How to Manage Anxiety at Work or at Home

Many Sliced Invoices users are self-employed professionals, working at home, which means constantly juggling a lot of things. All of that can lead to anxiety. In these uncertain times, it’s more important than ever to find ways to manage it.

Anxiety is a feeling of worry, nervousness, or unease, typically about an imminent event or something with an uncertain outcome. At some point in our lives we have all experienced anxiety, whether the source is from something in your personal or work life.

Anxiety can result in very uncomfortable feelings that make it very difficult to get through each day. Some struggle with this more than others.  Some people may feel anxious for lets say a day or two due to a big stressful project at work that they have to complete or maybe an upcoming interview. When the triggering event is past, typically those anxious feelings associated with it are no longer present. For others, however, they might struggle with anxiety on a daily basis to the point of it really interfering with their lives.

We can not eliminate all of the stress in our lives, but we can learn how to better manage it.  There are many ways to help manage your anxiety so that it doesn’t control your life. Here are some of the things that have been proven to help reduce the anxiety in your life without taking any prescription drugs.

1:  Exercise is one of the most easiest ways to reduce anxiety. When you are stressed your body produces a hormone called Cortisol. It is often called the fight or flight chemical and it causes your heart to beat faster, your blood vessels to constrict, and your muscles to tense in preparation to meet a real or imagined threat. Exercise can play a huge role in reducing Cortisol which in return will reduce those anxious feelings. Exercise also releases endorphins in your brain (body’s natural painkillers) to help regulate your mood and relax your mind. Overall exercising will help you sleep better and as a result help reduce stress.

2: Limiting alcohol and caffeine will help with reducing those anxious feelings. They both aggravate anxiety and can trigger panic attacks. If you are going through some anxious times it’s best to avoid both of these temporarily.

3:  Relax your body and mind by practicing meditation, getting a massage,  listening to music, taking deep breaths, counting to 10,  and practicing yoga.  Meditation does more than temporarily help you relax. It works on a deep level by changing the function and structure of your brain. Meditation actually reprograms your brain to be less anxious. Mindfulness meditation requires no special training and can bring noticeable anxiety relief in as little as 10 minutes a day.

4:  Sleep is very important with keeping stress and anxiety to a minimum. Your body requires more sleep when it is stressed.

5:  Eat well balanced meals and have energy boosting snacks on hand. Some examples of these snacks are almonds, popcorn, hummus, and walnuts.

6:  Thinking positively will help keep those negative anxious thoughts away. Do you best each day, accept that you can’t control everything and live in the present. Also surround yourself with positive people.

7:  Talk to someone such as a friend or family member when you are feeling stressed and anxious. Sometimes just talking it out with someone can make a world of difference.

8:  Utilize lavender in your life.  The essential lavender oil has been used for years to reduce anxiety symptoms. You can use the oil in a diffuser or put a couple of drops of the oil on your wrists.

9:  Consider taking a natural supplement to help reduce anxiety.  These natural supplements can be taken on a daily basis without the large list of side effects that  prescription drugs can have. For example the prescription drug  Xanax, which is prescribed to many people for anxiety comes with a lot of side effects and people can quickly become physically dependent on it.

Here is a list of supplements that you can easily purchase at your local store or find on Amazon.com

• GABA
• Valerian Root
• Kava Kava
• Passion Flower
• Theanine
• Vitamin B Complex

10:  Acceptance is important. Accept that we all have stress in our life and with that might come some anxiety. It is best to accept the anxiety when you feel it. Face the symptoms, accept what is happening,  and go with the feelings. If you go with the flow of it and do not let it tense you up too much, time will pass by and so will these feelings of anxiety.

Anxiety and stress are part of all of our lives at one point or another. If you practice some of these skills you will see an improvement in how you feel during stressful and anxious times.