5 Ways to Release Stress and Anxiety
Stress is something people experience in life sometimes. And as an empath and neurodivergent, I have often experienced way more stress than I wanted, which seemed to have made stress incredibly frustrating for me. It often felt like I could NEVER seem to get away from stress. It often like stress had a choke hold on me. But thankfully, I learned how to not only reduce stress, but to also create a life that was more in alignment with how I want to feel, which is more peace and relaxation. I’ll have to dive deeper, in another blog post, into the manshift practices that I implemented that have help guide how I show up for myself, and how I choose to experience life. But we’ll dig into that a bit more on another day.
But as it relates to stress and anxiety, in the past I used to see stress as something that was happening to me something that was messing up my life and in the way. But as I continue to heal and grow, I started to look as stress as an alert that my body was trying to communicate to me. A signal that my body and my soul were trying to send to me about something that was out of alignment for my best and highest good. So listening, trusting, and being in-tune with my body was one of the initial things that really helped me to shift my perspective about stress so that it didn't have as much control over me and my life, which ultimately helped me to reduce stress from my life.
And while that sounds all nice and good, it is often easier said than done, and I totally get that. Because when you’re in the heat of stress, it’s not always so easy to have that higher vibrational perspective. In fact, in can be even more challenging to get still and calm your emotions so that your inner self, your soul self can help you identify a better solution that IS in more alignment with your best and highest good.
Although there are many ways to reduce and release stress and anxiety, here are my 5 favorite ways to immediately shift and reduce stress or anxiety out of my body. And of course, feel free to identify and use other healthy, stress reducing practices that resonate with you and your journey.
1) Engage in MOVEMENT
When you feel anxiety or stress, it can be really helpful to move that stale energy out of your body. And some of my favorite ways to move stale energy of my body through movement are doing things like yoga, exercising, going for a walk, and even dancing in my living lol. The movement helped me engage breath work in my body. It also helped to stimulate endorphins, which are great for lifting one’s mood and helping one to feel better about themselves.
2) Connect with Nature
Take some time to go out and sit in nature or near a body of water like a lake, river, or the ocean. Nature has some amazing healing properties that can instantly soothe the mind and body. From my experience, I always felt instantly relaxed! Each wave or ripple of water that moved through the water felt like a release of tension in my mind and body. It also reminded me, that this moment of anxiety, stress, or trauma is really only a moment in time, and that life is a combination of ebbs and flows. So I breathe in what adds to my light, growth, and expansion, and release what no longer serves me, just as the waves flow in and out.
3) Creative Expression
Transmute and alchemize the anxiety inducing energy. Channel the anxious energy into a creative activity like art therapy, doodling, crafting, playing an instrument, or journaling. These type of activities can provide an immediate outlet to release the racing thoughts, or the overwhelming feelings that are contributing to your anxiety and stress. Creative expression is also another one of my favorite ways to to release stress or anxiety. I usual will freestyle on my saxophone, do some abstract painting, or crafting. It often helped me feel empowered as opposed to feeling like I’m at the mercy of the situation that caused me stress. And it also allowed me to look within and ask my inner self, my soul self the important questions of how do I want to live and experience life, which ultimately helped me to discover more about myself, in addition to taking the steps to transform my subconscious mind.
4) Mindfulness, Prayer, and/or Affirmations
If I’m keeping it real, in the past, this wasn’t always easy for me to do, because in the moment of the of high levels of stress or anxiety, it was literally like that last thing on mind. And it’s funny that it’s definitely been a go-to practice for me now that I’m older, because I can hear my mom’s voice saying “Shama, don’t worry so much. Just take up to God in prayer.” But the younger version of me was like “mom, does God, Source, the Creator even hear me? Because I can’t understand why this is happening.” And she would always say that “our ways are not always God’s way. And that God sees all and knows all, and to trust in God.” Trust and have faith that even when it doesn’t seem like, that EVERYTHING is working out in accordance to God’s perfect will. So whether you say God, Source Light, Creator, Universe, know that all things are coming together and working out for your best and highest good! And what I’ve learned from situations that caused me stressed or angst was that it was often a situation that needs to be released because it’s not in alignment with the version of me on my highest timeline. Which essentially means that God, Source, the Creator, has something that is better for me if I can just get out of the way, by releasing the attachment that my ego-self has to the situation, and allow myself to exercise faith, take aligned action, and be in the FLOW of Divine Light by being open to the unknown path and opportunities that come with trusting God.
5) Listen to Calm & Relaxing Music
Music can be a wonderful healing tool to help calm and relax the mind, body, and spirit. I particularly love listening to mediative, relaxing music, and I even play it throughout the day at home. It’s so soothing, relaxing, and helps me stay connected to my intention of living a peace-centered life that feels good to me. Everybody will have a different sound of relaxation that resonates with them, and that’s totally ok. Find what works for you, a sound that helps you connect with self and foster the vibes that help you feel calm.
6) Honorable Mention (lol): Cuddling or Spending Time with a Pet
So these are just a few of my go-to’s that to use when I feel anxiety coming over my mind and body, that help me reduce, release, and transmute the stress so that I can immediately shift my attention, and hear more aligned and inspired insight from my higher self, my soul self about what steps to take….essentially a solution that can, and has helped me resolve whatever was giving me angst. And keep in mind, sometimes situations will require other components to reduce and remove the stress which may occur overtime.
In my upcoming posts, I’ll share more about my mind-shift journey and my subconscious rewiring that I implemented, and have been practicing for awhile, that has drastically helped in changing my life. A shift that helped me create a more intentional-based lifestyle.