At any given point during the day, your stress levels may rise. Whether it’s a client is being uncooperative or a family member is having a bad day (and is taking it out on you), you might face moments when you have to step back, take a breath, and try not to explode. For some, anxiety is directly related to your mood too. When you’re more anxious, it can be all the more difficult to keep your moods on a steady keel. And while there are many medications available to help one manage their anxiety, you might want to try some natural remedies first before you head to your doctor. After all, nature has quite a few resources for keeping you healthy, why wouldn’t it also be able to calm your stress as well?

Are You Anxious?

Anxiety affects a person in a variety of ways. For some, it’s just the feeling that something isn’t right and that things feel ‘off.’ For others, anxiety may manifest with physical symptoms – stomachaches, headaches, and back pain are very common. And still for others, anxiety can be a feeling of restlessness, frustration, and anger. No matter how you experience your anxiety and mood changes, know that it is normal in most cases. When you don’t feel like yourself, chances are good there are outside reasons for these feelings – and thankfully also many ways to soothe your frazzled nerves.



Possible Medical Causes for Anxious Feelings

But while anxiety is a commonplace occurrence, you will also want to keep in mind that it can have other causes besides that visit from your mother-in-law. Anxiety symptoms are also symptoms of dangerous medication conditions. For example, those who might be experiencing heart palpitations might be nervous about something or they might be having heart troubles which warrant more medical care than a mental health day. High blood pressure can also be a sign of a more complicated medical issue. If you’re finding that you are having more anxious moments than normal and you already have an existing medical condition, you may want to go to your doctor is none of these natural remedies help. It may be that you need to address a larger medical issue in order to get rid of your anxiety.

Lifestyle Changes and Anxiety

One of the first ways to reduce your anxiety naturally is to remove those stressors from your life that are causing it in the first place. Here are three of the most common causes of anxiety.

• Career
• Life events
• Physical condition

Work is difficult on all of us, even when we love our jobs and can’t wait to get started on them in the morning. At times, we can feel like our work lives are taking over our personal lives and this causes stress. One way to help reduce the stress you feel from work is to create a time period in which work will be your primary focus. Better said: don’t bring your work home with you. This is a difficult task for those of us who like to stay connected to our workplace with cellular phones and email. But you need to allow your brain some rest time, so having a clear delineation between work time and play time is essential for creating a calmer state of mind. In addition, if you can reduce your workload by delegating or by finding more efficient ways of doing things, this will also help your work life become less of a contributor to your stress level.

Life sometimes throws things at us which we can not anticipate – job losses, deaths, illnesses, etc. Though we can not expect to have a life free of pain, we can find ways to manage our feelings and these situations in some way. It all begins with taking control of the situation in some way. For example, if you lose your job, instead of moping and worrying about the future, take steps to find a new job, steps to save money, etc. Keeping yourself busy and active will allow you to take control of a situation over which you may feel you have no control. In addition, finding a support system will help you to easily manage the stress that does come up, so find a few friends and talk to them about your feelings and your worries too.

Physical condition is something most of us forget when it comes to stress. But when you think about it, you wouldn’t run your car into a wall and expect everything to be okay with the car’s ability to run, would you? Yet, we often continue to eat poorly and to stop exercising when we most need these healthy practices. In order to reduce your anxiety, take the time to exercise on a daily basis and to eat a well-balanced diet. These steps seem simply, but your body will thank you for your efforts. Simply giving your body the physical support it needs during times of anxiety will allow you to feel better and to cope as best you can.

Herbal Remedies for Stress Management

Of course, the drug store remedies are a plenty too – and many of these are natural. You might want to try flower essences which take concentrated essences of flowers and then put them into sugar water or an alcohol mixture. Placing just a few drops of these remedies under your tongue can help to soothe frazzled nerves. Other herbal remedies for anxiety include:

• St. John’s Wort
• Kava Kava
• Valerian
• Chamomile

Just as with any herb or medication, be sure to check with your doctor and with your pharmacist before taking these supplements. Though they might be natural, they can still counteract and react with other medications on the market.

Following the package instructions is always recommended as well.

Is It Time to Call Your Doctor?

But sometimes you try everything possible and your anxiety just doesn’t go away. In order to manage these cases, you will want to go see your medical doctor. They can run tests to double check on your physical health, while also have the ability to try out mood and anxiety medications.