Mental health is often overlooked and not treated as an important priority. Many people begin to feel anxious and stressed when life becomes overwhelming. Anxiety is a feeling of uneasiness or nervousness and has become apart of a lot of our daily lives. Not only does anxiety affect a person mentally or emotionally, it can also have a bad physical effect on them which is very unhealthy.

According to Akashdeep Dey, a senior from Thomas A. Edison High School, “When I am stressed I overthink too much about what will happen next. I start to sweat and have headaches.”

A big problem that individuals have is finding a way to cope with their anxiety and stress in order to relax. Everyone has a different method that works for them and I want to share some of my favorites that always seem to calm me down.

Breathing exercises can help you quickly calm down by allowing you to only focus on your breathing. Our breathing changes when we feel anxious, often cutting our breath short or having our body feel like it’s “overbreathing”. One of the most common ones is breathing in through your nose and slowly letting it out through your mouth. Practicing this twice a day for five minutes each time will give your body a way to relax, even when you aren’t feeling anxious or stressed. It is always good to practice breathing while you are calm because when it is time to use the techniques in a stressful situation, you will know exactly what to do.

Yoga is a form of exercise that not only helps keep the body fit, but it also helps decrease anxiety. Doing yoga on a daily basis along with meditation and breathing exercises allows you to balance your mind, spirit and body all at once. Some of the best yoga poses for anxiety is planking, cow’s pose, child pose and the bridge. Yoga for 60 minutes day is enough to melt away your stress and help you manage your problems with a much clearer mindset.

Doing things that make you happy will distract your mind and genuinely help you forget your stress. Often we are distracted with necessities such as work, school and taking care of others that we forget to have fun. Whether it be painting, traveling, sports or even watching Netflix, we all deserve time to ourselves. Finding a healthy and fun stress reliever is one of the easiest ways to lower anxiety levels and relax the mind along with our body.

Breathing in pure essential oils through a diffuser is the best way to help your mind focus. There are pure essential oils that are made to target anxious individuals so that when they’re stressed they are able to breathe them in to calm down. Some of the best ones are Lavender, Rose, Jasmine, etc. These scents are very energizing and uplifting. Putting on the diffuser while you sleep or are relaxing is a great way for your body to calm down after a hard day. It is important to take care of our bodies and breathing in pure essential oils is a very healthy way to do so.
Motivating yourself puts you in the right mindset which will help decrease stressful feelings. As the saying goes, if you don’t believe in yourself then nobody will. Anxiety is a very frightening thing and often hard to fight. However, if you have a very positive mindset then it can make things a little easier to deal with. Journaling and keeping track of your thoughts is a great way to express yourself. Not only this, but having a motivational wall with motivating quotes and sayings can constantly encourage you to keep on going and try your best.