(and how investing in self-care is the best thing you can do to offset its cost)

No one < no one > is immune to anxiety.

One of the most common experiences of mental disturbance, Anxiety can affect anyone at anytime. We can all relate to the hyper-active and paradoxically paralysing energy that the insidious condition brings about. Its onset can feel like tightening in the chest, increased heart rate, feeling on edge, excessive worrying and ruminating, often leading to indecisiveness, fear and avoidance of certain situations.

The purpose of anxiety is to keep us out of danger by cuing us to seek a change or solution to a problem. As such, a balanced experience of Anxiety helps us navigate life, prompting us to seek better decisions and circumstances. However when in excess, or when misunderstood, it can have us stuck in our mind, ruminating on problems instead of seeking solutions.

Anxiety exists on a spectrum, and you don’t need to be at the clinically diagnosed stage to fall victim to its hold. Anxiety is often triggered by stress - something that tends to come at us from all angles of our life, and often times all at once (just observe exhibit A: the year 2020 to know what I mean). The trouble is, when we’re overwhelmed by stress and clouded by anxiety, it becomes increasingly more difficult to know how to problem solve and action our way back to balance.

With that being said, what’s the cost of not knowing how to manage Anxiety?

Anxiety can bankrupt you professionally: commonly accepted as part of the price of playing the game, entrepreneurs and those in roles of high levels of responsibility need to be able to make sound decisions under high levels of stress in order to attain and maintain success. If you’re unable to manage your anxiety during times of high stress, your professional life is going to be impacted. How much is it costing you in creativity and profit to not be able to think and act with clarity?

Anxiety can leave you feeling energetically broke (and broken): nervous system overload, coupled with crippling mental hyper-activity and recurring surges of adrenaline. Plus, with all that panic-at-the-disco, what even is sleep?

Anxiety can make it difficult to invest relationships: you’re so inwardly occupied, interacting socially isn’t even on the cards. Although you never mean for your own battles to affect others, you can’t help that it does. Being withdrawn from your loved ones, or not being able to show up for your friends hurts - you and them.

If you can relate to any (or all) of these scenarios, I’m sure your mind is already leaning into a google search for how to manage Anxiety. Don’t worry, I got you covered.

There are ways to manage and prevent the severity of the onset on Anxiety through lifestyle. I shudder a little using the term self-care, because of all of the stereotypical new-age connotations that come with it. But self-care in its most literal sense really is your best investment when is comes to easing anxiety.

Here are 3 of my top tips for helping you manage anxiety longterm:

1. Take care of your self spiritually - practice mantra meditation, breathe, do yoga-asanas. This will ease stress, build contentment, and and keep you grounded in a reality beyond the intense ups and downs of this material world.

2.  Relinquish the desire for control. “God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change,

courage to change the things I can, and wisdom to know the difference.” A life long practice, I know. The stress that this attitude will save you from is self-care at it’s finest.

3. Develop healthy coping mechanisms. When we’re stressed, we tend to to turn to self-nurturing to take the edge off. This is great, so long as those activities are healthy. While it’s easier to reach for ice cream, Netflix, or your bestie’s shoulder, choosing self-care activities that support mental clarity serves to help you move through the onset of anxiety in a way that allows you to get to the core of the issue, and sets you up to tackle the situation head on. I recommend making healthy living a habit so that it’s easier to reach for yoga, exercise and breath work in times of need. Plus, living a healthy lifestyle reduces the severity of the onset of anxiety in challenging day to day situations.

Anxiety is inevitable and undeniably uncomfortable, but when you’re in a balanced state, it can become your friend by helping you make intelligent decisions. It’s when we struggle to cope with, or misunderstand the cause, that the stress anxiety creates can send us broke emotionally, socially and professionally. That’s why investing in a self-care regime that helps to clear our mind and strengthen and nourish our body is the best thing you can do to minimise the cost of enduring bouts of anxiety.

Start your self-care journey today to support your mental health. Jump into my free short course, Discover Ayurveda. It will walk you through setting the foundations for balanced living, inclusive of Dinacharya (daily routine), mantra meditation, and understanding how the dosas impact your mental and physical state.

What’s helped you manage your experience with anxiety?
I have an intimate relationship with it. After a troubled start (misunderstandings, medication and hospitalisation), we’ve now become besties.

Email or message me on Facebook anytime - I love hearing from you.