Easy and Effective Self-Care Practices: Healing Anxiety, Depression and Stress
The key to a happy, healthy, and peaceful life is to maintain balance in the good and bad times through self-care methods. This post will list some effective and easy practices to assist you with removing the heavy emotional and spiritual negative baggage from a long day, while promoting peace, positivity, and balance.
Self-Care Methods:
1. Epsom Salt Bath:
Epsom salt is not salt, but rather it is magnesium-sulfate. The term "Epsom" came about because magnesium-sulfate was discovered in Epsom, England. Epsom salt baths are not only extremely healthy for you, but according to the Journal of the American College of Nutrition, at least 68% of us are magnesium deficient, which leads to a variety of health issues.
Health benefits of Epsom Salt Baths:
- Detox your body from environmental contaminants and toxins by flushing the toxins and heavy metals from your cells
- Eases muscle pain
- Improves your body's ability to use insulin which reduces the severity or incidence of diabetes
- Improves heart health (via reducing irregular heartbeats, preventing hardening of the arteries, reducing blood clots, and lowering blood pressure)
- Improves nerve functioning
- Relieves stress ** (stress and excess adrenaline are linked with draining magnesium from the body, which is a natural stress reliever)
- Eases depression and boosts relaxation by assisting the body to bind adequate amounts of serotonin, a mood-elevating chemical in the brain that creates feelings of relaxation and well-being
- Improves the absorption of nutrients
- Prevents and/or eases migraines
- Improves oxygen use
- Assists with the formation of brain tissue
Link to buy Epsom Salt:
2. Essential Oils: Massage, Diffusing, and Inhalation
Please check out my detailed post on essential oils for more information on where to buy diffusers, different types of methods to utilize essential oil properties, and specific remedies for insomnia, anxiety, allergies, etc.
Click here to be redirected to learn about different diffusing methods and where to buy essential oil diffusers.
3. Qigong
According to the National Qigong Association, Qigong is an ancient Chinese health care practice that integrates breathing techniques, physical postures, and focused intention to promote healing, increase vitality, and maintain one's health.
The word Qigong is composed of two words. The first word, Qi, is most commonly translated as the life force or vital-energy that flows through all things in the universe. The second word, gong, means accomplishment (i.e.: skill that is cultivated through steady practice).
Shin Lin, a professor of cell biology at the University of California, Irvine, states that his studies of Qigong and tai chi practitioners have found a boost in not only alpha brain waves, that are linked with relaxation, but also beta waves, which play a major role in focus. "It has the dual benefit of relaxing you, but also sharpening your mind," says Dr. Lin. Qigong is also linked with improving balance, depression, and hypertension. For more info please refer to: http://www.qigonginstitute.org
Health benefits of Qigong:
- Decreases anxiety
- Releases stress and other forms of negativity energy
- Improves memory
- Improves blood pressure
- Balances hormones
- Destroys free radicals
- Reduces pain (from injury, surgery ,fibromyalgia, arthritis, etc)
- Improves strength, stamina, flexibility, and posture
- Possesses significant anti-cancer effects
- Promotes a relaxed and integrated state of consciousness
- Resets the nervous system
4. Deep Breathing
Breathing is essential to our mental, physical, and spiritual health. Our mind and bodies are connected to our breathand each of these components strongly influence one another. For example, our breathing is influenced by our cognitions (thoughts), and our thoughts and physiology can be influenced by our breath. Practicing and learning how to breathe correctly (breathing from belly and not the chest) and consciously (with awareness), can be extremely useful when wanting to learn how to maintain balance in the mind and body.
There are a variety of deep breathing exercises that can ease anxiety or panic attacks, help you fall asleep, and counter stress. Some techniques include: alternative nose breathing and the 4-7-8 breathing exercise to counter insomnia and anxiety.
Please refer to this article published by Harvard University for more information, http://www.health.harvard.edu/mind-and-mood/relaxation-techniques-breath-control-helps-quell-errant-stress-response. Another useful article for learning more about how to breathe correctly and consciously is published by the well-known Chopra Center. Click here to learn more.
Health benefits of deep breathing:
- Reduces anxiety and depression
- Lowers and stabilizes blood pressure
- Increases energy levels
- Promotes muscle relaxation
- Decreases feelings of stress and overwhelm
- Promotes vitality and longevity of one's overall health
4-7-8 Breathing Exercise:
Alternative Nostril Breathing:
5. Yoga
Yoga originated in ancient India and incorporates a variety of physical, mental, and spiritual practices or disciplines to promote overall health and well-being.
Health benefits of yoga:
- Increases metabolism
- Assists digestion
- Increases flexibility
- Decreases lactic acid in muscle/joint pain
- Improves oxygen flow to the brain, which in turn promotes improved focus and feeling grounded
- Promotes peace of mind
- Decreases the risk of heart disease
- Strengthens immunity
- Calms the nervous system
- Increases concentration
- Improves your (emotional) reactions
- Relieves depression
- Helps improve sleep
- Improves memory
- Strengthens your bones
- Normalizes blood pressure and body weight
- Detoxes the body
- Relieves anxiety
- Soothes headaches
- Improves sexual function
- Helps with overall healing
Yoga with Adriene Guided Practice for Depression
6. Guided Meditation:
Similar to how fitness is an approach to train the body, meditation is an approach to train the mind. Meditation is a mental state of awareness that is free of any distractions-- i.e.: "thoughtless awareness." Examples of awareness is watching your breath or listening to birds. According to Health and Yoga, meditation means "a cessation of the thought process." Which basically means a state of consciousness that is free of scattered thoughts and creates a deep sense of peace due to the mind being calm and still, yet completely alert.
Health benefits of meditation:
- Reduces aging
- Relives anxiety
- Helps ground you- Improves metabolism
- Improves brain functioning
- Increases immunity
- Increases your attention span
- Helps you have a better night's sleep
- Reduces pain- Increases blood flow and slows the heart rate
- Promotes compassion
- Balances emotions
- Relieves stressLinks to guided meditation videos (choose which one works best for you): https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=guided+meditation
7. Journaling:
Journaling is an excellent self-care method to become more aware of yourself through observing how we truly feel, our point of view, our triggers, our joys, our goals, and so on. It is not easy to maintain the disciple to journal on a daily basis, but by journaling a few times every week, you can map out your mind, body, and soul and understand yourself on an entirely deeper level.
Health Benefits of journaling:
- Improves your communication skills
- Boosts memory
- Strengthens self-discipline
- Releases toxic emotions
- Sparks creativity
- Assists in healing
- Improves self-confidence
- Grounds you
- Helps maintain better control of overwhelming/toxic emotions
- Allows you to get to know yourself better
- Improves problem-solving skills
8. Drawing, coloring, and other forms of art:
Art has always been a relaxing, fun, and stimulating method for healing and relaxation. Getting an adult or mindful coloring book, painting on a blank canvas, drawing on a regular piece of paper, or doing other forms of art such as finger painting, graffiti, or splatter balloon art, are all excellent tools to release yourself of latching negative emotions and promote feelings of inner peace, joy, relaxation, and calmness.
Health benefits of art:
- Provides a sense of accomplishment
- Increases brain connectivity and plasticity
- Helps individuals heal by connecting them to their emotions and helping them deal with it through the expression of art
- Relieves anxiety and depression
9. Cleansing your space and aura (sage, candles, incense, essential oils, and literally cleaning/throwing things away):
Cleansing your space with sage is important for ridding the air of bacteria, negative energy, and other environmental toxins. There are also other methods, such as using specific colored candles (i.e.: white candles for protection, cleansing, etc), diffusing essential oils, and burning incense, to cleanse your space and promote positive feelings such as relaxation, rejuvenation, inner peace, calmness, and joy.
Health benefits of cleansing your space:
- Gets rid of negative energy
- Cleanses your space of bacteria, environmental toxins, and illness
- Improves inner peace
- Promotes feelings of protection, happiness, and relaxation
- Improves productivity
- Aids in anxiety and depression
Link to buy sage from Native American organizations:
https://siouxtrading.com/botanicals-herbs/sage-sweetgrass/
http://nativecaliforniawhitesage.com
https://wanderingbull.com/shop/herbals/smudge-sticks/
Link on how to cleanse with sage:
http://www.movingtowardspeace.com/mtpblog/the-ancient-art-of-burning-sage.html
10. Going for walks in nature:
Going for a walk and spending time in nature is extremely beneficial to your health. According to Dr. Joe Dispenza, clinical studies have proven that two hours of nature sound a day significantly reduce stress hormones up to 800% and activates 500-600 DNA segments known to be responsible for healing and repairing the body. Walking barefoot is great because the rubber in the soles of our shoes prevent us from being able to absorb the electrons from the Earth.
Health benefits of being in nature:
- Improves sleep
- Decrease mental health issues (depression, anxiety, stress/severe stress, etc)
- Improves immunity
- Improves focus, short term memory, and attention span
- Reduces inflammation
- Decreases the risk of developing poor vision
- Linked with possibly stimulating anti-cancer properties
- Increases vitamin D intake (low vitamin D levels are linked with depression)