I have worked with lots of clients over the years facing a variety of different levels of anxiety and it still saddens me to hear that one in four Australians experience anxiety and that in the last 6 years there has been an increase of 60% in anxiety related cases. I can see even within my own business this desire for answers around anxiety as my post on Releasing Anxiety with Crystal Healing is my no.1 searched post.
As I have mentioned before I believe Anxiety is most commonly caused by fear underpinned by a lack of self worth, constant worrying and chronic stress, and being in the past or future rather than the present. Hence my passion to awaken self belief and confidence within the world and shift our view of stress so that we can all begin to see our energy, and even stress, as a healthy friend not foe.
Remember …. excitement and nerves can often feel very similar xxx
Now I would never want to sound flippant when it comes to such a debilitating imbalance but I am totally excited to say that if you are this one in four there are so many wonderful energy based tools that can support your symptoms and when practiced regularly eliminate your anxiety. How do I know … because I am a previously self confessed stress-addict, now turned stresspert who has research lots and lots and I have seen my clients with really bad cases of panic attacks and anxiety working with these tools and they are now anxiety free.
Let’s get down to the nitty gritty top 10 tips ….
Tip 1: BREATHE
I can’t emphasize enough how important it is to practice deep breathing regularly. Especially when you aren’t feeling anxious so that your body can begin to get to know this feeling of calm (practice makes perfect) and it will then be reminded of how to do this in those moments when you are feeling most anxious, stressed or a panic attack is coming on. A simple technique … let’s do it together … 1,2,3 “aaaaaaahhhhhhh” breathe out completely, then breathe in for 3-4 breaths, breathe out for 3-4 breaths. The tip here you want to get your breath all the way down into your belly and to exhale as much as possible. I would practice this everyday and a great start is to commit to doing it as you get into bed at night. This will be a good reminder, nothing else will get in the way and it will help with your sleep. If you want to try it lying down place you hand on your belly and feel it rise and fall with your breath.
Tip 2: CLEAR YOUR ENERGY REGULARLY
Now you are probably doing this already it might just need a little added intention to it, where intention goes energy flows e.g. as you exercise or relax set the intention that you are releasing all excess energy and stress from your body, affirm ‘I feel calm and release all that no longer serves me to be cleared from my energy field.” Lots of us are really sensitive to energy and sometimes the anxious, stressed out feeling inside isn’t actually even ours we have simply picked it up throughout the day because we care deeply about others. I imagine its like you are walking around all day with a velcro suit on that picks up all the finest particles of dust you encounter throughout the day, except your’s picks up stress, and then you don’t have the tools to clean it off. Exercise and meditation and two amazing tools to support clearing your energy and here is also a quick fix tool I love to use. If you are feeling really anxious then I would recommend starting gently with meditation and even attending a course (I know lots if you want to email me for recommendations). Meditation is a great form of releasing the excess stress in your body and therefore it can feel a little uncomfortable for some people especially if you are use to running a million miles an hour, its so worth sitting with the discomfort though as under this is immense peace.
FYI – dancing and singing or even just listening to music is an amazing way to chill out, have some fun and clear your energy.
Tip 3: SHIFT YOUR VIEW OF STRESS
Part of the problem with anxiety is that everyone out there is telling you that you shouldn’t feel stressed and you need to reduce your stress, now this correct to a certain point but the truth of the matter is that our view of stress impacts our energy more than stress itself. Telling yourself continually how stressed and busy you are is much worse than the actual amount of stress in your day. I have always believed that certain levels of stress are healthy as they keep up motivated, driven and inspired as otherwise we would be feeling totally bored with our lives. My challenge to you …. can you change your view of stress??? Firstly, what do you believe about stress withing your life, what is healthy, what is unhealthy and how can you bring in more healthy stress and eliminate more of the unhealthy, debilitating stress symptoms or thoughts (see Tip 9). And if you don’t know what you stress signs and symptoms are then get in touch and I will send you through a really quick 5minute quiz.
Next question for you … what juices your energy and what zaps your energy and how can you bring in more juicers and release some of the zappers???? Releasing some of the things in your life that zap your energy will definitely get you on the road to affirming self love and living anxiety free.
Tip 4: MEETING YOUR ANXIOUS SELF
For alot of people I sense they feel there is a stigma around anxiety and panic attacks which means they try to hide this, the reality is that all of your symptoms are simply energy trying to tell your something is out of balance. Here I am encouraging you to schedule in some quiet time and get to know your anxious self. What do they fear the most? What do they feel is missing in your life? In the moments of most stress what thoughts are they thinking? How is feeling anxious or creating panic attacks serving them e.g. is it protecting them from being seen in the world or making a mistake? The more you get to know this part of yourself and begin to observe his or her patterns the more you can move into loving and accepting them and understanding they simply want to be heard and to share what is really going on inside. We get so used to blocking our feelings and running through our busy days that sometimes we forget to check in with how we are really feeling and this build up can lead to anxiety. Anxiety is not your enemy, though it might feel like it, she/he just needs you share what imbalances are creating the symptoms and we find this by going within and avoiding avoiding heheheh. And if you are not so familiar with your anxious self and not sure where to start maybe watching this video might help …. FYI its a little bit confronting.
(Sourced: BeyondBlue)
Tip 5: NAME YOUR ACHIEVEMENTS
Start a list of all the things about you that make you amazing, all you have achieved, your strengths, everything you do or be that no-one else can do or be? How you contribute in the world, even in the most smallest ways? Anxiety is fear based and so if you tackle it by affirming just how amazing you are and all the cool things you have achieved and are grateful for in your life you will begin to acknowledge how brightly you are already shining and this light can be shone within the darkest hours. Make this an ongoing list and keep adding to it day by day, then in those moments where you are feeling anxious about life, living in the past or future, read this list and begin to acknowledge how wonderful you and your life are already. Adding in moments where you have overcome your anxiety, remembered to breathe, don’t something differently can help as a reminder of yours wins as well.
Tip 6: NAME YOUR FEARS
Aaaaahhhh one of my favourites …. “a fear named is a fear tamed” with this exercise write down all your fears, even the ones you want no-one to know. They might seem ridiculous and silly but keep writing. The freaking cool thing about quantum physics is that through the power of observation you begin to change and dissolve your fears as soon as you acknowledge them. Its about taking back your power, especially over your thoughts and mind. After you have created your list, and I would continue this exercise for a few days to get everything out, you can begin to see how these fears might be limiting your life and start to create a new plan based on overcoming these. The best bit about facing our fears is that we realise that most fears are complete fantasy and made up in our subconscious as a way of keeping us from awakening our greatest potential.
Tip 7: CHILL OUT MAN (OR WOMAN)
“One good thing about music, when it hits you, you feel no pain.” Bob Marley
Scheduling in down time, retreat time and time to have some fun and completely chill out is a great way to calm down your nervous system and your noisy mind and let the woes of your world subside. Our nervous systems as so overly stimulated by computers, lights, TV, noise and never really turning off and so I can’t emphasize enough the benefits of some time out and even a digital detox. This exericse is going to be really personal as some people love a bath to chill out, a catch up with friends, a retreat in the mountains, a night in with a good book, a yoga class, a boxing class …. how you chill out is up to you but you MUST schedule it into your diary as otherwise life will get in the way of your “chill out time man….”
Tip 8: GROUND AND GET OUTSIDE
How often do you feel stressed and then get outside, go for a walk or lay on the earth and its like all your problems just begin to melt away. Well they do actually, mother earth has an amazing healing ability and she absorbs excess energy and also helps keep us grounded and our “earth star” chakra balanced and flowing. Often if you are feeling anxious your earth star, base or heart charka are out of balance and so grounding and getting your feet on the earth is a perfect remedy. Gardening is great if you are a green finger too. And my favourite of course …. swimming in the ocean after a stroll on the beach.
Tip 9: CHANGE YOUR THOUGHTS …. CHANGE YOUR LIFE
What you say to yourself and others really does create your reality…. notice when you tell people how busy you are, how stressed you are, how you don’t have enough time, how you can’t go out because you get panic attacks, or you avoid specific people and situations because they make you anxious. All of these are reinforcing within your body and the universe you want more anxiety. Now this is not the time to get crazy and go all judging on yourself, changing our thoughts takes time and the best place to start is to become more observant with your words and your thoughts. Start a worry journal and take note of everything creating your stress, real or not. Then find ways to change it. Put post it notes up everywhere, pop them in as passwords, put reminders in your phone …. “I am calm, I feel amazing, Life Loves Me, Everyday I feel stronger and stronger, I am great, the world needs my uniqueness, I love myself, I am safe, I trust life” …. you get the idea. We want to short circuit the anxiety and fear based thoughts and create a new way of being and thinking. The scientific truth is your body doesn’t know the difference between thinking something and actually experiencing it and so the more you think anxious the more your body feels it, hence the more you think calm and peaceful, the more you feel it.
Tip 10: ASK FOR HELP
One of my greatest lessons in this life has been learning to be ok with asking for help and talking about how I am really feeling. Bottling it all up inside only makes things worse. For some of you, you will have that friend who is just the perfect amount of caring, listening and support and some of your might find it easier to talk to someone outside of your circle and thats where people like me come in handy with more tips and tools than you can imagine and ways of personalising them to fit perfectly into your life. Often friends and families hearts are in the totally right place but talking to our nearest and dearest only seems to escalate the anxiety. If you are ready to let anxiety go for good and would like some support to tackle this and a clear pathway to walk then I would highly recommend booking in for a one one one Breakthrough Session with me, created just for this and we can do this at my centre in Mosman or via skype in the comfort of your own home.
I would love to hear more about how you go practising these tips, if you have any questions or even if you have some to share that have worked for you we could share with the community.
So much peace and love sent from me to you, Kyla
(If you are wanting to know more about these facts around anxiety check out this great SMH article.)
