by Liz B | Jun 21, 2018 | Entrepreneurship, Self-Improvement
I’m one of those people that have always been considered a creative type — because I have always been interested in art/graphic design, writing, music, and many other creative ventures over my lifetime. But even for me, creative thinking itself doesn’t always come naturally or automatically.
In 2011 I moved to Phoenix, Arizona, and landed a job as a Web Designer/UI Analyst. Although I had no question that I was a creative person (with an overactive imagination), on the job they would often have brainstorming sessions and expect me to be throwing out ideas right and left for any given project they’d be working on.
This particular way of being creative didn’t necessarily suit me at the time. I wasn’t comfortable being put on the spot and expecting great ideas to just shoot out of me rapid-fire style. I’m a more methodical, strategic type that prefers time by myself to think over the best approach.
Additionally, it was very clear that they were expecting something very specific out of me and out of any given project we were working on, and I was expected to match that. This ended up causing a mental block for me — I felt like I didn’t have any room to really be fully creative and was rather overly focused on meeting their expectations.
That being said, I started to lose my confidence in my abilities to some degree. I felt like I wasn’t living up to what they expected, and I felt like there was something wrong with the way I did things, because they didn’t seem to understand it either.
I kept thinking, “maybe I’m only sort-of creative in certain ways, but have an issue when it comes to being pressured to having something to show for it.”
Over time I also learned that that particular job just wasn’t a great fit for me for a number of reasons (not in the work I was doing, but more in the environment), and feeling like an outsider there to some degree also didn’t really help me to be creative.
Understanding the Nature of My Creativity
Some time later, I found an online class that was entirely centered around developing creative thinking. I learned that even those who weren’t born to be a “creative type” could learn creative thinking strategies that would help them come up with creative ideas; and the more you practiced it the more efficient you would become at doing this.
I took it because I felt vulnerable due to my experience at the job, and felt like this would help me regain some of my confidence. Maybe it would even help me adapt to situations where I was expected to come up with ideas on the fly.
The class really helped, and showed me that developing your creative mind really is like a muscle. It also helped me realize that I wasn’t lacking, but that I worked best in a specific way and there was nothing wrong with that.
So in addition to understanding how creative thinking could be developed, I gained more self-awareness about how my own brain worked and what stimulates my creativity rather than hinders it.
Some Strategies for Creative Thinking
- Get comfortable with being uncomfortable, as the saying goes. Get out of your comfort zone. Doing this is extraordinarily valuable in how it can open your mind and teach you things.
- Learn to embrace your own “weirdness” and what makes you unique. Don’t suppress or deny any parts of you just because you think they might be looked at in a negative way. This will help you embrace all of your traits and expand your limits.
- To think of something unique, practice thinking of two or more unrelated things and putting them together to make something entirely new (for example, an “air conditioning monster”).
- Take a project that’s already been done or somebody you’re inspired by and put your own spin on it.
- And most importantly, read this super awesome article from one of my favorite entrepreneurs James Altucher. He talks about making a habit of coming up with 10 ideas a day and how this consistent habit can seriously change your life over time.
He also mentions the following:
Perfectionism is the ENEMY of the idea muscle. Perfectionism is your brain trying to protect you from harm. From coming up with an idea that is embarrassing and stupid and could cause you to suffer pain.
We like the brain. But you have to shut the brain off to come up with ideas.
This explanation is exactly what happened to me on the job. Not fitting into their method of coming up with ideas and the loss of confidence in myself as a result further debilitated me from being able to function in a creative way.
Perhaps if I had focused on not caring what ideas came out of my head (whether good or bad) or if they matched what I thought their expectations were, I would have actually come up with some pretty awesome stuff.
Hopefully if you’re having (or have had) an experience similar to mine, this will inspire you to regain confidence in yourself even if you’re experiencing a creative muscle block, and not to fear if it happens!
It doesn’t mean you’re not actually creative, you just have to learn and work with how your brain works best.
by Liz B | Apr 18, 2018 | Emotions, Mental Health, Self-Improvement
If there is one thing I could say has been the greatest and most difficult goal I have had to continually work towards, it would be letting go: Letting go when things don’t go your way, when people don’t understand you, when you lose someone you love; or of emotions such as anger, jealousy, or just unproductive thoughts in general. Then there is learning to let go of the all the expectations of yourself and your life that might just not turn out how you thought.
It really is a moment-to-moment practice that increases in difficulty with the more attachments and illusions you have. The more you try to control any circumstances in your life, the more tightly-wrapped and emotionally involved you become; thus it’ll then create more of a mental buildup that you will have to overcome in order to not be disappointed when things don’t go your way.
All of this might be something we understand intellectually, but when it comes to putting it into action, there’s no denying that it is really hard, usually because we get in the way of our own selves.
“Where Did This Anger Come From?”
We have emotions that we have to deal with that can spark up for any reason at all. Our emotional reactions are often telling of where we might have insecurities or a certain perspective of things that might not be allowing us to see a situation as it is. But working through these things takes time and an awareness that it is happening in the first place.
One way I struggle with this is when I’m talking with someone and they aren’t understanding what I’m saying, or I feel like they are criticizing me. My initial reaction might be to get frustrated, and once they see my frustration, the emotions elevate on both sides and the conversation can turn into a fight. To avoid this, I don’t try to fight the frustration necessarily, but simply acknowledge that it’s there and that expressing it won’t help anything. I remind myself as to why the frustration occurs and then try to tell myself things that will de-escalate it.
Letting Go of Negativity
Another example where I had difficulty letting go in the past had to do with how I would absorb myself into the negativity of the world. This is easy to do, because the negativity is everywhere. You can tune into any sort of news source and get your daily dose of saddening news.
Top that with a curiosity for why things happen the way they do, or to try to understand the minds of people who commit horrible crimes, and it can be even harder to not get sucked into this stuff.
Humans also tend to be drawn towards things that are shocking or even violent, which is why so many shows that are full of thrilling content tend to get people hooked.
I used to think that being tuned into the worlds’ horrors (and not avoiding them) kept me realistic and on my feet, but I discovered this was just another illusion. It was just something my fear was telling me, and kept me just a little farther from peace of mind.
The problem is that negativity is draining.
As time passed and I grew a little older (and wiser), I realized that the more negativity I was surrounded with, the more drained I was. I understood the idea of creating my own mind state of positivity, but felt at the time that in order to do that I had to deny the reality of things.
The truth is that you can always be aware of the reality of what’s happening around you, but you don’t have to let yourself be consumed by it.
Additionally, once I became self-aware enough to realize how negativity was affecting me personally, I naturally began to want to avoid it.
Stepping into Self-Awareness
One of the best things we can do for ourselves is strive to become more aware of our emotional responses, accepting them for what they are, and work on managing them the best we can. Often, this will take consistent work and monitoring of ourselves, but the resulting awareness is worth it. Because then we begin to free ourselves more and more in being able to choose how we respond rather than falling into our habitual emotional patterns.
It’s also worth taking some time to think about what expectations we have of the world and of people, and how these might be affecting the way we operate or taking away our energy. Many of us have a certain idea of how you’re supposed to act or respond in any given situation. People are also generally too caught up in what’s socially acceptable and what isn’t. The more we can free ourselves from these boundaries (obviously without being completely unreasonable), the more we can feel out our natural responses and experience internal peace.
Lastly, we should evaluate our lives and see what circumstances might be bringing us down. It’s not worth keeping overly negative people or situations in our life. We need to take care of ourselves and sometimes certain people or situations can affect our mental health much more than is readily apparent.
“In the end, only three things matter: how much you loved, how gently you lived, and how gracefully you let go of things not meant for you.” —Unknown
by Liz B | May 10, 2016 | Emotions, Lifestyle, Mental Health, Mindfulness and Meditation, Self-Improvement
Let’s be honest: On average, the way we as human beings have learned to handle our emotions is very often a mess. We all have a myriad of emotions we might experience throughout just one day, and we are so used to our own emotions that we may not really think to look at them, or we might sometimes have a certain way of always dealing with them (that may or may not be healthy).
Some people may express one emotion more strongly in order to cover up the other, some people may hide them entirely, some people may have them but are in denial themselves over what they are feeling.
On top of that, the way we grow up may condition us to judge ourselves over what we are feeling, causing us to feel alienated from others.
Males are often taught to handle their emotions differently than women (part of which led to the idea that women are more emotional than men, but through all my life experience to date I can say with confidence this is not true). They are just often expressed and handled differently, and men and women sometimes place importance on different things.
Emotion is a touchy, emotional subject in itself. But the truth is, emotions are also a gateway.
The way that we handle and express our emotions can give us clues about our true feelings on many things, even if intellectually we may not admit it.
Through all my meditation ― i.e. exploration of the self ― and from ten or so years of being on the antidepressant Prozac, I’ve learned that recognizing and properly handling our emotions is an incredibly important step towards enhanced self-awareness that cannot be overlooked.
Prozac really muted my emotions, and while most people would think that is a blessing (and in some cases where people tend to overreact or over-stress, it might be), it actually at times led to confusion about how I really felt about things. It literally cut me off from myself in this way, and it was coming off of Prozac that made me really see the difference.
Our emotions can be the thing that tells us exactly what’s in our hearts, even if we don’t want to listen. They might in fact be the only thing that shows us our most fulfilling path in life, if we are willing to put our guard down, embrace them, and experience life with an open heart.
They may give us hints towards things we hadn’t yet intellectually considered, and if we analyze them a bit, we might realize there is a long chain of cause and effect that end up making us feel a certain way. Something that might lead far back to our past that was a traumatizing event and is now dominating our lives majorly, yet we may not have even noticed.
Pay Attention!
Even if we think the way we are experiencing emotions is completely fine and there’s nothing wrong, just paying more attention to them and learning to embrace them fully can release us in ways we may not have even imagined. It means we are actually willing to become more in touch with ourselves.
Accepting our emotions might also allow us to slowly let go of layers of emotional baggage so that we can be freer than ever before, because true freedom starts in the mind.
Some Tips on More Effectively Handling Our Emotions
- The most important thing: Pay Attention. That’s it. Buddhists have talked about attention as their greatest advantage when breaking the chains of the mind. It’s true. If we don’t watch over our own minds (and our emotions), we will be controlled by them. Take some time to really understand why you’re feeling what you do.
- Understand the intelligence and awareness that lies in vulnerability. In other words, don’t be afraid to be real with yourself, even if it breaks your pride a little bit. The things in life that break our pride are what shows us where we can improve, or might show us the true nature of things, even if it feels crappy. This is easier said than done, though, and I realize that. I don’t like having my ego deflated, either. But it sure has awoken me many-a-time to reality.
- Don’t judge yourself based on what you should or shouldn’t be feeling. Many people do this subconsciously and tuck their feelings away.
- Learn to express them fully, without question, then let them go. Go deep into your emotions and explore them. Live them out fully. When doing so, they will live out their life and then release. It is only by resisting and suppressing them that they might stay alive forever.
“You don’t need to control emotion,” he said. “Emotions are natural, like passing weather. Sometimes it’s fear, sometimes sorrow or anger. Emotions are not the problem. The key is to transform the energy of emotion into constructive action.”
― Dan Millman, Way of the Peaceful Warrior
“Emotions are the next frontier to be understood and conquered. To manage our emotions is not to drug them or suppress them, but to understand them so that we can intelligently direct our emotional energies and intentions…. It’s time for human beings to grow up emotionally, to mature into emotionally managed and responsible citizens. No magic pill will do it.”
― Doc Childre
by Liz B | Apr 21, 2016 | Lifestyle, Mental Health, Mindfulness and Meditation, Self-Improvement
I have found that many of the systems and paths that we have carved out for us in life, or that we follow, can improve our skills but may sometimes dull our creativity or even cover up things in life that we feel truly passionate about.
We may learn that following a path and acquiring achievements and recognition from doing so is the kind of happiness that we think we need. We forget what it feels like to be truly ignited by something, or we sacrifice pursuing that as we consider it less important.
However, I don’t think there’s anything more important.
Sure, we have to make a living and that requires us to make sacrifices sometimes. But, we still are in charge of getting our priorities straight and creating a life for ourselves that may be the “road less traveled by” but allows us to be our best selves and give to the world and ourselves all of our potential.
And, this kind of awareness helps us to truly appreciate life and what we are here for. It brings us out of the mud and makes us feel alive again.
Adulthood doesn’t have to be dull, systematic, and dominated only by to-dos.
There should be an undertone of joy, even amidst all the ups and downs.
Learning How to Appreciate
In thinking about what “becoming alive again” REALLY means, I realized it boils down to one primary attribute: appreciation. You have to learn to appreciate what’s in front of you. Being grateful is talked about a lot these days. However, it’s not just a matter of turning on your “grateful” switch. It’s often not simply just an intellectual process.
It’s very much an awareness that unfolds with really seeing and understanding what comes together in our lives to make us healthy and happy. In other words, it might take some work.
For example, once I tuned in enough to my body to see how good it feels when I eat food with wholesome ingredients (not processed, no added sugar), that represented a very real kind of awareness that made me appreciate healthy food that is doing good for my body.
At the bottom of all of this is us. We have to learn to get in tune with our selves and the rest will follow.
Here are seven things I thought of that can help uncover that feeling of becoming alive again (note, most of these need to be done regularly and require effort and patience. But if done, they will make a huge difference in your life.):
- Appreciate your food. Take a moment to think about where your food came from, be thankful that you have it, and chew slowly. Try to observe, and enjoy the process of eating. This took me a long time to do. But I noticed that I started naturally doing it in my times of highest awareness and clarity – like after spending time in nature.
- Observe the cause and effect of all situations in your life. Take a look at what happened to lead you where you are today. If you are happy in your current situation in all regards, that’s great. If not, observe the circumstances that took place to lead you where you are today, and where you might be able to make changes to an entirely different path that will lead you to entirely different place.
- Watch your mind. This one is the biggest one and I could write a book about it (and many have). But, your mind is the tool with which you create your perceptions and shape your life. Do not hold on to negative thoughts. We all get them, but practice letting them go. Observe and see how your perspectives might be telling you what you can or can’t do, or how life should or should not be. You don’t have to do anything here, but learn to watch.
- Experience more. Try new things. Things that might connect you with others, or show you something about yourself. It could be as small as trying a new food you were hesitant to try. Dare to go outside your comfort zone. You’re not getting anything from being in it.
- Start paying attention to gut reactions. Learn to say no. I always considered myself a pretty in-tune person, but I realized that just by habit I was often dismissing my own feelings on things. It can actually be a difficult process to differentiate between “this feels like something I should do, not that I’m excited to do,” if we’re always used to putting away our own feelings.
- Evaluate your life goals. What kind of goals are you setting, and why? What are you looking to achieve, and why? Is it something that you feel will make you more fulfilled on a deep level, or is it something that you think you should be doing to get ahead? I remember thinking years ago that I just wanted to hit a $50k income goal and that that’s all the money I would need in life ever. Now that I’ve hit that income goal and grown a little wiser, I’ve realized it is so not about the money. We all need it and more is better, but I realized that thinking in terms of money was getting in the way of me focusing on creating a life that fulfilled me, regardless of the income. It is kind of a trick; you have to reverse engineer this thinking. You have to go after what you enjoy doing the most and focus on your talents, and not worry about if it will make you enough money or not. Things will then fall into place.
- Set aside time for things in your life on a regular basis. Before bed, I made a sort of routine to light candles, turn off all electronics, read a book and drink tea. This has given me a happiness I didn’t have before. It allows my body to relax and contemplate the day. I’ve realized that constantly being distracted by electronics can create a stress response and not allow us to truly relax, even though you may not realize it at first.
by Liz B | Apr 8, 2016 | Consciousness, Lifestyle, Self-Improvement
When I was younger and a good thing happened in my life, I was always full of wishes for it to last forever. I’d say to myself “please PLEASE let me have this person in my life forever!!!” or what have you — I’d plead and beg to myself that things wouldn’t change and that it was something I could keep, in its exact state, as it was in that moment. I’m sure most of those of you reading this can relate.
It’s like that first love you had that was unlike anything you had ever experienced and allowed you to experience a whole new range of emotions and maybe made you feel a little more grown up, like you could say you finally knew what this “love” thing was all about.
It might’ve helped you form your identity by having this new experience with another human being and made you feel more important, because you were getting extra validation of your actions and your existence with this close relationship, and through each other you begin to meet new people who see you not just as an individual but a unit.
But as I have gotten older, the passage of time has told me the necessity of change. However, it has also shown me how resistant some of us still are to it. Even as we age, most of us have a plethora of external circumstances that continue to validate our actions. We learn to look to external sources — be it people, structures and systems such as school, accomplishments, careers, and what have you — as tools to measure our existence by.
It’s hard to ignore, because it happens by habit and by growing up in a society with structured systems that each of us plays a part in. Everything becomes a matter of relativity to something else; we’re making less money than someone else, we’re a different color than someone else, we didn’t accomplish a certain number of degrees compared to someone else, and thus the list goes on forever…and in even more subtler ways we might not immediately recognize.
We might be in and out of relationships that put us in different life situations where we have varying social statuses or introduce us to situations that are new and we discover new dimensions to add to what we understand as our identity.
Sometimes we notice how other people (or groups of people) react to us as a person and use that to understand ourselves or our placement in this world. Our identity really ends up becoming the sum of comparisons against something else, or a sum of the reflection of others’ opinions. And sometimes, we forget to learn how to look beyond all of it to reveal the source.
It might sound in words more simple than it is, but it is really complex, because from the time we were born, we have been introduced to life on earth and society as it is in this current state. We learn to understand ourselves only in the context of the current state of our world. If we don’t naturally explore other ideas frequently in our minds, learning to uncover our core can be a major undertaking.
These days, I use meditation and frequent contemplation to discover what deeply rooted perceptions I might have that were built from the time I was a kid or during days where I didn’t know better. I try to observe my day-to-day emotions and actions and see where they might be stemming from, or what is provoking them.
In my opinion, there is nothing more valuable than the evolution of the self. Relationships of all kinds, achievements and the like are important, but if they are becoming a hindrance to your potential, this is likely an issue or will become one. Healthy relationships and circumstances should be helping you to propel you forward, or should at least be supportive as you reach new heights in your understanding of your self.
And without change, we would suffer. We’d never grow, be pushed out of our comfort zone, and come to understand the world in new ways. We’d never reach new heights of happiness or release the chains of our mind that might be holding us back.
If change comes knocking at your door, open it with welcome arms and remind yourself that it might be the opportunity of a lifetime, even if it’s disguised behind a veil.
“I do not accept any absolute formulas for living. No preconceived code can see ahead to everything that can happen in a person’s life. As we live, we grow and our beliefs change. They must change. So I think we should live with this constant discovery. We should be open to this adventure in heightened awareness of living. We should stake our whole existence on our willingness to explore and experience.”
— Martin Buber
by Liz B | Mar 15, 2014 | Anxiety, Lifestyle, Mental Health, Self-Improvement
This is a continuation of the first Mastering Fear and Anxiety article. Read the post here first before reading this one.
In Part 1 of the article (as linked above), I really wanted to emphasize the importance in first recognizing anxiety for what it is, maintaining a healthy and proactive attitude towards it, and also stress how important just getting in basic needs are (i.e. proper sleep, proper diet, exercise, proper lifestyle). Seriously — it’s no joke. These are the most important core things to cover in treating anxiety.
In this section though, I want to cover some of the ways you can treat anxiety naturally on top of these. After 10+ years of anxiety and different medicinal treatments (including being on an anti-depressant for the majority of the time), I would still argue that in many cases, despite how uncomfortable and terrifying anxiety can be, you don’t actually need to be on an anti-depressant. The availability of natural remedies out there is plentiful and they can help balance your brain chemicals. That in combination with healthy eating, exercise, and sleep, can cure it all together.
If your case is severe enough and you need something as strong as an anti-depressant, then that’s one case you’d want to go for it. Sometimes you need to take something stronger and fast-acting in order to function at work or school. Trust me, I’ve been in those shoes. That’s another case where anti-depressants can help. The problem is, it’s easy to get psychologically dependent on them.
The real difference is that doing it the natural way is more work and can take longer to see the results. Healthy eating requires work, consistent exercise requires work, getting enough sleep requires discipline. Watching your mind and how it bubbles up thoughts that create anxiety is work and discipline. But you will be so much healthier and feel better all around, and you’ll also feel stronger and more motivated to overcome anything! The payoff is huge and much longer-lasting. It will ensure that you can deal with these things properly in the future, and your brain will also be better chemically equipped to deal with anxiety and stress.
Doctors will be quick to put you on an anti-depressant when you might not need to be. They typically don’t specialize in natural remedies, so it’s just not going to be suggested as the main course of action. Research online and trial and error with different natural remedies is really what it’s going to take.
Below is an article paraphrased from thecalmclinic.com that will explain and introduce some natural remedies.
What “Natural” Means
There are many different types of natural anxiety treatment options. The term “natural” simply means “without chemical medicine,” and this opens up hundreds of different doors that you can choose from to reduce and prevent your anxiety.
Natural Medicine is Still Medicine
The most important thing to understand is that the most “natural” way to treat anxiety is without any type of medicine at all. Many people turn to herbal supplements, for example, because these supplements are not made from manmade products, but medicine is still medicine, herbal or not. The safest possible way to cure anxiety – and the most natural way to treat anxiety – is with some type of therapy or exercise that does not involve any type of herbal or medicinal treatment in any way.
Keep that in mind as you consider alternative options to prescription anxiety medications. While an herb or mineral may improve your anxiety, they still affect your body, and are not truly as natural as learning new coping mechanisms and ways to control stress.
The Non-Medicinal Therapies
For those that are willing to commit to some type of treatment that isn’t plant or medicine based, the following are the most common and effective treatment options:
- Cognitive Behavioral Therapy
- Psychodynamic Therapy
- Gestalt Therapy
- Yoga/Meditation/Deep Breathing/Other Relaxation Exercises
- Holistic Therapy
Cognitive behavioral therapy, or CBT, is the type of therapy with the most research and the one that is highly recommended for anxiety and depression. But the other therapies may also have some benefit. Others prefer similar, but otherwise “alternative” therapies, including:
- Hypnotherapy
- Biofeedback
- Sound Therapy
There are also some unusual therapies, like laughter therapy, that can help some people with their anxiety. These types of therapies have considerably less research support, but many swear to their ability to reduce the effects of anxiety and other mental health problems.
Remember, these types of anxiety treatments are completely natural in a way that not even herbal medicine can provide. In addition, you should never take any type of supplement or medication without combining it with some type of long term coping treatment, like therapy. All types of medicines only provide temporary relief, and in the end you need to make sure you are committed to some type of treatment that will help you cope with anxiety for years to come, not just for the day.
Herbal Therapies for Anxiety
Of course, when most people think of natural anxiety treatments, they think of herbal medicine, because herbal medicine is considered a natural way to “treat” different disorders. The good news is that there are many different herbal medicines for anxiety. However, always talk to your doctor before taking any type of herbal medicine, as some of them may interact with other medications. Never take any herbal medicine with alcohol. The most common types of herbs for anxiety include:
Kava
Kava is the king of natural anxiety treatments, and the only herb that has been favorably compared in scientific studies to some of the most well-known prescription anxiety treatments.
Kava has an active ingredient known as kavalactones, which is believed to improve GABA levels and prevent epinephrine from overwhelming the body while leaving serotonin and other important neurotransmitters untouched.
Kava is powerful enough that medical experts strongly advise avoiding any other type of herbal supplement or medicine for anxiety while taking kava, because the effects may become too strong and cause significant drowsiness and other side effects. Kava also interacts very strongly with alcohol in a way that can damage the liver, so no one that uses kava should consume any alcohol while on a kava supplement.
Not all kava is created equal. Grocery story kava teas and droplets are unlikely to be powerful enough to provide you with the benefits you are looking for. Kava is fat soluble, meaning it needs to be taken with food or butter, and doses range anywhere from 150 to 300 kavalactones per day (far more than are generally supplied in grocery story varieties).
But kava is also not believed to have any side effects when taken as directed, has no addiction risk, and no withdrawal symptoms. It’s a great way to combat anxiety without the long term implications of benzodiazepines and other prescription anxiety treatments, and something you and your doctor may want to strongly consider.
Valerian Root
Valerian root is unlike kava, in that it doesn’t have anxiolytic (anti-anxiety) effects necessarily, but it does provide relief from the symptoms and is believed to have fewer interactions than kava does.
Valerian root is used as a sleep aid, and is generally not considered a natural treatment for anxiety. But the effects of valerian root are ideal for the type of symptoms that those with anxiety deal with, including muscle tension, a sense of agitation, and active thoughts. Valerian provides a level of relaxation that can help those with anxiety sleep more restfully as well. Since sleep is an incredibly important part of dealing with anxiety, this gives valerian additional benefits.
Never Just Take a Supplement!
Remember, never focus just on supplements alone. They’ll only help you manage your anxiety. Cure it by partnering them with effective coping strategies.
Passionflower
Passionflower is a very light version of kava, and recommended for those that are either not ready to commit to kava or do not experience that much daily anxiety and would prefer something less powerful.
The ingredients in passionflower are said to have a very mild anxiolytic effect and sedative effect, which is believed to come from its role in GABA production and regulation. Passionflower has seen less research than kava and other available natural options, but it’s used worldwide as an effective natural anxiety treatment option.
Magnesium
Magnesium is not an herb, but a mineral that is present in many foods. Unfortunately, millions of people have a very low level of magnesium intake, because it has been essentially stripped from most modern diets – especially in the United States and developed countries, where farming and food production practices eliminate the vital mineral from most food ingredients.
Low levels of magnesium are rarely responsible for anxiety itself, but may be responsible for some of the physical symptoms of anxiety. Not only do low magnesium levels cause issues like unusual feelings throughout the body, but anxiety can actually decrease your magnesium levels (magnesium is burned up during times of stress).
So taking magnesium at your doctor’s discretion is a smart idea for many people that may find that their most distressing physical anxiety symptoms disappear, thus making it easier to cope with the mental part of anxiety.
Other Natural Treatment Anxiety Options
The above herbal supplements are not the only natural options available. There are many other types of alternative anxiety options as well. A brief rundown includes:
- Homeopathic Remedies – Homeopathy is an often misunderstood alternative treatment. It’s the belief that a very, very diluted amount of elements that cause a condition like anxiety can cure it. Homeopathic experts believe that diluting things like arsenic and nicotine, among other things, to the point where only the smallest amount of the element remains will cure it. There is little evidence that homeopathic remedies work, but they remain popular nonetheless.
- Reflexology – Reflexology is the belief that pressure to certain points on the hand can relieve stress in the rest of the body. Reflexologists utilize these pressure points in a way that many believe has a very calming effect for all types of stresses.
- Magnet Therapy – Another interesting form of therapy is magnet therapy, also known as magnetotherapy. Magnet therapy believes that placing various magnets on your body will move elements around and provide you with therapeutic properties.
Other natural treatment remedies include aromatherapy, acupressure, Reiki, and more. There is no limit to the number of natural treatments that currently exist in the world today.
Many of these natural treatments for anxiety have never been researched. Generally, it is best to commit to a well-studied treatment, because your anxiety is not something to leave to chance. Nevertheless, many people support the use of the above treatment types, and so those that want to try an alternative treatment have their pick of many interesting and unique therapy options.
Partnering With An Anxiety Cure
It’s important to remember that the term “natural anxiety treatment” refers to anything that doesn’t involve prescription medication. It’s not just herbal remedies and alterative medicinal solutions. It’s crucial that you recognize that those types of treatments are only quick fixes. You always need to commit to some type of treatment that prevents and cures anxiety, not just manages it.
Article source: http://www.calmclinic.com/anxiety/treatment/naturally
