Anxiety can be described as the worrying feeling of things that haven’t yet occurred. It’s a way of the mind to escape the things that might be too hard to handle at the moment. Anxiety can make you feel stressed, restless, anxious, cause heart palpitations or you might experience difficulties to take deep breaths among many other symptoms. The feeling of anxiety rising can come with a surprise, sometimes not knowing why or when. Often times, you know why. Maybe you feel out of place or discontent with your life situation, making you worry about the unknown future. Here are some tools to try to ease the anxiety away: 

1. Focus your breath on your heart and belly
Lay down on the floor. Place your feet on the ground hip-width apart letting your knees gently fall in. Place one hand on your heart one on the lowest part of your belly. When you breathe in, feel your lower belly lifting and the wave of air expanding all the way to your chest and heart area. This is the only thing you need to focus on. Stay like this until you find the peacefulness in the slow movement of breath, washing all over your body. 

2. Press the OFF button
Shut down your tv, phone, computer and other electronic gadgets. When you feel worry in your body rising, sometimes even the tiniest distraction has the ability to cause a major anxiety attack. Allow yourself to check out from online to instead check-in, on you. Let yourself enjoy the break of needing to find your distractions outside of yourself. Go in. Sit with yourself, and breathe. 

3. Go outside
Take a walk in nature. Feel the earth beneath your feet. Place your hand on a tree, or have a seat on a rock. When you’re in nature - nothing else matters. It’s a safe place for us to be, nature always has our backs. The loving and accepting nature let us walk upon her, letting us know we are held. 

4. Experience all of your emotions fully
Many of us have been told to ”cheer up” whenever we feel down or sad, or to simply just ”think about the positive stuff”. Yeah, how annoying it may feel when it’s exactly the opposite of how you really feel. It’s like stacking all our emotions on a shelf until they’re too many and too heavy for the shelf to bear. Therefore, you have to allow yourself to fully feel. Feel the emotion of sadness, grief, pain and feel sorry for yourself fully. Get the feelings out of your system by feeling them so intensely until they start to fade away. Take your time. Feeling is healing. 

5. Eat food that leaves you feeling good
There’s no doubt that food plays a major role in our life when it comes not only to our physical health but also our mental health. A lack of vitamins and minerals can make us feel tired or even result in depression. Eat food that leaves your body and mind feeling good and try not to bash in the junk. Eat more fresh fruit, colorful veggies, seeds, nuts and drink plenty of clean water. You will feel better. Food is our medicine! 

6. Start a gentle yoga practice
Yoga is a perfect tool for anxiety because it helps you ground into your body. Anxiety is a way of moving out of our bodies, a way of not being in the now but instead worrying about things that have already happened or things that might not happen at all. Try a gentle yoga session, maybe a calming yin class or simply stay in child pose, letting your head rest against the floor. 

7. Listen to your heart
This anxiety is here to teach you something, how awful it might be it’s there for a reason. Maybe it’s a way for you to learn how to handle your feelings from day, to day. Deep within you already know what’s best for you. Your body knows what it needs to feel good. Dance, sing, scream, act it out. Do what your heart yearns for. It always speaks the truth. Listen in.