Breathe and Find Presence
The anxiety we feel can last for just a few moments when we are experiencing high levels of stress. Some of us may perceive it as a temporary thing, while others may have more constant feelings in your life. Either way, when you experience it in your body, it feels awful.
Stress is something that we experience naturally; it's a remnant from our caveman days attached to our fight or flight system. Our brain turns on the response and dumps cortisol and adrenaline into the body. What this means to us is that we usually lose focus, which causes us to potentially make an irrational decision or just a mistake in judgment or speech. We may not necessarily immediately think of stress or anxiety as the culprit, but the tightness we feel tells a different story. With the world we live in, it is so easy to feel anxious and stressed out daily, if not hourly.
Knowing how to calm down your nervous system could change your life, I have experienced this first hand, and I've undergone radical changes in my life. The secret is no secret. I have found that practicing yoga every day has allowed me the ability to live with very low levels of stress and anxiety. Yoga really can be magical if you allow it to be. Officially I have completed 1000 plus consecutive days that started as a 5-20 minute practice to 90 plus minutes a day now. Unofficially I have over three years because I started in April 2017, and the app that I use to track my progress didn't come into existence until August 2017.
You don't need much to start; I started with YouTube on my phone and a towel I could put under my knees (hardwood floors were not kind to me). Most people think of yoga as a fitness program, and it can be if that is your goal, but yoga in itself focuses on three aspects of you; the mind, body, and soul.
My routine is very simple, and I begin every morning with at least 60 minutes. I think mornings are the best time to practice following my very simplistic theory. If I start my day feeling relaxed, it's harder for life's unforeseen situations to stress me out. Plus, getting up early in the mornings makes me feel like I have an advantage on the day and the people around me.
Doing this practice as the first thing you do in the morning allows you to work out the kinks in your body from the previous night's sleep. Doing slow-moving poses gets your body ready to move, and you get to stretch out your back and hips. Some people say that stress and anxiety enjoy hanging out in your hips, so when stretching them out, you might be able to release that unwanted stress from the previous day. Yoga also helps lower your heart rate, which helps your body respond to stress more efficiently. Moving through these postures, I can give my full attention to my body, and the sensation of breathing calms the mind.
Breathing will also reduce the stress in your nervous system. Studies have shown that breathing is a self-soothing technique that can prevent the onset of anxiety. Breathing reduces anxiety by modulating the stress response system. Pro-tip, life hack, or friendly advice: When you feel anxious, your breath becomes shallow. This means your brain is kicking on the fight or flight response in your body unnecessarily. Taking a minute or five minutes of dedicated deep conscious breathing will make you feel better immediately. Doing this provides more oxygen to your heart, lungs, and brain, thus activating your body's relaxation response. Plus, it will loosen up your shoulders, back, and neck eliminating that feeling like you are being twisted into a knot.
My routine may not work for you, and you may already have something that alleviates the stress and anxiety from your life. If you don't, I would highly encourage you to find something that you can use. When I suffered from panic attacks, there were some days I felt like I was going to die from the pressure that was pushing down on my chest. Believe me, yoga wasn't an instant cure, but it created hope. Yoga can truly help reduce stress and anxiety and was the most effective tool I had to combat my depression and anxiety. If none of that is any concern for you, you can still lower your blood pressure, boost your immune system, and improve heart function. We all win in the end.