Ever realize you’ve been plugging along so steadily, putting out fires and taking care of business, that you actually forget how to slow down?
Maybe you even forget that you can slow down?
It happens. Especially in 2020, if you’re asking us.
For chronic anxiety, working with a therapist may be helpful or even necessary. But for many of us, anxiety often pops up as a natural stress-response that we can take as a sign: time to slow down, friend.
At Bliss Farm, we’ve been focusing on finding ALL the ways to destress this year. And since we can’t exactly invite you over for tea and yoga at the moment, we thought we’d share a roundup of techniques you can take advantage of right now — wherever you are in the world.
Here are seven stress-reducing activities we find ourselves turning to day after day.
Natural Ways to Soothe Stress and Calm Anxiety
1 - Eliminate Stressful Factors
Many stressors in our lives are out of our control. But we can take steps to find and prevent little things that grate on us over time. For example, is there a dripping faucet in your house that irritates you every time you walk by it? Is laundry piling up around you? Been needing to look into your budget?
Make a list of the things in your life that cause you stress regularly, and eliminate or reduce them as much as possible. Call the plumber, establish a fool-proof laundry routine, put a savings plan in place — no matter how small.
With anxiety, like many things in life, prevention is key.
2 - Start a Meditation Practice
After you’ve eliminated as many recurring stresses as possible, it’s time to start dealing with the ones you can’t remove. Meditation is a powerful first step. It’s free, and you’ll only need 10-15 minutes a day and a comfortable place to sit.
At retreats and in our own practices here at the farm, we see benefits of meditation like:
Gaining new perspectives on stressful situations
Building skills to manage stress
Increasing self-awareness
Focusing on the present
Reducing negative emotions
Increasing imagination and creativity
Increasing patience and tolerance
Have you experimented with meditation and found it tricky, maybe even a little crazy-making?
We hear that a lot, and we know first-hand how challenging it is to start. Sitting still with ourselves is hard to dive straight into. It just is!
To work up to silent sits, try starting with a guided meditation that presents visuals or other details for you to focus on.
Does it seem like there’s no room in your schedule to meditate?
Try setting a timer on your phone to go off twice a day. When it goes off, close your eyes and take 10 deep breaths in through your nose and out through your mouth. It’s incredible the difference these tiny time-outs can make.
If you end up loving your new meditation practice, then we invite you to explore Bliss Farm’s meditation garden on your next visit! It’s one of the most calming places on our grounds, and we retreat there often to listen to the birds and rest our minds.
3 - Try Yoga, Tai Chi, or Qi Qong
All three of these calming practices are rooted in traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) or Ayurveda. The great thing about these practices is that they can all be very gentle, so they’re appropriate for all skill levels and body types, and they focus on calming the mind and centering the body.
There are thousands of free videos on YouTube that will give you an introduction to any of these practices if you’re interested in learning more. While these three practices are particularly geared toward mindfulness, all forms of exercise can help reduce anxiety.
4 - Herbs for Anxiety
Since time immemorial, people have turned to plants and herbs for both food and wellness.
Here are a few of our favorite calming herbs, and how we use them:
Chamomile (Matricaria recutita) is a gentle, soothing herb that’s been featured in calming tea blends for centuries. Chamomile tea bags are readily available at most grocery stories, or you can purchase chamomile flowers and steep 2 tablespoons in one cup of steaming water for 5 minutes before straining.
Passionflower (Passiflora incarnata) is another plant that herbalists traditionally use for its calming properties. This beautiful purple flower is said to help eliminate mental chatter that so often accompanies anxiety and circular thoughts so you can drift to sleep. Many people consume passionflower by putting a dropperful or two of the tincture in their tea before bed, or by drinking a cup of passionflower tea.
Lemon balm (Melissa officinalis) is a great herb to have around if your anxiety causes digestive upset. If your stomach aches when your anxiety spikes, make yourself a steaming mug of lemon balm tea and give yourself permission to release a bit of that stress.
All of three of these herbs would make delicious tea blends to accompany your meditation or yoga practice, mentioned above!
5 - Spend Time in Nature
We don’t need scientists to tell us spending time in nature lessens anxiety (though they do seem to be catching on.)
Here at Bliss, we’re all about what the Japanese call “forest bathing”, which really just means spending time in nature. If you live deep in the city, try to find a park with a tree that you can lay under and gaze up at the leaves. If there’s a lot of noise around you, then bring your headphones so you can stream some nature sounds.
6 - Get Plenty of Sleep
Stress and sleep are intricately linked. If you’re stressed, you may not sleep as well. And if you don’t sleep well, then chances are you’ll feel more stressed the next day. It’s a frustrating cycle we’re all too familiar with.
Everyone is different when it comes to how much sleep they need, so take note of when you feel the most rested, and experiment with getting to bed early enough to accommodate that.
If you have trouble winding down for the night, try a combo of the techniques above. For example, meditate for 15 minutes and then have a mug of passionflower tea. If anxiety causes your muscles to tense up, then you could try taking a warm bath before bed or practicing abhyanga, a form of calming self-massage that stems from ayurvedic wellness practices.
7 - Avoid alcohol and caffeine
One last — though we’ll be honest, not our favorite — option. ;)
If you’ve experimented with a number of the practices mentioned above, and you’re still feeling anxious, one possibility is cutting back on alcohol and caffeine, even temporarily. Caffeine is a stimulant, so you might consider cutting back if you’re having trouble sleeping. And if you’re already a bit down, alcohol is unlikely to elevate your mood. Plus, like caffeine, it’s known to affect sleep quality.
Reduce stress and anxiety, naturally
What do you think? Find any tips here that resonated?
Our sincerest hope is that you’re able to access these techniques year-round and from anywhere in the world, even when you’re not able to make it to Bliss Farm and Retreat for an in-person yoga practice or walk through our meditation gardens and nearby national forest!
