Anxiety lowering hacks: my 7 steps to reducing anxiety

Read on for some of my best tips for managing anxiety + claim your free anxiety management pdf at the end!

Hi! If you have been reading my blog for a while, you will know that I’ve suffered from anxiety for my whole life (reflecting back, if I’m honest), and I’ve found many great ways to manage it and keep it at bay. 

Life throws so many hurdles that cause stress & increase anxiety and the good news is there are lots of physical and nutritional techniques you can try to manage it and decrease it appearance or severity of symptoms

Before I share my tips, I want to explain what anxiety may feel like and what symptoms to watch out for:

✧ Palpitations or increased heart rate

✧ Shortness of breath - feeling like you are struggling to inhale enough air

✧ Sensation of choking, chest pain or discomfort - some people may think they are having a heart attack

✧ Nausea (feeling sick to your stomach) or abdominal distress (bloating, pain, having to go number 2)

✧ Sweating, trembling or shaking

✧ Feeling dizzy, unsteady, lightheaded

✧ Fear of losing control, fear of dying - mentally it can feel like you can’t think straight and are going crazy

✧ Specific phobias - scared or feeling fearful of something that you may not normally react to, feeling a sense of dread

✧ Chills or hot flushes

✧ Somatic symptoms: IBS; fibromyalgia (non-specific body pain, not caused by anything specific) or chronic, persistent muscle pain;

✧ Excessive blushing (red cheeks/feeling hot in the face)

✧ Chronic fatigue - anxiety can make you feel incredible tired, even though you may feel like your mind is wired and physically on edge

Have you experienced any of the above? I sure have!

I didn’t know that it was anxiety for the longest time. Now that I’m a pro in identifying it and managing it, if I see the more subtle symptoms coming on, or if I know I have hectic week with excess demands then I STOP.

I cut out whatever I can in my schedule, and prioritise my well-being trying to prevent moving further into a more intense anxious state (like feeling like I can’t breathe or almost having a panic attack).

Because once I’m in that anxious state it feels awful first of all, but it doesn’t help me (can’t get anything done, can’t even relax or sleep, and it doesn’t help those around me: my family, friends, students and clients)

Now to the important part, here IS what I do to manage anxiety. Not just when I feel it coming up, but throughout my days/weeks. These are lifestyle CHANGES that I have made to prevent anxiety as much as possible.

✦ Eat more antioxidant and anti-inflammatory foods. Simply put: loads of veggies!

✦ Avoid caffeine, alcohol, sweeteners, refined carbohydrates (white bread, pasta etc) and processed foods. 

✦ Have a turmeric latte or tea or add the spice to your meals: it is both antioxidant and antiinflammatory

✦ Eat enough good quality protein throughout the day (I’m vegan so this must be a conscious effort)

✦ Do regular exercise such as yoga, walking, or take up diaphragmatic breathing 

✦ Drink calming herbal teas (my favourite is lemon balm)

✦ Eat foods rich in probiotics and prebiotics (read my post on what they are)

I explain all of the above in more details and give you the foods/teas/portions that you will want to include to manage your anxiety in a gorgeous free PDF for you to download below.

You can keep it on hand, on your phone for example, so you can come back to it frequently and remind yourself of the HOWS and WHYS of the above tips and start to incorporate them as habits into your daily life.

I hope you enjoy it, it’s done WONDERS for me!