Mastering Fear and Anxiety, Part 1

Mastering Fear and Anxiety, Part 1

I’m a long-time sufferer of Generalized Anxiety Disorder

As a result, I know how uncomfortable, agonizing, and threatening anxiety can be. I also know how tough it can be to deal with and combat. When I first started getting my most intense bouts of anxiety, I didn’t really know how to deal with it. I had no defenses. I didn’t even really know what was going on, or the fact that what I was feeling was not due to any very real dangerous threat outside of the fear that I had. Even if it was even somewhat of a threat or an issue in real life, my mind was definitely blowing it up to gigantic proportions. And even if I knew that intellectually, it didn’t seem to help much.

After years and years of battling long bouts of constant anxiety and occasional panic attacks, I became motivated to help others learn and strive towards the same thing I did in order to master the anxiety. It can be a long road and it can cause many people to go down paths of alcoholism or drugs to relieve it, because the last thing you feel like you can do when you’re in the midst of panic and impending doom is to calm yourself down.

What’s the Key to Mastering Anxiety?

I learned that the key to mastering anxiety really lies in a combination of things. Just the way the definition of health encompasses a combination of things – physical health, mental health, diet, spirituality, exercise, etc. It’s the same with anxiety.

Anxiety can have a trigger or one root cause, but you come to realize that sometimes or maybe most of the time, that trigger doesn’t matter. It only matters in that approaching that trigger a certain way may help deflate the anxiety. But no matter what, it’s the anxiety that perpetuates itself and creates a monster in your head, and actually has much less to do with the original trigger or whatever it might be your anxiety is associating the fear with.

Your anxiety wants to associate it with something and makes that association important in your head. But, you have to learn to place less importance on it. It’s in anxiety’s nature to grab onto something and turn it into something else. It doesn’t matter what caused it. Try not to let it grab onto anything.

The FIRST Key is attending to your basic health needs. That would be:

-Getting Enough Sleep

-Eating Healthy (people’s idea of healthy varies greatly. When I say healthy I mean, cut the sugar out of your diet except for smaller amounts of natural sugars like from fruit. Get in tons of greens. Get in different types of protein daily. Eat healthy fats. Get rid of saturated fats. Lower your carbohydrate and sodium intake).

-Exercise (and challenge yourself!)

I’m sure you’ve heard it before, but these three things are the absolute keys to solving most health issues! Yes mental health issues, too. The way you eat, how often you exercise, and how much you sleep will contribute immensely to the balance of your brain chemicals. And the balance of your brain chemicals is absolutely essential in how intensely you will experience anxiety, and how well you will deal with it.

I have been on prozac for 9 years, and after I improved my diet, sleep, and exercise patterns, I was finally able to reduce my dose and eventually wean myself off.  Of course, I am also at a stable time in my life. Not to say I don’t ever experience anxiety, but my life, job, relationships, finances, are for the most part stable – which provided a good situation to start weaning myself off. I rely on intensive exercise to give my brain chemicals that boost instead of the prozac. It DOES work.

The second keys to mastering anxiety are:

-Learning to recognize anxiety the second it starts occurring. Not only the mental experience of it but the physical manifestations as well.

-Once it comes, instantly noting it as such and watching your mind closely at this point. Don’t let your thoughts spiral out of control and feed the anxiety. Because that will happen fast – and you won’t even notice it, unless you are paying attention. And I know once you get in high anxiety/panic mode, it’s much harder to wheel yourself back down to a calm state.

Maintaining a pro-active attitude. Once the anxiety comes and say you weren’t able to unwind it in time and it ended up getting to a high level, it’s time to dedicate yourself to working on it. Do what you need to do to make yourself feel better, within reason. I bought massage pillows, essential oils for aromatherapy, and I made plans of things to do to keep myself busy during the day. Dedicate yourself to getting over it. Keep watching your mind. For every thought that feeds your anxiety, combat it with a positive one. Do not give up. The mastering of anxiety will come down to how well YOU learn to grab onto it by its roots and pull it up. And don’t lose hope! It took me years of practice to be able to deal with it right off the bat and not let it get bad. It’s hard. Look at yourself like a student of anxiety that’s just learning its tricks and mischievous ways of getting you all strung out. With some hardcore dedication, you will be a mental ninja in no time!

Know that anxiety comes in many forms. Learn to recognize those for what they are, too. I got all sorts of weird mental and physical symptoms with my anxiety. Depersonalization, constant heart racing, constant nausea, sweats, shakes, insomnia — the list goes on. But the most difficult form to deal with are the tricks it can pull on your mind. It makes you doubt the more positive things people are trying to tell you. It makes you paranoid and at times almost addicted in a strange way to the negativity. It has so much allure and it pulls you in. Don’t fall for it! It’s mental poison! Enough of this can then eventually cause depression and then it starts feeding itself perpetually. If you let it spiral out of control, it will become fat, then you have that much farther to go once again to untangle your brain. Not fun.

“The belief is that being afraid keeps you from doing something dangerous or just dumb. But that’s one of the processes fear uses to protect itself. When we look more closely, we begin to see – especially if we decide to approach something we afraid of – that fear is protecting itself against us.

It looks as if fear is on your side, taking care of you, keeping you safe… until you decide to do something it tells you not to do. At that point you become enemies; you are in an adversarial relationship with that which is supposedly protecting you. 

In other words…rather than simply being a signal that something is going on, fear begins to look like an active force with an agenda of its own.

One might conclude that fear itself is the danger.”

-The Fear Book, by Cheri Huber, page 23.

Tips on mastering anxiety to be continued!

Optimizing Your Body For Good Health

Optimizing Your Body For Good Health

ISS_4644_05726“The body is a complex organism that has the ability to heal itself — if only you listen to it and respond with proper nourishment and care. In spite of all the abuse our bodies endure — whether through exposure to environmental toxins, poor nutrition, cigarette smoking, alcohol consumption, or inactivity — they still usually serve us well for many years before signs of illness may start to appear. Even then, with a little help, they respond and continue to function.

Think of your body as being composed of millions of tiny little engines. Some of these engines work in unison; some work independently. All are on call twenty-four hours a day. In order for the engines to work properly, they require specific fuels. If the type of fuel given is the wrong blend, the engine will not perform to its maximum capacity. If the fuel is of a poor grade, the engine may sputter, hesitate, and lose power. If the engine is given no fuel at all, it will stop.

The fuel we give our bodies’ engines comes directly from the things we consume. The foods we eat contain nutrients, and these nutrients come in the form of vitamins, minerals, enzymes, water, amino acids, carbohydrates, and lipids. It is these nutrients that sustain life by providing us with the basic materials our bodies need to carry on their daily functions.

Individual nutrients differ in form and function, and in the amount needed by the body; however, they are all vital to our health. The actions that involve nutrients take place on microscopic levels, and the specific processes differ greatly. Nutrients are involved in all body processes, from combating infection to repairing tissue to thinking.

Research has shown that each part of the body contains high concentrations of certain nutrients. A deficiency of those nutrients will cause the body part to malfunction and eventually break down — and, like dominos, other body parts will follow. To keep this from happening, we need a proper diet and appropriate nutritional supplements. Brain function, memory, skin elasticity, eyesight, energy, the ration of lean-to-fat tissue in the body, and overall health are all indications of how well the body is functioning. With the help of proper nutrients, exercise, and a balanced diet, we can slow the aging process and greatly improve our chances for a healthier, pain-free — and possibly longer — life.

If we do not give ourselves the proper nutrients, we can impair the body’s normal functions and cause ourselves great harm. Even if we show no signs of illness, we may not necessarily be healthy. It simply may be that we are not yet exhibiting any overt symptoms of illness. One problem most of us have is that we do not get the nutrients we need from our diets because most of the foods we consume are cooked and/or processed. Cooking food at high temperatures and conventional food processing destroy vital nutrients the body needs to function properly. The organic raw foods that supply these elements are largely missing from today’s diets.”
Source: Prescription for Natural Healing, by Phyllis A. Balch, CNC. Page 3.

Appreciating Healthy Food

Appreciating Healthy Food

A Dialogue taken from my favorite book, Way of the Peaceful Warrior by Dan Millman:

“I wondered about Joseph. “Is he a warrior, like you, Soc?”

“No one is a warrior like me,” he answered, laughing. “Nor would anyone want to be. Each man or woman has natural qualities. For example, while you’ve excelled in gymnastics, Joseph has mastered the preparation of food.’”

“Oh, you mean cooking?”

“Not exactly. Joseph doesn’t heat food much; it destroys the natural enzymes needed to fully digest the food. He prepares natural foods in a way you’ll soon see for yourself. After a taste of Joseph’s culinary magic, you’ll have no tolerance for fast food joints ever again.”

“What’s so special about his cooking?”

“Only two things, really—both subtle. First, he gives his complete attention to what he does; second, love is literally one of the primary ingredients in everything he makes. You can taste it afterwards for a long time.”

“Wait a minute, Socrates. Eating isn’t really a problem area for me. I’m slim, I generally feel pretty good, and my gymnastics proves I have enough energy. How is changing a few things in my diet going to make a difference?”

“Your present diet,” he said, glancing up through the sunlit branches of a beautiful tree, “may give you a ‘normal’ amount of energy, but much of what you eat also makes you groggy, affects your moods, lowers your level of awareness, and interferes with your body’s optimal vitality. Your impulsive diet results in toxic residues that have a long-range effect on your longevity. Most of your mental and emotional problems could be minimized by simple attention to proper eating.”

“‘How can changing my diet affect my energy?” I argued. “I mean, I take in calories, and they represent a certain amount of energy.’

“That is the traditional view, but it is a shallow one; the warrior must recognize more subtle influences. Our primary source of energy in this system,” he said, waving his arm to indicate the solar system, “is the sun. But in general, the human being–that’s you..

“‘Thanks for the concession.”

“… in his present state of evolution, has not developed the ability to make direct use of the sun’s energy; you cannot ‘eat sunlight’ except in limited ways. When humanity does develop this ability, the digestive organs will become vestigial and the laxative companies will go out of business. For now, food is the form of stored sunlight which you need.

A proper diet allows you to make the most direct use of the sun’s energy. The ensuing store of energy will open your senses, expand your awareness, and sharpen your concentration into a slashing blade.”

“All that is going to happen by eliminating cupcakes from my diet?”

“Yes–by eliminating cupcakes, and a few other odds and ends.”

“One of the Japanese Olympic gymnasts once told me that it’s not your bad habits that count, but your good ones.”

“That means your good habits must become so strong that they dissolve those which are not useful.” Socrates pointed ahead to a small cafe on Shattuck near Ashby. I’d walked by there many times without really noticing it.

“So, you believe in natural foods, Soc?” I said as we crossed the street.

“It’s not a matter of believing but of doing. I can tell you this: I eat only what is wholesome, and I eat only as much as I need. In order to appreciate what you call natural foods, you have to sharpen your instincts; you have to become a natural man.”

“Sounds positively ascetic to me. Don’t you even have a little ice cream now and then?”

“My diet may at first seem Spartan compared to the indulgences you call ‘moderation’, Dan, but the way I eat is actually filled with pleasure, because I’ve developed the capacity to enjoy the simplest foods. And so will you.”

The Benefits of Brussels Sprouts — There Are Many!

The Benefits of Brussels Sprouts — There Are Many!

03D38082-Brussels sprouts contain a unique combo of cancer-fighting phytonutrients called glucosinates, making it an important food for chronic disease prevention.

-High in fiber, Brussels sprouts are great for the digestive tract. They help reduce cholesterol and may reduce the risk of colon cancer.

-The nutrients in Brussels sprouts offer a powerful mix of cardiovascular, detox, antioxidant, and anti-inflammatory support.

A great way to eat brussels sprouts: Sauté them with garlic, onion, and pancetta, and then pan-braise them with a splash of balsamic and chicken stock.

Source: Experience Life Magazine, page 48, October 2013.

Probiotics and Athletes

Probiotics and Athletes

Probiotics are defined as living microorganisms which when administered in adequate amounts confer a health benefit to those taking them. Health benefits can be attributed to an ability to assist the natural microflora, either to re-establish itself following imbalance or to upregulate (meaning an increase in cellular response to a molecular stimulus due to increase in the number of receptors on the cell surface) vital metabolic functions of the bacteria.

Only a few select cultures have actually been proven to be beneficial and justifiably be called ‘Probiotics’ and include certain strains of Lactic Acid Bacteria (including Lactobacilli and Bifidobacteria) which have conclusive health benefits when taken.

Gut microbiota play an important role in:
-Maintenance of appropriate gut pH
-Digestive function through enzyme activity
-Modulation of immune function
-Production of antimicrobial substances, thus defending against invaders and maintaining a balance of microflora
-Synthesis of certain vitamins
-Production of amino acids and recylcing of nitrogen
-Synthesis of short chain fatty acids
-Detoxification and transformation of many substances

There is also growing evidence that probiotic supplements may be helpful in some specific conditions, notably side effects of antibiotics, irritable bowel syndrome, general immune support, allergy and upper respiratory tract infection.

Given these potential benefits, there is interest in the use of probiotics specifically in athletes to help maintain overall general health, enhance immune function or reduce URTI incidence and symptom severity/duration.

To date, most studies of probiotic interventions in athletes have been relatively small scale, but there is growing evidence pointing to a benefit in a number of areas which will be of interest to athletes in terms of their ability to maintain and/or boosting immune function through well understood mechanisms of action.

Source: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24159152

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