ANXIETY Crippling your A game ladies? Use these effective solutions + 3 DIY Yoga practices
Summary:
Understand where anxiety stems from, the connection between mind and anxiety, how declining female hormones aggravate anxiety, some practical solutions along with yogic practices.
ANXIETY! You know the feeling.
The feeling of being nervous, fluttery feeling in the stomach, shallow breathing and a rapid heart rate. Usually it goes away...
...but it seems more and more frequent these days and overpowering.
You feel so jittery and nervous that nothing you do can help you calm down. And it seems to CREEP up unexpected at the smallest of things, things you have easily done before.
You want to hide away more often than not. You don't feel like doing anything at all, but still feeling completely exhausted.
Feelings of anxiety especially when you are about to meet someone new, present something, sit an exam are a completely natural reaction. These exist so that you can prepare and be fully present for this event. The underlying premise of when you get anxious in your life is usually when you are 'about to be judged in someway'. So its only natural that your body and mind help you to prepare and succeed.
Over time, you perhaps have created ways that you mitigate or deal with these triggers that fire up your anxiety. You might also have noticed how when you start presenting or when you have met the person you are about to meet, in most cases, the nervous system, body and mind start to calm down. The breathing eases switch off these triggers as soon as you are involved in the event or action. There is a whole chemical reaction that takes place in the body for this to happen.
Your female sex hormones have so much responsibilty of keeping you happy and healthy. These hormones do the job of sending out messages to the brain to stop releasing eggs so that you slowly slow down and eventually stop being able to reproduce. But in doing that, your female hormones like Estrogen, Oestrogen and Progestorone also impact other aspects of your body.
According to the Harvard researchers, Estrogen calms the fear response in healthy women and female rats. In Perimenopause, Estrogen levels are all over the place and this increases the levels of stress hormones floating around in the body. Post Menopause, Estrogen levels decline completely.
It is no wonder then that when in (Peri) or Menopause women go through heightened Anxiety and are prone to regular and more intense mood alterations. This is why it becomes important for you to increase levels of the happy hormones oxytocin and serotonin that are required to balance out the stress hormones. Even if you are on HRT, you might want to consider other options to manage anxiety and stress as you go into Post menopause.
Apart from the chemical reactions in your body's internal chemistry lab, there are other factors that also impact when and how much anxiety you experience and for how long.
How you react to situations that are made available to you in your life is a result of all the events you have had to experience and deal with in the past.
We are at the mercy of our programming.
If you are expecting something to go a certain way, (as a result of your programming) and the world is not presenting itself in that way that you are expecting, your limbic brain (the part that is responsible for emotions and feelings), is constantly firing and trying to manage responses. This creates a lot of tension and anxiety. All of our tensions and worries, joys and feelings of happiness are deeply rooted and associated with events from the past.
Are we then just really just at the mercy of our mind?
To a certain extent we are, but we also have the power to manage the mind. It is not the
boss of you if you do not let it.
Your attitude towards life depends on your mind. If your attitude is narrow, unrealistic, incompatible then your surroundings no matter what will always create unhappiness, anxiety and stress.
If your attitude is expansive, realistic, accepting then you become harmonious with the surroundings and environment.
So I'm guessing you know what attitude you want to cultivate?
Learning to techniques manage attitude and empty out the contents of the mind will only happen when we can first manage our anxiety at a physical level.
Lets go back to your chemistry lab. First you need to physically change the chemical balance of the body. This can of course be done by MHT or HRT but that is just a quick fix for chronic conditions. It is not the silver bullet and definitely not the long lasting solution for how you experience Menopause.
You have to replace the effects that Estrogen provide in your body:
- Increasing serotonin, happy hormones.
- Increasing endorphins, the "feel-good" chemicals in the brain.
- Doing what you can, via your actions and decisions) to reducing Cortisol (stress hormone) floating around in your blood stream.
Here's how:
1. Do not indulge in any activity (you can avoid) that is likely to cause you extra stress. Whatsapp messages/social media/gossip at work/late night doom scroll/emails first thing in the morning
2. Do not interact with people who trigger or rub you the wrong way. Its OKAY to say NO.
3. Give yourself the best chance of rest. Sleep deprivation can add to stress and anxiety levels. Practice Yoga Nidra everyday (Free download here)
4. When you have to get to work (an activity that probably causes you stress), try and develop a positive attitude towards it. Use a positive affirmation and associate it with you going to work. Remember all the reasons you need the job (money, providing for loved ones, creativity, interaction with others)
5. Walk and connect with nature. Harmonising with nature has an instant impact on the nervous system and creates endorphins
6. Reduce stimulats like coffee, sweet drinks that cause your nervous system to go into a heightened state.
Early morning Anxiety
Most people with an anxious disposition experience high levels of Anxiety first thing in the morning. This is because levels of Cortisol are high in the first hour of waking.
Include these in your morning routine to manage anxiety:
1. As soon as you wake, bring a positive thought into your head. 'I am grateful to be alive'
- Say it out loud or mutter it under your breath so it is audible to you. Listening to yourself, has a powerful impact on your psyche.
- Write it down in a journal. The hand and brain connection is hugely impactful.
2. Drink a glass of water. Talking from experience here but also a research article in the Deakin University website states: "A large study found people who drink five cups or more of water per day were at lower risk of depression and anxiety."
3. Give your loved one a hug for 20seconds at least.
I have always been a hugger! Kids, dog, tree.. husband.. in that order of priority.. This can sometimes be a tough ask when you are going through hormonal changes because you just want to be left alone. But when you feel like you can, hugging and physical touch generates happy hormone Serotonin but you need to be doing it at least for 20 seconds or more!
3 Yoga techniques to manage anxiety first thing in the morning
1. Practice 7 rounds of Sahaj Pranayam. Sahaj means 'Normal' breathing with FULL awareness on the breath. After the first 3 rounds, when the mind starts to relax, if you know what "Nabho Mudra" is practice that. Nabho mudra brings introversion and calm to the mind.
2. Practice 3-7 rounds of OM chants. Do not underestimate the power of OM chanting. Think of OM like you are calling out and connecting to the powerful gateway of the Universe, because that is what it is. The vibrations from OM allow the body to calm down. You can also chant internally (Mansika japa) you might feel better vibrations within.
3. Move into childs pose also known as Sharnagat mudra. Let this pose be a welcome into your day, surrendering yourself to the day, believing in your heart that the day has all things good planned for you. This forward fold helps with calming the nervous system and manages blood pressure while also spiritually helping you to look inwards.
All of the above help to lower the chances and intensity of anxiety but, What to do when an ANXIETY ATTACK HITS.
1. If you are able to identify and become aware of the anxiety starting to creep up on you, first thing to do is to get yourself out of the situation if you can.
2. Then practice Sahaj Pranayam like above. Simply watching the inhale and exhale but this time place your palms on your body wherever you want to feel grounded. That might be your heart or your belly or one on each. If you practice slow breathing, you might find that the feelings of Anxiety reduce or pass.
3. If you still continue to experience too much anxiety, one of the most effective techniques is to practice Psychological Sighs. It is a techinque made famous by Dr Andrew Huberman, a Stanford Neuroscientist. Where you take one breath in through the nose, then the second to top up the breath then sigh out through the mouth. This practice removes the excess Carbon Dioxide (CO2) from the blood stream that might have collected when you were involutarily shallow breathing in your state of panic. The second breath is very important because it pops open the collapsed alveoli sacs in the lungs and you remove more CO2, thus providing more Oxygen in the blood stream.
Some or all of these yogic practices might sound a bit too "mumbo jumbo" for you especially if you are new to yoga and yogic terms. Even if you have been to yoga classes in the studio there is a chance you have never practiced any of this before.
I'm excited about inviting you to a Webinar series of Yoga learnings with me.
Self Mastery in Menopause. It is geared towards managing symptoms of hormonal changes with the power of ancient yogic practices. The first one is out this month with more to follow. Click the button below to find out more.
Here is an opportunity for you to learn with me in my upcoming webinar this month Overcoming Anxiety. Please do share it with anyone you feel might be silently suffering with anxiety even if not in Menopause yet.
Gratitude always,
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