Hi, so today I'm going to share three ways to lower your anxiety now, and i'm not including
breathing on this list even though i am a huge proponent of diaphragmatic breathing.
Breathing as a way to regulate your emotions and lower your stress won't be on today's list.
These will be three somewhat more surprising ways that really help to lower your anxiety
So i'm pretty sure many of you are not going to like this number one way to lower your stress
and anxiety but it is to cry. Crying is actually an excellent mood regulator. It releases stress
chemicals we release stress chemicals in our tears it is also thought to increase our endorphins
which are one of our feel-good chemicals and they're also the connecting chemicals so we
have three different types of tears basal tears are the ones that lubricate your eye
reflex tears are the ones that you tear up when something gets caught in your eye it's a reflex
to trying to wash something out of your eye and then we have emotional tears and research
has shown that emotional tears release cortisol the other tears don't which is very interesting
and overall crying activates your parasympathetic nervous system which is the part of your nervous
system that helps you relax and calm down so crying can be a wonderful mood regulator
you might think that crying is going to make things worse but for most people it does produce
a release that releases anxiety and stress so another reason that i put crying at the top of
the list today is that i find that a lot of people with a lot of anxiety are often trying to avoid
the feeling of sadness or grief now sometimes things happen in life that are sad and if we deny
that or we don't want to feel those emotions and then we just stay busy busy busy or we're trying
to fix problems we can't solve we're maintaining a continual state of anxiety and once we calm down
if we do allow ourselves to calm down we cry and so many people just don't want to be crying it's
okay to cry particularly when it's congruent with the situation and then other times we just need to
cry as a stress reliever now i'll sometimes have clients say to me well i don't want to cry because
then i feel exhausted yeah crying as i said stimulates your parasympathetic nervous system
which is the part of your nervous system that helps you relax to the point where you might fall
asleep you might feel exhausted and tired after crying but that might not be a bad thing in fact
research has shown that people who use repressive coping meaning their coping skills are those
that repress their emotions tend to have higher incidences of hypertension cardiovascular disease
and weakened immune systems so repressive coping where you don't allow yourself to feel certain
feelings can actually be bad for your health okay so i said this is a tool you can use now right so
if you're at work go to the bathroom right go for a walk take a little bit of a break allow yourself
to release some of those chemicals if you're driving in your car you can cry while you're
driving many people do actually it's a place where a lot of people do release those kind of emotions
okay let's move on to number two which is to sweat now sweat similar to crying releases stress
hormones both emotional stress and physical stress release catecholamines into your system
those are adrenaline and noradrenaline and then the adrenaline cycle brings in cortisol
these chemicals boost the oxygen to your brain and to your large muscle groups so when you
exercise you are releasing those chemicals you're using them for what they're meant
for but when they build up in your system they can actually contribute to insomnia
fat buildup digestive problems these chemicals are meant to be released through major muscle action
and the endorphins released through exercise are our bodies natural painkillers and mood enhancers
so if you're in a place where you can put on your jogging shoes or go to the gym go sweat
and if you're not if you're at work today and you're like yeah this isn't so useful for me
right now then edit into your schedule for tomorrow the next day the next day and i know
when you're super stressed and you're working too much and you don't have time exercise can be the
first one to go yet it is so counterproductive to let that fall by the wayside so that's number two
so before i share the third way to reduce anxiety quickly which is actually my favorite i would like
to invite you to a free webinar that i have if you do struggle with anxiety regularly this webinar is
about rewiring your brain for joy and confidence and the link is below and i also have other free
resources which are in the notes underneath this video that i invite you to check out okay let's go
back to it so the third way to release anxiety now is to do something silly like really do something
silly and as i was preparing for this video i was like okay i have these things on my shelf
behind me and let's see if i can get them to sit on my shoulder okay there they are do you see them
so one is i'm going gonna show you one is ursula the other is the beast from beauty and the beast
and the third is a turtle so i keep ursula around and the beast they're sort of alter egos for me
and i'm not really going to go into that right now but they make me happy right and then the turtle
is for me a reminder to go slow and stay connected to the earth so this might seem sort of silly
lighthearted yep and that's okay but there's so many ways to be silly turn on some song and just
let yourself dance and let yourself dance in a silly way one of my friends she loves to watch
cat videos whenever she's really stressed she'll watch some funny cat videos it makes her laugh
and belly laughing yup releases the chemicals that help us feel better belly laughing also releases
endorphins endorphins are also chemicals that make us connect to others so often it's easier to laugh
with someone else right it can sometimes be hard to do something silly and make yourself laugh
although i can definitely do that i encourage you to develop that capacity to make yourself laugh
all by yourself it's okay but it's way more fun with another person right
so my husband loves physical comedy in movies or tv shows or even youtube videos and he just
loves physical comedy and i like it too but not to the extent that he does and he will laugh
at the dumbest things and really really laugh and for me sitting next to him listening to him
laugh or watching what he is laughing at makes me laugh even harder i find it so funny the things
that will make him laugh it's great laughing is so so needed so that's something if you can
right now do something that can make you laugh and i know that if you're in a particularly
anxious spot or whatever it's way too many things on your mind you might be like well it's a waste
of time like it's not solving any problem yeah it is it's really and truly laughing can really
and truly solve the problem of continual anxiety and stress which is not helpful
for your body or for your problems there truly is an absurdity to our lives like really truly
sometimes life is just very absurd and if we can see that and have a lighthearted attitude
towards it it can help our mood enormously so i truly hope today's video was helpful
for you please do comment below let me know if you enjoyed this video please do give it
a like subscribe to my channel if you're not subscribed and share it with somebody
and if you think this video might be helpful for somebody in your life please share it wishing you
health happiness a good cry some good exercise and lots of belly laughs all right see you next week