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Whenever anyone used to tell me to breathe or meditate to help with my anxiety, I wanted to yell at them because both of these things give me anxiety. This might be a little dramatic, but in truth both of these things didn’t work for me until recently. I felt that when I took deep breaths I would start to hyperventilate and when I meditated I would just practice self hate instead of love. I would tell myself “I can’t do this,” “this is dumb” One day, this began to change and is still changing for me. I am hoping to grow in this area so that I don’t have to rely on anything but myself to help myself.

I am a teacher, and when you are a teacher you are always looking for ways to calm your children down. I discovered one day, from these awesome kids yoga cards, what is called a bear breath. You sit cross legged and breath in for a count of 5 hold it in for a count of 3 and then breath it out for a count of 5. After doing a few rounds with the kids, I noticed I felt much calmer and centered. I began to do bear breaths with my kids everyday…for my sake just as much as theirs. Now that I know about this technique I use it on a daily basis to help me cope with anxiety.

Today I was looking to try and find a video of this other breathing technique I use to help me and found some great resources on this website linked below.

Breathing Techniques

When I have anxiety, I find that meditating ( sitting still, clearing your mind, focusing on the breath) doesn’t work for me. Moving does. An amazing man, named Llama Norbu came into my life through my sister and her husband. He taught us all Tibetan Yoga. Though I didn’t participate much, and still do not practice very often, there were a few things that he taught me that have continued to help me.

One is taking a deep breath into your belly and then saying the word “Ha” as you pull your abdominal muscles in to exhale breath. You say “ha” over and over. It has an amazing way of clearing your mind and bringing you into your body.

The other thing that I use is in his youtube video at minute 14-16. Check out his video to get more ideas by just following along with what he does.

Llama Norbu Video

While sitting on the beach today, on one of the most beautiful days in October, I had a moment of thinking ” I should be doing XY&Z” This didn’t last long, as I got distracted by a paddle boarder falling off of a wave, and a the beautiful stones amongst my feet. Being in nature has a way of rebalancing me and I think it does to most people because the natural world rebalance’s its self. For me, its hard to feel anxious when in nature surrounded by beauty, which is one reason I have chosen to live my life the way I do today. When I am feeling anxious, walking in a forest or on a beach, swimming in a natural body of water, or just gazing at a sunset can be the best medicine. Today, I appreciated slowing down and putting my feet in the water, letting my worries wash away.

We live in a world of should haves, would haves, and could haves. We tell ourselves “I should have done that, I should do this, I could have done that..” all day long. For example; today, on a Sunday, the first thing I did was make a list of what I should get done today. I have done this most of my life and sometimes it is helpful and sometimes it isn’t (as far as my anxiety goes). When I write a list a mile long of things I should do I tend to get anxiety because accomplishing all of those things would be nearly impossible and then I will run around frantically trying to get everything done. Frantic for me = ANXIETY! It means that my heart will race all day, I won’t digest anything, my shoulders and neck will tense up, and I won’t sleep well. When I write a list of 3 things that I need to accomplish during the day I tend to stay focused and get them done with far less anxiety.

So, today, after I wrote my 3 should do list I decided to ditch it, go to the beach, and take solace in knowing that without my list, without getting anything done, I can be ok and the world will keep going. I walked amongst big trees and put my feet in the cold salty ocean. After all, Sunday is supposed to be a day of rest…so I did that.

My advise to my readers: practice allowing yourself to do nothing sometimes and try doing it in nature because its much easier and the benefits go a long way!

Dear readers,

My dealings with anxiety have had to do with many things. One being blood Sugar. When I was 15/16 I found out that I had reactive Hypoglycemia. “Reactive hypoglycemia is low blood glucose (sugar) that occurs within four hours after eating. Symptoms of reactive hypoglycemia may include anxiety, fast heartbeat, irritability (feeling very stressed or nervous), shaking, sweating, hunger, dizziness, blurred vision, difficulty thinking and faintness.” (found on the web)

It took me a long time to understand that eating has a lot to do with my anxiety. Our American diet, even though I grew up eating very healthy, includes lots of sugar! When I eat a lot of sugar, it spikes my blood sugar and then it drops just as fast leaving me with a feeling of anxiety. It seems like a simple fix…right? “Just stop eating sugar…” I would tell myself. Well it’s not so easy. It’s in everything, its addictive, its fun and delicious! Its been many years now, since I found out about my Reactive Hypoglycemia and I still struggle with how to deal with it at times. Here are some rules I try to stick to.

1. Eat a lot of protein and vegetables
2. Eat every 2-4 hours
3. Stay away from Alcohol
4. Come up with fun, delicious treats that are relatively low in sugar and eat them instead.
5. Stay away from high sugar foods or foods that turn to sugar quickly as best I can.
6. Don’t get mad at myself when I really want a sweet delicious treat and eat it. Instead, make sure that I can eat a protein rich snack or meal in the near future so that I don’t feel terrible afterwards.

Sticking to these rules has helped decrease my daily anxiety and making sure I do not binge on sugar or alcohol has lessened my anxiety attacks drastically. A lot of people who have anxiety do not have Reactive Hypoglycemia, but everybody has blood sugar, and many people eat a lot of sugar! We all feel the ups and downs of sugar in our bodies. If you are suffering from anxiety try staying away from sugar and eat lots of protein rich snacks. I have lots of low sugar/high protein recipes that I have come up with and will share in the future.

Heres one of my favorites for now:)

Mango Coconut Ice Cream

Put 2 cups frozen Mango, 3/4-1 cup coconut milk and 1TBSP vanilla extract in a vitamix and blend until it is a creamy frozen yogurt like consistency. Tip: because of the fat content of the coconut the liquid amount varies. Pour it in slowly to decide how much is just right.

Enjoy your low sugar ice cream!

I hope you all have a wonderful anxiety free day!

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