever source of protein works, even if it’s just a protein shake. The goal is to prioritize meeting your protein intake daily because the amino acids in protein are necessary for mood regulation and help stabilize blood sugars (which can worsen anxiety).
Here are some options for daily protein: lean meats (beef or chicken), salmon, tuna, eggs, nuts and seeds (almonds, walnuts, pumpkin seeds), chickpeas, lentils, and other beans.
Recharge Your Body basically means finding a way to rest and relax each day, not just unwinding at bedtime. We are not wired to constantly be on the go or expected to perform all the time. Our body and anxious brains need time to rest throughout the day as well. It’s important to find ways to intentionally calm your body down—and your nervous system—each day, allowing you to feel the most productive by the end of the day.
Resting your body can look like meditation, practicing mindfulness, yoga, deep breathing, somatic exercises, reading, journaling, cuddling with your partner, petting your animal, or just simply taking a short nap.
Mental Engagement involves discovering ways to challenge yourself and push your limits, which is typically the opposite of what anxiety tells us. When we seek out ways to think differently, or are more in control of what we're thinking about, it helps rewire our brain in the long run to feel more comfortable in the discomfort.
Here are some examples of ways you can stimulate your brain daily: reading, learning or practicing a new skill, gardening, watching educational videos, crocheting/knitting, drawing, crafting, talking with people in your life, or working on a puzzle.
Nourish Your Soul is the final component to include daily into your daily regimen. When I mentioned holistic healing earlier, this part often gets overlooked in our healing journey. But I believe we need something bigger than ourselves to help balance out the physical and mental aspects. Connecting with what fuels you, what matters most to you, and identifying your motivations in life will help with developing the self-discipline to reduce anxiety overall.
Nourishing your soul each day can be as simple, yet effective, as whatever works with your schedule. Here are some ideas to get you started: spending time in nature, engaging in prayer, practicing gratitude, gardening, connecting with your values, cooking a nutritious meal, talking about your faith with others, helping others, or creating a sacred space that you feel safe within your home.
Here’s a guideline for how these may be implemented into your daily routine:
30 minute exercise in the morning to move your body
Protein-based lunch to properly fuel your mind
Mid-day stretching or journaling for 10 minutes to give yourself a brief reset
Engaging in a fun hobby during the evening, either alone or with your people
Listing out 3 things you were grateful for that day to end the night
Doing all of these each day won’t dramatically make you feel less anxious, but it will help you feel more in control of your anxiety. There is still so much that can be improved upon with whatever you are feeling through either engagement in therapy or medication management.
You can start building this foundation for yourself today, just by implementing these 5 tips each day to reduce your anxiety. Prioritize moving your body, ensure you are eating some protein, rest and relax briefly throughout the day, challenge yourself mentally, and cultivate your serenity within.
Feeling less anxious isn’t just a quick fix; it’s a lifestyle change. Schedule a consultation with me today if interested in reclaiming your life from chronic worry!
