Mind & Body
The Mind & Body Connection
Natural anxiety remedies can go only so far in treating anxiety and panic disorder. There’s more to it than stopping the symptoms. Anxiety disorder can be caused by a number of things, ranging from poor self esteem to improper diet. Natural anxiety remedies must address the entire mind and body connection. In that regard, you will need to focus on other self-improvement efforts, over and above any natural anxiety remedy that you try.
In this section, I will review the various aspects of the human body and how they can contribute to anxiety disorder.
The Mind
There is so much to say about the mind and how it works that I can’t possibly cover it all here. Let me just say that your mind is affected by your body chemicals, your upbringing, your beliefs, your life experiences and your sense of self. I will cover this last one in a few minutes.
All of these affect how you think, how you resolve problems and how you cope with daily living. It is crucial, therefore, to look at all areas when trying to overcome anxiety and panic disorder. Of course, you won’t find any pills or natural anxiety remedies to help you with most of these. They are ingrained over the term of your life.
You will have a great deal of difficulty trying to change most aspects of your upbringing and make-up. At best, you can retrain yourself in how you feel about yourself and how you manage your life. This is achievable, but it will take some effort as you will see shortly.
Nutrition
Your body responds directly to what you feed it. As you know, if you eat junk food, you will get fat. But what you might not realize is that you are not giving your body the vitamins and minerals that it needs to stay healthy. A diet deprived of certain vitamins will leave your body in a state of discomfort, although you probably won’t notice it. Without proper nutrition, the various aspects of your body that rely on those nutrients will struggle to remain healthy.
This gradual breakdown can lead to changes in your mind, or more specifically your brain. The brain needs certain nutrients to work effectively. It’s not just your brain, but other organs that work to feed your brain.
If you have ever gone hungry, you will probably be familiar with a loss of concentration and perhaps sleepiness. That’s because your brain cannot work properly without that food energy.
Vitamin B complex is one of the most important elements that directly affects your nervous system, especially your moods. A lack can cause depression, stress and anxiety.
Sense of Self
How do you feel about yourself? Are you confident, self-assured and all-empowered or are you often second guessing yourself, feeling inadequate and out of control? How is your self-esteem? Do you feel you can do anything you set your mind to, or are you often in doubt and frequently putting yourself down?
Your level of self esteem, confidence and sense of worth are crucial to your recovery from anxiety disorder. Without these, you will continue to feel incompetent or inadequate in some way. Your self-talk will focus on the negatives of your personality instead of the positives.
Your sense of self will directly affect how well your chosen natural anxiety remedies will work. If you are constantly doubting yourself or feeling unworthy, no program will help you because you will not believe that they can work. You might experience minimal or temporary success, but unless you pay attention to your sense of self, your ego, your self-esteem and confidence, you will fall back into a life of anxiety fear.
Fortunately, there is a lot you can do to improve your sense of self, starting with reviewing who you are, how you think and why you think you are unworthy. Turn your focus onto the things that give your life value: special skills or talents, compassion for others, desire to help others, and don’t forget about your accomplishments. If you’ve raised children, that in itself shows that you have some valuable skills.
Physical Fitness
Your body needs to be fit in order to properly utilize the nutrients you feed it. A body that is out of shape will struggle to make use of those nutrients, putting additional stress on your system. A fit body, on the other hand, is revitalized by movement. It is better able to send oxygen through your bloodstream so that you can digest food properly, improve your blood circulation and feed your brain – the workhorse of your body. Without a healthy brain, your body suffers.
Physical fitness doesn’t have to be about cross-country racing or working out in the gym with heavy weights and cycling equipment. Physical fitness means any activity that you can do to exercise your muscles, heart and lungs. Most of us can walk. It is one of the easiest activities yet it can do so much.
Having a companion for those walks will make them more enjoyable. Take your dog for a walk. Get a friend to participate with you. Or join a local special interest group where exercise is part of the experience. For example, naturalist groups take hikes into the country, through local forests and the like to observe nature.
Relaxation
Learning to relax is just as important as getting physical exercise to ward off anxiety. Relaxation allows the body to heal from all the stresses you put on your body every day. You might not notice the stress, but consider this. Everything that makes your body work puts stress on your body. That stress is worsened if it is out of shape. An out of shape body requires more effort for its vital parts to work properly, such as the heart and lungs, kidneys and other organs.
Then, there is the stress you put on your body naturally during your day. You have to work to resolve problems, to clean your house, to get your job done to your boss’s expectations, and to maintain healthy relationships both at home and at work and elsewhere.
These are all the areas that must be addressed, whether you are looking for an anxiety cure or simply to feel better about yourself.
Throughout this site, I will be posting tips and information on all these areas. Focusing on the entire mind body connection is the ultimate natural anxiety remedy.