10 Natural Ways To Reduce Stress & Anxiety

Feeling anxious and suffering from chronic stress does a lot more than change your mood – there are physical symptoms too, including an upset stomach, a racing heart, severe chills, back ache, itching, nausea, chest pains, dizziness, stammering, bleeding gums, rashes, sweating, and more.

Most people’s first inclination, when they recognize they are suffering from stress and anxiety, is to visit their doctor, and the likelihood is that they will be prescribed some form of prescription medication, such as Xanax, Valium, or Paxil.

In fact, you may end up taking one of several dozen different drugs, which may or may not help you, since everybody’s body chemistry is different.

And even if the one you are prescribed does work, every single prescription drug comes with a long list of potential side-effects.

For example, here’s the list for Xanax (or alprazolam):

• anxiety
• ataxia (i.e. loss of full control of bodily movements)
• blurred vision
• cognitive dysfunction
• constipation
• decreased appetite
• decreased libido
• diarrhoea
• difficulty in urinating
• drowsiness
• dysarthria (i.e. difficulty articulating words)
• fatigue
• increased appetite
• increased libido
• insomnia
• memory impairment
• muscle twitching
• sexual disorder
• skin rash
• weight gain
• weight loss

Notice how these side-effects are unpredictable too? By that, I mean you may either gain or lose weight, or your libido may decrease or increase.

Oh, and you may also experience suicidal thoughts after taking Xanax!

So, you’re probably thinking, there has to be a better way, doesn’t there?

And the good news is, yes, there are other ways to reduce your stress and anxiety, which do not typically carry the same risk of a multitude of side-effects.

Here are ten things you can easily do, that do not require the use of man-made chemicals, that may well help you.

Aromatherapy

Your first reaction to this might be that it’s nothing more than “new age woo”, but in fact, humans have been practising aromatherapy for well over four thousands years.

The reason they can be particularly effective in reducing anxiety is because our sense of smell can trigger all sorts of emotional responses.

Essential oils have been clearly defined, by the International Standards Organization, as a “product obtained from vegetable raw material, either by distillation with water or steam, or from the epicarp of citrus fruits by a mechanical process, or by dry distillation.”

These oils are typically used in one of two ways – either via inhalation (maybe directly or via a diffuser), or topically.

Note: although these oils are 100% natural, they are still chemicals, so they must be used with care. For example, pure essential oils should not be applied directly to your skin, but diluted via what’s known as a carrier oil.

There are many, many different aromatherapy oils, but the ones most often used to relieve anxiety and stress include:

• Bergamot
• Chamomile
• Frankincense
• Lavender
• Rose
• Vetiver
• Ylang Ylang

Of these, Lavender Oil is probably the most commonly used, and the easiest to get hold of.

It’s worth bearing in mind that most of these oils offer additional benefits, over and above stress reduction.

And finally, once again, if you want to give these a try, please do make sure you follow the instructions very carefully!

Cannabidiol Oil

Often known as CBD, this is a derivative of the cannabis or marijuana plant, but if you’re concerned about using this, you should know that CBD does not include THC, which is the active component that causes the well-known “high”.

CBD is increasingly easy to acquire these days, without a prescription.

Again, make sure you follow the directions carefully.

Exercise

Apart from having general health benefits, when practised sensibly, exercise has also been shown to help reduce stress.

Remember that the body is an intricate and complex, interconnected set of systems, and it widely accepted now that the mind can affect the physical body, and vice versa.

The main reason why exercise can be beneficial for anxiety is because it produces endorphins, which are natural pain killers that also improve the ability to sleep well, which in turn reduces stress.

There are, of course, many different forms of exercise, so here are a few that you could try out, depending on your personal circumstances:

• Aerobic Exercises – as few as five minutes of this type of exercise can start to stimulate the anti-anxiety effects.
• Swimming – this is not only a good workout for your entire body, but it’s relaxing too.
• Walking – it’s said that a ten-minute walk can be as effective as 45 minutes of more active exercise. (When I was suffering from clinical depression, which included a lot of stress, I began going for a 20-minute walk every morning, at about 6:00 am, and I found this to be very helpful in preparing me for the day ahead.)
• Yoga – and if you don’t have the space at home, then why not try joining a local yoga club, which are becoming increasingly popular?

The key point here is to find something that works for you, given your lifestyle and situation, and stick to it – as with so much in life, consistency is crucial.

Herbal Supplements

The mainstream medical profession is, not surprisingly perhaps, less keen to recommend these, which is partly because they are not taught much, if anything, about herbal supplements at medical school.

However, many of these herbs have been used for centuries (i.e. long before the invention of prescription drugs as we know them today), and in some cases, common medications today are based on plants that folks have known about for generations (e.g. Aspirin is largely based on white willow bark).

So here are a few of the more common herbal supplements you could try:

• Ashwaghanda (a mainstay of Ayurvedic medicine, also known as Indian Ginseng)
• Fish Oil
• Licorice Root
• Magnesium (which the majority of Americans are deficient in)
• St. John’s Wort
• Vitamin D (something else many Americans are short of)

All herbal supplements should be taken following whatever directions are provided, and some may interact with prescription drugs, so please ask for specific advice from your health practitioner.

Herbal Teas

Along the same lines as herbal supplements, herbal teas can be very calming, so here are some of the more popular ones:

• Chamomile
• Lavender
• Lemon Balm
• Peppermint
• Rooibos
• Valerian Root

Meditation

Another practice that dates back several millennia, meditation is well known to help you calm down and reduce anxiety.

Now, you may think this requires you sit in some weirdly uncomfortable pose on top of a mountain for several hours while chanting mantras, but of course it doesn’t have to be that way.

In fact, meditation “sessions” can be as short as a couple of minutes, or as long as you want them to be.

You can adopt a classical yoga pose if you want, but you can also just make sure you’re sitting comfortable somewhere.

You can chant a mantra if you want, or you can listen to relaxing music (preferably instrumental rather than vocal), or you can be completely silent.

And you can either stay inside your own head, as it were, or you can follow what’s known as a guided meditation.

There are, as you can no doubt tell, many styles of meditation, and as usual, the key is to find one that works for you, and that you can practise on a consistent and regular basis.

Relaxation Exercises

There is some overlap here between exercise and meditation (e.g. yoga is a bit of both), but one of the easiest and most common ways to relax is breathing exercises.

Breathing is a key component of yoga and meditation, but it doesn’t have to be.

Another great way to relax is called Progressive Muscle Relaxation, which is where you consciously tense then relax specific sets of muscles, until you’ve applied this technique to your entire body.

A slightly faster and more aggressive form of this is called Tension Dumping, where you tense your entire body at once, as tightly as you can, and then you release all of the tension in one explosive motion of relaxation.

Time Management Strategies

This won’t apply to everybody, but for many, it never feels like there is enough time to accomplish everything, so they try to multitask, which is proven to be ineffective and which can, therefore, actually increase your anxiety.

So, key factors here are to:

• Try not to take on too many tasks, thus avoiding the ever-growing backlog.
• Break tasks down into smaller sub-tasks, which provides you with a constant series of smaller wins, reinforcing the fact that you are indeed making progress.
• Time-boxing, so you allocate a fixed amount of time to a particular task. This is effective because the mind often works better when there is a deadline, and it also avoid the desire for perfectionism – good enough is good enough.

Time With Animals

Although not practical for everybody, recent research has shown that having and caring for pets can reduce a variety of mental health issues, including anxiety, as well as, of course, offering companionship and comfort.

For most people, a pet automatically means a dog or a cat, but it doesn’t have to be one of those – apparently even caring for crickets can offer benefits.

Writing

There is nothing quite like putting something down on paper to get it off your chest.

Maybe it’s because it forces you think about how you really feel about things, or maybe it’s because the act of explaining your situation or worries to somebody else (which can include the piece of paper you’re writing on or the electronic document you’re typing in) often causes a solution to pop into your head.

For me, when I was in my darkest hours, clinically depressed, and seriously suicidal, I wrote down everything I was feeling about my situation.

Once I’d done that, it really did feel like a weight had been lifted off me – not that a solution appeared immediately, but I at least knew for certain everything that was causing me to feel the way I was.

Having said that, one of the most common recommendations for people dealing with stress and anxiety is journalling.

If you’re wondering what’s the difference between a journal and a diary, then usually, a diary is more about what you did during the day, while a journal can be that and more, such as how you felt about the day’s events.

A diary entry may also be shortish, while a journal entry can be as long as you want it to be, since it’s more of a stream of consciousness thing.

A more recent addition to the journalling toolkit is called Bullet Journalling, which is essentially a method of journalling and note-taking that uses bullet points as the core structure.

BONUS TECHNIQUE – EFT

There’s one more relaxation method that is worth mentioning, even though it may sound a bit “out there”, and that the Emotional Freedom Technique (aka EFT).

It’s often known simply as tapping, or a form of acupressure, and is based on Chinese medicine.

As the nickname tapping implies, it does, indeed, involve tapping in a very specific way on very specific parts of your body.

Does this work?

Well, a 2013 study done on veterans suffering from PTSD found that the participants’ stress levels had reduced significantly, with over half of them no longer meeting the criteria for PTSD.

Make of this what you will, but if you’re open-minded and want to give it a try, it’s easy to do, zero cost, and may well be a tool worth adding to your anxiety reducing bag of tricks.

Conclusion

Well, there you have it – eleven ways you can reduce anxiety and stress, without the need for prescription drugs and their myriad of side-effects, that in isolation or combination could lead you to a more relaxed and productive life.

Final Caveat

Finally, please do remember to consult your health practitioner, especially if the methods you want to try involve taking anything (e.g. herbal supplements or even herbal teas) at the same time as existing prescription medication.

Additional Resources

These are suggestions for those who wish to delve deeper into any of the above:

1. Aromatherapy Diffusers & Oils
2. Aromatherapy For Beginners
3. Bullet Journaling For Anxiety
4. CBD Oil
5. EFT
6. Meditation For Beginners
7. Stress Relief
8. Time Management Course
9. Yoga For Anxiety