Eliminate anxiety-inducing food and/or drink from your diet. It sounds simple, but changing what you ingest daily can have a huge impact on your anxiety levels. Rethink your consumption of the following common anxiety provokers:

• Coffee. The most popular “energy drink” of all time may also be one of the leading causes of anxiety. If you drink coffee every morning, try switching to decaffeinated tea or just water for a few weeks. It may be hard to give up, but chances are you’ll see a reduction in your stress levels over this period of time.
  
• Sugar and starch. People often see eating sugary and starchy treats as an option for stress reduction, since comfort foods like ice cream and cookies provide a momentary sense of, well, comfort. However, the rise and fall of blood sugar that occurs after eating these foods can actually make your emotions yo-yo even more. Try replacing these foods with fruits and vegetables to avoid sugar highs and lows.
  
• Alcohol. After a stressful day at work, many unwind over a few drinks. Alcohol makes stress feel far away in the moment, but the after-effect cancels out the temporary sense of relaxation. Drink sparingly, and when you do drink, make sure to hydrate to reduce the chance of getting a very stressful hangover. ^[2]
  

Incorporate mood-enhancing foods into your diet. Keeping yourself healthy with a balanced diet can go a long way toward stabilizing your mood. If you’re getting the right nutrients, your body will be better able to ward off anxiety during stressful situations.

• Consume more foods high in antioxidants such as blueberries and acai berries. These help to raise mood levels and lower the hormones responsible for stress. ^[3]
  
• Foods high in minerals like magnesium and potassium, such as bran, dark chocolate, pumpkin seeds, fish, and almonds work wonders for stress. Most people do not get the recommended amount of magnesium which results in a variety of symptoms including anxiety.
  
• Foods and drinks that have GAMA, a type of neurotransmitter that increases sleep and relaxation, should be consumed on a regular basis. Some of these include kefir (a cultured dairy product), kimchi, and oolong tea.
  

3. Try exercises that relieve anxiety. Studies have shown that regular exercise relieves symptoms of everyday anxiety and also helps to treat anxiety disorders. It improves feelings of well-being both in the moment and for hours afterward.

• Cardiovascular exercises such as running or biking as well as weight training and other muscle-building exercises all serve the purpose of reducing anxiety.
• Consider giving yoga a try. The soothing atmosphere of yoga studios, and the chance to be quiet and internally-focused for an hour or so, make this physical activity particularly conducive to calming anxiety.
• If the thought of exercising itself makes you anxious, try incorporating low-impact physical activity into your routines. You don’t have to play a team sport or join a gym to get enough exercise; simply walking around your neighborhood can go a long way toward boosting your mood every day. ^[4]

Use deep breathing exercises. Breathing deeply and slowly has immediate effects on your stress level. Most people practice shallow chest breathing, drawing breath into their lungs and exhaling at a rapid rate. When we’re feeling stressed, we tend to breathe even more quickly, which stresses us out even more. Instead, focus on breathing from your diaphragm or belly. Your stomach should balloon up. This gives more air than breathing through the lungs and also helps decrease your blood pressure, relax your muscles, and calm you down.

• Try to be mindful of your breathing even when you aren’t feeling anxious. Deep breathing is important no matter what your state of mind.
• Try breathing in for a count of 4, holding for a count of 3, and breathing out for a count of 4. Keeping your total number of breaths to 8 or less in one minute will help to immediately reduce anxiety levels.

Do something you love. Often times anxiety builds up when you don’t get a chance to detox from life’s problems. Take at least ten minutes during your day to practice a hobby or past time which brings you peace. This may be reading, sports, playing music, art, anything really. Giving yourself an outlet will help to remove the anxiety from your mind both immediately and in the long run.

• Try taking a new class in a field of interest to you. If you love jewelry, look into a local ring making class. If you’ve always wanted to learn a new language, start taking lessons from a local teacher or audit a language class at a local community college.
• During the times that you are doing your favorite things, make a conscious decision to avoid thinking about your stressors. Removing them from your thoughts will allow you to enjoy your activity much more, and help prevent future ruminations.

Don’t overwhelm yourself. If you keep a busy schedule, bring work back with you from the office, and stress about perfecting your school papers, you’re likely often overwhelming yourself and creating more anxiety than is necessary. Keep a schedule of your necessary activities and cut everything else out for a bit. Giving yourself alone time to deal with your anxiety will help you to overcome it in the long run.

• Although getting together with friends regularly is always nice, doing it too often can cause anxiety about letting them down and not having time to yourself. Spread out friend dates with plenty of time for yourself in between.
• Learn to say “no” to some requests. Whether it be another commitment from work or piling on errands, turning down invites is okay from time to time.

Get lots of sleep. Lack of sleep prevents your body from clearing out excess cortisol from your system. Cortisol is a hormone, which in high levels, is responsible for causing anxiety and stress. Make sure that you’re getting between 8-9 hours of good sleep every night.^[5]

• Try going to bed and waking up at the same times every day. This will help to regulate your sleep cycle, which will help you to get better nights of sleep.
• If you’re having a hard time falling or staying asleep, try using melatonin supplements. Melatonin is a hormone your body creates to help you fall asleep. You can buy the hormone in low dose pills from most health food stores.
• Avoid your phone, laptop, and television in the hour before you go to bed. These are often sources of anxiety, but also prevent proper melatonin production in your body because of the bright light they put off.^[6]

Confront sources of anxiety you can control. There are many different situations that induce anxiety, and it’s helpful to pinpoint exactly what might be making you anxious and take steps to confront it. If you’re behind on doing your taxes, for example, you may feel like you’ve got a yoke around your shoulders until the chore is finally done.

• Keep a journal to help you figure out what exactly is making your mood dip. Writing down your thoughts can often reveal sources of stress you hadn’t yet acknowledged to yourself.
• Even if a particular source of anxiety feels as though it is out of your control, you may be able to change something about the situation to make it feel less stressful to you. For example, if you feel anxious about the holidays months before the time to visit with family actually rolls around, figure out a way to approach the situation differently. Try hosting your extended family at your house so you won’t have to travel, or holding your celebration at a restaurant so you don’t have to host. Look at the flexible side of stressful situations.

Avoid sources of anxiety you can’t control. If a certain type of situation makes you feel anxious, it’s OK to simply avoid it. If you hate flying, and don’t feel this fear is ever going to abate, it’s OK to drive. Know your limits, and practice self preservation.

• If certain people in your life cause you anxiety and you don’t feel comfortable/can’t confront them, make changes so that you don’t have to be around them.
• If your work or school is stressing you out, take a time during the day where you turn off your cellphone and laptop to remove yourself from the anxiety they cause. If you know you get anxious being glued to your email because of work, take it out of your life for a bit.

Practice meditation. Relaxation and meditation routines are very effective at lowering anxiety levels. There are many different types of meditation, so it’s best to experiment with a few different methods and choose the one that makes you feel the most comfortable and relaxed.

• Guided meditation is a good option for beginners. A guided meditation can be practiced in person, but it may be easier to buy a meditation CD or watch a meditation video on YouTube to start. You’ll learn techniques on how to calm yourself down when your heart starts to race or when you feel you are not in control of your thoughts.
• Mindfulness meditation involves focusing on a particular thought or pattern of thoughts that make you anxious, allowing your mind to dwell on them until they fade away and your mind is cleared. This practice can be as simple as finding a quiet space to think for five minutes at the beginning of each day, but it is an ancient practice that has many helpful components if you want to delve deeper. Here is an example technique you can try:
  • Sit comfortably and close your eyes.
  • Spend 5 minutes watching the in and out movements of your breathing. Mindfulness of Breathing is a valuable prelude to Mindfulness Meditation.
  • Now invite in an emotion – anxiety, depression, a painful memory, a recent conflict. Hold the emotion in the space of your inner awareness, but don’t allow yourself to get lost in thinking. Just “sit” with the emotion as you might sit with a friend.
  • Watch the emotion. Hold it in your conscious awareness and say, “I am here for you. I will sit with you as long as you need.”
  • Allow the emotion to express itself and watch it change. If you sit with the emotion as a friend, the emotion will begin to transform itself and heal.
  • See How to Do Mindful Meditation for more information on further techniques.

Ask for help. For many people, talking about anxiety is a very helpful release. If you need to vent, ask your spouse or a friend for advice and tell them how you feel. Sometimes just putting your feelings into words can take a lot of stress away.

• If you lean on the same person for advice too often, your problems may overburden someone else. If you have a lot of anxiety to work through, consider seeing a therapist. You’ll be free to discuss your problems as much as you need to in the knowledge that a trained professional is there to help.

Try a natural remedy. Certain herbs, teas, and supplements are said to decrease symptoms of anxiety. Try the following options:

• The chamomile flower is traditionally used to treat anxiety, stress, and an upset stomach. It has properties that are similar to anti-depressant drugs. It can be brewed into tea or taken as a supplement. ^[7]
• Ginseng is said to help the body reduce stress. Try taking a ginseng supplement daily for its anxiety-fighting effects.
• Kava kava is a Polynesian plant said to have a sedative effect that relieves anxiety. See if your local health foods store carries this supplement, or order it online.
• Valerian root is popular in Europe for its sedative properties. Take it when you are experiencing difficult bouts of anxiety that you can’t seem to overcome.