Podcast - 5 Powerful Ways To Manage Anxiety & Stress

The game of life can easily cause us to experience different levels of anxiety and stress from time to time. Here in this audio, I share 5 of my favourite powerful ways to manage anxiety and stress proactively and effectively!

Recent statistics indicate that more than one in 5 Australians have suffered from an anxiety disorder in the past 12 months.  It’s also documented that anxiety levels are among the highest for people between the ages of 40 and 60 – and even though it generally impacts women more than men, men are definitely not immune.

So, as an ongoing life skill to manage anxiety and stress, you and I need to build our emotional fitness and resilience to effectively navigate life’s ups and downs.

Managing stress and anxiety is not a skillset anyone teaches us, so we need to proactively manage it ourselves.

So, here I want to share with you 5 powerful and simple strategies that I use to manage my own mental and emotional wellness that I know can help you too!

Firstly, what is stress?

Stress is an emotional response to situations, events and environments that can cause you to feel overwhelmed, under pressure, helpless, weak, uncertain or out of control.

Many times, stress or anxiety can be caused from worry, anger, hostility, insomnia…or even due to an unexpected event or injustice that is impacting you and your life…It can also be due to a project with tight time constraints, being in an environment, relationship or situation where you feel unfulfilled, or you don’t feel comfortable of safe – or leaning into a new activity or adventure that you haven’t experienced before!

The point is, stress and anxiety are a normal part of life experienced by just about every one at different times – no one is really immune to these emotions.

However, knowing how to manage/ease anxiety and stress is a very powerful life skill to have because chronic or ongoing STRESS in particular, can eventually take you out.

5  ways to ease stress and anxiety easily…

1.         Focus on what you can control

Where focus goes energy flows.  Your mind and body are intimately connected – and your emotions and how you feel are a response to what you are focussing on either subconsciously or consciously. 

In other words, if you are thinking about all the bad things that can happen or you believe that the world is against you, you feel helpless and uncertain …and you live in a state of mental weakness – which is not an empowering place to be.

On the other hand, even when there is uncertainty or chaos around you, if you’re able to focus on the positives and what you can control right now, you can at least quieten the noise, give yourself a chance to act from a place of ownership, conviction, and strength.  This is one of the secrets to alleviating any form of anxiety or stress – reminding yourself to focus on what you can control.

And this means, sometimes you need to make changes to your radio frequency – your environment, your social circle, what you’re tuning in to.  To protect your peace, as the late great, Jim Rohn, used to say:  “stand guard at the doorway to your mind and feed it something good every day”.

So be in charge of your thought patterns, focus on what you can control and you will go a long way to if not avoiding, at least being able to manage your way through bouts of anxiety and stress;

2.        Use Your Breath – Even though it sounds simple, basic breathing is a very effective way to regulate your nervous system and emotions. 

The way we breathe normally and subconsciously is typically very shallow.  And when anxiety or stress is in our life it can activate the sympathetic / fight-flight response in your nervous system, which causes your breath to become even MORE rapid and shallow.

But using your breath effectively is a conscious skill you should practice – because learning to slow down or extenuate or hold or deepen or prolonging  your breath can dramatically improve your ability to navigate stressful or anxious moments.

And this is why in the ancient arts like yoga and martial arts which I have practiced for many years, it is well known that if you control the breath you control the mind and you can master the body – and this is why so much emphasis is placed on breathing and the power of breath.

And then that is easily translated to everyday life as a skill because you become more aware of your breathing patterns and how you can use breath in a moment to change the game of how you react to certain stimulus, that can otherwise send you into a downward spiral.

So, knowing how to consciously slow down and control your breathing is one of the quickest and most effective ways to regulate your nervous system and calm your body and mind. 

One of the simplest techniques I like to use is a basic box breath…in for 5, hold for 5, out for 5, hold for 5.  Do this 3 or 4 times and you will feel more centred, calm and in control.  Before an important meeting or phone call…or whenever you feel a wave of stress or anxiety.

3.        Daily Movement – Movement is medicine – not just physically, but it is also the number 1 antidote to stress and anxiety.

The reason for this is because movement is energy in motion = it generates ‘feel good’ chemicals in the brain like dopamine, endorphins and serotonin.  These chemicals are neuro-transmitters which are natural pain-killers and mood elevators.

It also helps to give you mental clarity and elevate your sense of fulfilment and self-worth.  At the same time, it reduces your body’s stress hormones, such as adrenaline & cortisol. 

Movement and exercise are powerful tools for managing anxiety and stress (not to mention the health and longevity benefits) which is why you should embrace daily exercise as a life-long practice.

The reality is that any type of exercise is useful, but the key is to do something that gets your blood moving and your cardiovascular system or muscles working.

A brisk walk along the beach or a hike in the woods, strength training, yoga, ocean swim, outdoor cycle …whatever you choose to do!

Movement is a daily commitment I make to myself every single morning to not only take care of my body physically but to load my mind with stress protecting endorphins, as well as self – care and self – love.

4.         Connect With Nature – connecting your body and mind with the natural elements is one of the most powerful ways to alleviate and manage anxiety and stress.  A lot of people when they feel down or depressed, they lay around and feel sorry for themselves in doors, which only compounds the problem.

When you get out into the fresh air, on the walking trails, on the beach, in the ocean or in the mountains or forest, you stimulate the senses in a very powerful way which protects you from anxiety and stress.  It also gives you a sense of belonging to a vast and beautiful world that you are a part of – which can help you smell the roses and remind you of what life is really all about. 

At least 2-3 times per week I get into nature, either a morning hike in my local national park, a mountain bike ride in my local forest or a swim in the ocean or walk along the beach.  Incorporate 1 or 2 activities like this into your weekly schedule to help manage anxiety and stress.

5.         Hot/Cold Water Therapy – This is one I have incorporated into my routine consistently over the past few months.  The proven mental wellness benefits associated with contrast exposing your body to both heat (e.g. sauna, steam room and hot tub) and then cold (cold plunge or ice bath) over a short session, say 30-45 minutes, is profound.

This is why there are many wellness and recovery centres popping up every where in major towns and cities now, because people are looking for easy tools to help manage their mental and emotional wellbeing, and this is a wonderful practice to help with that – not to mention the additional benefits of managing inflammation and pain in the body, reducing blood pressure, improving sleep, immunity, boosting your metabolism, fat loss etc. etc.

If you don’t have a bath house or recovery centre nearby that offers hot/cold water pools, you can experience or mimic the benefits of hot/cold contrast therapy at home with a 20-30 minute hot bath and 2-3 minute cold shower. 

One of my favourite researchers in the area of hot/cold therapy Dr. Susanna Soberg, who  has dedicated her life to the pursuit of optimal health – she completed an intensive 8 year study which highlighted the benefits of hot/cold water exposure and found that the optimal weekly exposure is 11 minutes per week in cold and 57 minutes per week in heat as a goal split up over 2-3 sessions – for all of the benefits I mentioned.

So really the main takeaway for today is, stress and anxiety are normal human emotions that you and I are faced with from time, but the secret is to know how to proactively manage these emotions so that they don’t rule your life.

By pursuing wellness as an integral part of your lifestyle, and by making some of these suggestions a part of your weekly wellness routine, you can protect yourself or be much more effective at managing your way through anxiety, stress and anything life throws your way.

I hope you got value from today’s blog.  Thanks for reading.

Until next time, stay strong and live well!

ZT.