Introduction
The leaves are turning to burnt sienna and gold, the air is crisp, and you’re starting to feel more stressed than usual. Ah, autumn! It’s a beautiful time of year…but also one ripe with anxiety. While it can be helpful to recognize your own triggers for anxiety (here’s how), it can be even better to take action against them. From exercise and meditation to journaling and even eating certain foods that fight anxiety, these five tips will help you get through this season with all your mental health intact:
Take a walk in nature
Nature is a great source of calm, and getting out in nature can help you relax. There are a few reasons why walking outside is such a beneficial activity:
- It’s an easy way to get exercise if you don’t have much time for working out. Just walking around at a leisurely pace for 30 minutes burns more than 250 calories!
- You’re less likely to overindulge on food or alcohol when you’re enjoying the fresh air and sunshine outdoors.
- The sights, sounds, smells and textures of natural surroundings can be soothing and relaxing—despite being chaotic in their own right (think leaves rustling or birds chirping). Walking through the woods or even your backyard is guaranteed to make you feel relaxed after just 10 minutes spent there.
Meditate
Meditation is a great way to relax and be present in the moment—two things that will help you deal with your anxiety. Meditation can also contribute positively to your sleep, focus, mood, and overall health.
If you haven’t meditated before, start small by taking 5 minutes out of your day just to sit quietly and breathe deeply until you feel relaxed. It’s hard at first but gets easier with practice!
If meditation isn’t your thing, try taking a walk outside. Even if you don’t live somewhere that’s great for walking or you’re too busy to take an hour-long stroll in the park, even just ten minutes outside can help clear your mind and get some fresh air.
Count your blessings
One of the best ways to combat anxiety is by counting your blessings. Yes, it sounds sappy and cliche, but that doesn’t make it any less effective. Pull out your journal or notebook and write down three things you are grateful for in life right now (you can include the future if you like). Try not to think about anything else while doing this exercise; just focus on what’s important: your health, family and friends. The more distractions pulled away from your mind, the better chance you’ll have at coming up with a meaningful list. If a friend does something nice for me today or someone let’s me cut ahead in line at McDonalds , I know exactly what I will write down!
Exercise often
Regular exercise is an effective way to reduce your anxiety and the symptoms it causes. Exercise helps you feel good about yourself, improves your mood, and gives you more energy. When you’re able to get outside and get moving, it can also help you feel less trapped by all of the other responsibilities on your plate. Here are some ways that you can incorporate exercise into your day:
- Take a walk around the neighborhood
- Bike to work instead of driving
- Take dance class (or any kind of class) at a local community center
Eat foods that fight anxiety
There are several foods that you can eat to fight anxiety. They are rich in vitamins and minerals that help improve your mood and reduce stress.
- Eat foods rich in vitamin B: Vitamin B is an essential nutrient for the production of serotonin, which plays an important role in fighting depression and other mood disorders.
You should include foods like potatoes, bananas, bell peppers, spinach, popcorn and almonds in your daily diet. Eating these types of food will help increase the levels of vitamin B in your body which results into improved mental health.*
Journal
Journaling is an excellent tool for helping you process your thoughts and feelings. It can be done in a variety of ways, but the idea is that by putting pen to paper you’ll get a better understanding of how you’re feeling.
The first step in journaling is to write down what’s on your mind. Write everything that comes into your head without worrying about spelling—it doesn’t matter if it makes sense or not! After writing out all of these thoughts and feelings, go back through them again and circle any words or phrases that stand out to you. Next, write down what these circled words mean to you and how they relate to each other! Then, after going through this process twice more (once with just the circled words, once with both sets), choose two of those words as focal points for future entries in this journaling exercise. Finally, take some time out from writing so you can rest before starting again tomorrow!
Get enough sleep & wake up earlier
As we’ve discussed, sleep is an important part of maintaining good mental health. But it’s not just that; getting enough sleep can actually help reduce the symptoms of anxiety.
As you may have experienced firsthand, not getting enough sleep can make you feel more anxious and depressed. It can also increase your risk for developing chronic conditions like obesity, heart disease and diabetes.*
If you want to avoid this vicious cycle of poor sleep leading to more anxiety and vice versa, then take steps now to improve your sleep hygiene—that is, the behaviors you engage in before going to bed (and while sleeping). In addition to managing stress levels throughout the day so that they don’t affect your ability to fall asleep at night (see below), there are several things you can do during those last few hours before bedtime:
Find more ways to relax
If you’re feeling anxious, it can be difficult to find time to relax. Between work, family obligations and other responsibilities, there might not be much time left in your day besides sleeping.
Fortunately, there are plenty of ways you can find more relaxation in your daily life. Here are just a few ideas:
- Take a bath
- Read a book
- Listen to music with headphones on (but don’t blast it so loud that the neighbors can hear)
- Write in a journal or diary
There’s no need to suffer from anxiety.
You can help yourself by taking care of your mental health. This means making sure you eat well, exercise and sleep at a healthy level. Take a break from anything that’s causing anxiety or stress. You need to look after yourself physically as well as mentally, so make sure you’re eating well and getting enough sleep so that the physical side of things is covered too!
Taking control of your life can help reduce symptoms of anxiety too – so if there are things in your life that cause you stress or bring on anxiety attacks, try changing them! See how much better it feels when you don’t have things like this hanging over your head all the time!
Conclusion
So how do you deal with anxious feelings? First, acknowledge that they are normal and then focus on what you can do to help yourself. Take some time to enjoy the outdoors and find ways to relax such as meditation or journaling. You can also try getting some exercise every day which will make you feel better about yourself and give your body some much needed rest. The most important thing is not letting yourself get too overwhelmed by life’s stresses because this could lead into more serious problems like depression which has been linked with many health issues including heart disease!