Anxiety is a Beast: Tips to manage

This week, I had a little getaway planned with a group retreat. Sounds lovely, yeah?

Well, there was a snowstorm a few days before leaving. I only knew two of the 40 people going. I also had to put a lot of work on pause.

This combination created it’s own little perfect storm. Driving anxiety, social anxiety, and workaholic guilt all collided in my nervous system.

As many of us do, I wrestle with angst. Throughout my life, I have worked very hard to build tools to manage it that I want to share with you here.

My favorite tools to Manage Anxiety:

Air: Trumpet Breath and Meditation

As I am sure you know, we can regulate our nervous system with various types of breath work. Play with various techniques to see what works for you.

My favorite is what I call the Trumpet Breath.
Inhale a long, deep breath and hold.
Purse your lips tight and blow out the breath slowwwwlllyy, puffing out your cheeks as you release.
Let all the muscles on your face relax at the end and breath normal.

Also, learn to meditate. There are apps. There are YouTubes. It helps enormously in only 10 to 15 minutes. Do it daily. You’ll benefit.

Fire: Qi Gong Shaking

I am certified to teach both Yoga and Qi Gong, and love both dearly for how they have eased my stress. Exercise and getting your heart rate up is a great way to signal to your fight or flight mode that you are safe.

Watch the Qi Gong video above to follow the practice with me. Essentially, stand with feet hip distance apart and lift and drop your heels for as many minutes as you can until your body gets warm and your heart rate goes up a bit.

Earth: Grounding and Lavender

I like to believe that the earth enjoys absorbing our tension in the same way trees inhale our carbon dioxide.

Energetically send your stress into the feet and down through the earth. Imagine it feeding the earth a gift. Then, step elsewhere and imagine pulling up grounding earth energy into your body, solidifying you.

Also, I love lavender and find that smelling it or taking it as a tincture or a medicinal pill really helps me relax and sleep. (Please make sure this is right for you with your doctor before consuming anything a tarot reader suggests.)

Water: More Water

I know this is a revelation, but  . . . drink more water.

The amount of times I have seen my stress levels go down after chugging a glass of H2O is comical.

It’s hard for me to remember to get fluids enough, so I am here to remind you to start all efforts to self soothe with a glass of water.

After soaking in hot mineral pools in the snow this week, I obviously need to include that as a source of healing. You can make your own at home with epsom salts in a bath tub.

I also offer a lot more practices that help you overcome self-doubt in my Intuition Coaching sessions.

Many clients share that they feel more at ease after a personal tarot reading with me. Treat yourself to clarity today.

To wrap up my excursion story, the drive up in the snow went fine (with a little scary wiggle along the way) and the weather was better in the mountains than in the  city. The people at the retreat were wonderful and I made some new friends who share my love of puppets and tarot. And the work is still here, ready for me to dive back into it from a more rested peace of mind.

Long Breath In,

Jenna Lynne Roberts

Present Path Tarot

Image courtesy of https://unsplash.com/@mittaluday