Thoughts can bring about anxious emotions manifesting as nightmarish nights and depressed mornings; A menacing sense of doom and gloom, in your mind you paint, an inability to cope with daily uncertainties, a fear of what the future holds because you think the world might end this second or the next. Under the stresses and routines of everyday life changes, anxiety leads you to withdraw. Isolated, your goal is to avoid coming too close to people, those who showcase the world and your own reflection in their eyes.
In their eyes, a snapshot of illnesses, lifestyle worries, relationships
deceits and physical defects. As you forget to live in the now, you wonder, what if these scary outcomes and endings happen to you? Unfortunately, for many the answer to this question is called – depression. If that is you, know that you are not alone because depression affects millions of people worldwide. How many times have you heard this statement: “I’m feeling depressed”?
Feelings of sadness, anxiety and feeling flat are supposed to pass but when these emotions last they give birth to depression. Some say, it is a disease, however, it can be argued, that it is in fact a label given to people with never ending low moods. After all doesn’t a disease means feeling uneasy? It’s not easy to walk in a warzone, it’s unnatural to fight for love and it’s sick to ignore a mind and soul in discord.
Under the depression label, lies anxiety and its lonely symptoms, they are fearful feelings. A dread of being trapped, a belief of under-performing at social gatherings, a prophecy of a messed up alien that becomes a laughing stock amongst family and friends.
To reduce the anxiety and the sleepless nights that go with it, immobile exercisers and the eating disorders often self medicate with alcohol and drugs. A submission to such substances ties us to negative consequences in the long run: a loss of interest and pleasure in day to day activities, a lifestyle broadcast by spiraling bad habits and its actors Helplessness and the struggle of making thought out decisions.
How to overcome anxiety and depression naturally:
Counselling can be a helpful tool to identify the causes of anxiety and to change a negative mindset into a more positive one.
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy is an educational self efficacy and self development treatment. It offers coping strategies suited to each person’s circumstances and once you have learned this technique from a qualified practitioner, you can practice it on your own. The guiding principle of cognitive behavioral therapy is to use your own thoughts to make yourself feel better as you learn to recognize how your state of mind contributes to your low moods. The aim is to replace your negative and anxious mind chatter with thought awareness and a rational thinking style so that you become less likely to end up depressed.
Daily breathing and exercising like yoga, walking, meditation and listening to binaural beats help to completely clear your mind and relieve and reduce the symptoms of anxiety.
Improve your diet. Toxins, chemicals and low vitamins in the body can increase anxiety related emotional and physical issues. So watch how much you expose yourself to them and talk to a health practitioner about what vitamins you need. Then, get these through natural whole foods rather than tablets where possible. Reduce and ideally stop consuming alcohol, drugs, sugar, caffeine and nicotine. All these habits can cause your existing anxiety to worsen.
Reduce exposure to heavy metals like mercury, lead, cadmium, fluoride and aluminium. Toxic metals can be found in nearly every area of life, like soil, air, drinking water, construction materials, processed food, cosmetics and prescription medicines. A full body detoxification can rebuild the energy you need to deal with your anxiety. You can follow a detox plan, there are lots out there.
Sleep well. Under the influence of sleeplessness, anxiety is a stressed mind that races into the doors of depression. Getting the right amount of sleep is vital for our minds and bodies to function normally. Not enough or too much sleep makes you moody, tired and it impacts your memory, alertness and concentration during the day. So, find a sleep routine that works for you and stick to it. Improving your sleep schedule and bedtime habits can make a life changing difference to the quality of your sleep, which is vital for you to feel emotionally balanced and full of energy.
Emotional Freedom Technique is an easy to learn therapy which can be used alone and everywhere. The theory behind EFT is that all emotional upsets are caused by disturbances in our body’s energy system, therefore, when we correct these disturbances, our emotional upsets are eased. EFT involves tapping your finger tips on your body’s meridian points. A meridian is an energy channel that flows through your body.
When stressed, angry or in pain, these emotions block up our energy channels and stop our energy from flowing smoothly, which in turn causes us discomfort and distress. The tapping of these energy points allows blocked energy to be released and it encourages healing energy to flow smoothly through our body. If you persist with this technique, you can ease anxiety. You can find lots about EFT on the internet.
Helpful Links and Resources
To learn more about the topics explored in this blog post please visit:
How Does Anxiety Affect Us
How To Fight Depression Without Medication
Philosophical Outlook & Mental Well-Being
What Is a Whole Foods Diet
A Heavy Metal Detox
When sleep won’t come
Emotion-Focused Therapy
Lifting depression is easy to do — when you know its cause
Research suggests meditation may reduce symptoms
Do antidepressants work?
Even though many people take antidepressants to manage their moods, these types of medication fail to address the root causes of anxiety which can lead to depression if left untreated. It’s best to look for and treat the causes of anxiety rather than just patching the surface of a deep scar that bleeds from the inside.
Most antidepressants are addictive and have unpleasant side effects including fatigue, insomnia, confusion, nausea and weight gain. They slower happy brain chemicals and can cause weight gain along with many other side effects.
Adopting natural remedies and healthy lifestyle choices transforms anxiety into calmness. For example, meditation creates a stillness in the mind and it helps to release your full potential, a potential that is suppressed under the influence of antidepressants.
Many leading health experts now feel that, instead of using drugs to suppress the symptoms of depression, it is better to identify what causes one to become anxious or depressed in the first place, and where possible, to manage the underlying causes of depression without the use of antidepressants. Always check in with your doctor before coming off antidepressants.
“Depression is not caused by a chemical imbalance in the brain, and it is not cured by medication. Depression may not even be an illness at all. Often, it can be a normal reaction to abnormal situations. Poverty, unemployment, and the loss of loved ones can make people depressed, and these social and situational causes of depression cannot be changed by drugs.” Irving Kirsch, The Emperor’s New Drugs: Exploding the Antidepressant Myth.
All these natural healing methods are safe, effective and easy to try. There are dozens of causes for anxiety and depression and each person needs a unique approach to overcome their inner demons; there is no one size fits all.
All around the world, anxious people are swallowing their spirits away, as a way of finding a direction out of the fog of depression. Digested, this cocktail of hope and evasion makes the fog into a dark hole, where some end up hooked at the bottom and in search of a rope. Each cocktail drills you deeper into the hole and pushes you further away from the exit rope.
There is hope and there is a rope in you. That is to identify the real source of anxiety and depression instead of suppressing harsh facts and uncomfortable feelings. In truth, there is healing but it’s not in denial. It’s worth thinking about how a simple mindset and some lifestyle changes could lead you into the light that is within and which you deserve to reach.
You can genuinely achieve freedom from these negative emotions and find solution to your problems by connecting to nature and allowing your energy to increase to a much higher vibration, where your soul and body are aligned and your mind is left feeling refreshed.
