Natural Ways to Relieve Stress and Anxiety

January 30, 2013

Beth Quist, Guest Writer
Waking Times

Continual stress and anxiety stagnates the flow of your Qi (chee) in your body and when that happens, it will also impact the flow of your blood. Over time, this stagnation of Qi and blood will cause health problems for you. The organ most affected with continual stress and anxiety is your heart.If you want to maintain your health and keep a healthy heart, it is important to learn how to deal with anxiety. If you have a lot of frustration and anxiety in your life, you will eventually develop cardiac problems.

But you have the power to reduce stress that may be making you ill. There are methods and tools you can use to be in charge of your cardiac fate. Most of us may not be able to remove ourselves completely from the major stressors in our life (we usually need money so need to keep our jobs and it’s still impolite to get rid of our children). This means you need to develop new coping strategies and methods to reduce your stress AND keep your Qi and blood flowing smoothly in your body. If you want to be healthy or stay healthy, you MUST develop ways to relieve stress and anxiety in your life.

Here are some stress and anxiety relief tools you can try to see which are the most effective for you:

Qigong or Tai Chi exercises
Massage or Tui Na
Meditation and visualization
Acupuncture
Yoga
Walks (recommend 30 min/day, 5 times a week)
Relaxing bathes (try with candles and/or scents)
Aromatherapy – lavender oil, lemon balm
Herbs (kava, melatonin, and passion flower are herbs that, according to “Natural Medicines Comprehensive Database” are recognized as “possibly effective” natural herbs for anxiety)
Change eating habits (limit sugar, limit packaged foods, caffeine, alcohol, nicotine, street drugs; eat more green vegies)
Sleep – sleep in a pitch black-dark room for at least 8 hours
Take breaks from work (balance fun activities with your job and family duties. Schedule some leisure time every day. Spend time with people you enjoy, including your family.)
Keep your hands busy and occupied – make things with your hands (knit, beading, scrapbooking, etc)
Learn something new, such as an instrument or a language
Music – listen to music that you enjoy and connect with

You should choose several of these new tools and start using them in your life. Immediately. This is a new coping skill you are developing so you need to give it focus, time, and commitment.

If you are experiencing cardiac problems and symptoms, you should not only incorporate SEVERAL of the stress reducing methods (listed above) in your life, you should also get regular (such as weekly or every-other week) Qigong medical treatments with a certified Qigong Medical therapist. If your cardiac problems are starting to resolve, then I would suggest Qigong medical treatments about every 3 or 4 weeks.

Stress and anxiety can be dangerous. Cardiac problems will eventually present themselves in your life unless you learn to manage and deal with these stressors and emotions in your life.

You are in charge of your life and your health. You can get control of anxiety and stress. You can improve your heart’s health. You can make different choices.

About the Author

Beth Quist is an RN and a Medical Qigong Therapist trained in both Western and Eastern Medicine. You can read more about using Qigong to improve your health and empower yourself with wellness at http://QigongbyQuist.com, or “Like” on Facebook, or follow on Twitter, http://twitter.com/qigongbyquist.

This article is offered under Creative Commons license. It’s okay to republish it anywhere as long as attribution bio is included and all links remain intact.

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