Quick Ways To Calm An Anxious Mind

Are you struggling with anxiety right now? You’re definitely not alone. Right now, the whole world is in a constant state of fear – fear for our health and the health of our loved ones. Not only that, but many of us are feeling overwhelmed. We may be out of work and struggling financially. Or we may have kids at home who need our constant attention and guidance. In the worst-case scenarios, we may be feeling trapped in unsafe or unhappy living circumstances. The conveniences we once took for granted, like stopping off at the grocery store to pick up a few unplanned items, or even just sitting in a café to have a coffee, are pretty much off-limits. And those of us who rely on social connection are not able to socialize with any physicality.

I can offer you lots of psychological tools to help with anxiety, but unless you have the time and energy to engage in these activities, they won’t help. The easiest thing we can do to calm our nerves is to stimulate a very special nerve – the vagus nerve. The vagus nerve runs from your brain through your entire torso, stimulating every single organ in your body. It is the master of your autonomic nervous system (everything you don’t control like breathing, heart rate, digestion, etc.). Your autonomic nervous system has two sides – the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous systems. The sympathetic is the one that controls your stress response – fight or flight. The parasympathetic system controls the relaxation response – rest and digest. So when your vagus nerve is overly stimulated, you will feel anxious and stressed all the time. When it is under stimulated, you will feel sluggish and even depressed. So how do we modulate it?

Well the ancient yogis were well-ahead of their time. They knew exactly which asanas (postures) were calming for chronic stress and anxiety. The yogis referred to these postures as “turning in”. And as it turns out (sorry for the pun!), these postures do relax the vagus nerve.  So watch today’s video for a few short postures along with breathing exercises you can do to help modulate the activity of your vagus nerve.  Why yoga? Because as I explained in my last post, yoga is accessible, these poses can be done in even the tightest of spaces, and when you’re keyed up and anxious, the last thing you want to do is nothing. Check out this short video and let me know what you think.

Yoga postures for calming anxiety

Remember to like, share and comment!