Tips To Help You With Depression & Anxiety
Do you struggle with mild or chronic depression or anxiety? Sometimes depression and anxiety have physical roots, emotional attachments or spiritual blockages. Often they overlap, fueling each other when you feel down or feeding each other in the healing process. Here are some simple ways you can support that trifecta you need:
Drink more quality water. Your whole body depends on water and this includes your ability to regulate hormones and homeostasis. Your mood depends on proper regulation. You might be surprised how much water can help!
Facilitate better sleep. (Stop using electronics several hours before bed. Wind down with a relaxing activity. Try an essential oil blend like Insomnia Rescue or Peace & Tranquility. Placing one drop of essential oil on your pillow, a few drops in a bath or massaging one drop on the bottom of your large toe is extremely supportive.)
Exercise moderately and regularly. For some people working out, running or walking comes easily but believe it or not for me this does not hold true. I am active but in a different way. Add weather conditions I want to use as an excuse to turn my nose up & it gets more difficult to find the will power. Find something you enjoy doing. I DO love to hike and will overcome imperfect conditions to do so. What do you enjoy?
Speaking of the great outdoors, this is number 4. Being in nature helps rewire your brain (via your eyes and how you take images in.) The sun is essential for eye health, vitamin D levels and affects not only your mood but the quality of your sleep. Walking around barefoot and touching the earth helps recharge your body naturally. It is also believed to help improve the microbiome in your gut. Gardening anyone?
Consider quality CBD. Although CBD has not yet been classified as an adaptogen it has adaptogenic qualities that literally assist the entire body in functioning well. We are discovering more about the enndocannabinoid system every day. Studies show that CBD supports better sleep, a reduction in anxiety, depression and ability to cope especially following trauma/PTSD, unexpected life events and big life changes including moving, a new job, a new baby and traveling. (Sounds like 2020 for many of us.)
Nutrition. Did you know a healthy gut supports a healthy mood? You absorb nutrients from food only with a healthy gut. A happy gut is connected to a healthier you and happier you. Eat more ferments including vegetable slaws and homemade yogurt. (There are lots of free recipes on our blog!) Consider connecting with a practitioner who can test if you are deficient especially in essential minerals like zinc, magnesium & B vitamins, vitamin A & D. Look for whole food sources to get your levels back to normal. Grassfed liver (or liver tablets), fermented cod liver oil and epsom salt baths are all good economical balanced options.
Appropriate physical touch. Massage is the most common thing that comes to people's mind when I bring this up. Whether it is from a loved one or a licensed masseuse, the value of appropriate physical touch is underestimated in this country. It does not have to be intimate to be therapeutic. I would actually argue that we need to find ways to engage in physical touch that are not sexual. Try a giving a foot rub or hand rub. Even our children love to cuddle up with a movie and be receivers and givers of this simple touch. I initiated reading books to my teenagers to reclaim this skill in a subtle way. We curl up together & many fabulous discussions have resulted in this window of slowing down together. Who couldn't use more of that with their teens?
Last but not least I consider meditating on scripture, developing a prayer life and utilizing praise to be a foundational part of my plan to be successful against (previously underestimated high functioning) anxiety and depression. For me personally there has always been a connection in my physical health, my emotional needs and my spiritual needs when struggling with depression or anxiety. I blog and post on IG about this so much because it is so much of who I am. Feel free to reach out with any questions. I have been victorious and I have struggled. It is a journey, a battle and there are huge freedoms that come with each hurdle.