Working from home can bring up new, different, or even increased anxiety. Below are some techniques that you can use to improve your ability reduce anxiety right from your own home. Anxiety often requires longer term treatment, but with the following tips, you may be able to effectively reduce your overall anxiety and stress.
1. Exercise
Exercising is a very effective home treatment strategy for anxiety. People often think that exercising is just important for physical health – but it’s equally vital for one’s mental wellbeing. This is because exercise helps us to regulate hormones that increase our levels of endorphins, which are the body’s natural painkillers.
2. Relaxation Room
When something is making you stressed, like work or conflict, you may benefit from a relaxation room. This is a place free from bright lights, technology, and other distractions. It shouldn’t even have photos or clutter – it should just be a room that you can rest in without anything to keep you awake, distracted or uncomfortable. Going into that room for 30 minutes every day can bring you some of the relief you need. You should also consider combining that time with relaxation exercises, such as progressive muscle relaxation, journaling, or deep breathing.
3. Water
Dehydration can seriously affect your health for the worse. Some researchers theorize that drinking extra water may help relieve some anxiety symptoms. This is because dehydration is linked4 to higher concentrations of the stress hormone, cortisol. By drinking water, therefore, you’re diluting the amount of cortisol in your bloodstream.
4. Get Off the Screen
Technology can exacerbate or potentially even cause anxiety symptoms. When we’re anxious we become emotionally overwhelmed to the point where it’s very hard to calm ourselves down or think rationally about what to do.
At times like these, it can help to take half an hour off in order to remove yourself from your computer and other devices. Go on a walk. Practice deep breathing. Read a book. This will give you a break from the source of your stress so that you can calm down a little before revisiting the situation when you’re in a better mind space.
5. Write It Down
Journaling is another tool that has some potentially profound benefits. When you write out your thoughts and feelings in a journal, you release them from your mind in such a way that you’ll often find they no longer control your thoughts. Research5 has shown that the act of thinking about and writing down our emotions can help us reduce the intensity of those experiences.
6. Take a Bath or Shower
Taking a hot bath really is an incredible relaxation strategy. Warm water provides your entire body with a level of relaxation that can be beneficial for reducing some of the anxiety symptoms that can be so disruptive to your life. You can even add some relaxation essential oils to the shower.
Like many other treatments, bathing isn’t going to be a one-stop cure. However, when physical aches and pains from anxiety are causing you even more anxiety, taking the occasional warm bath may just help you to cope with several symptoms at once.
Most home remedies for anxiety are designed to relieve symptoms and help you cope with your anxiety overall. Anxiety is often a self-sustaining problem, because the more anxiety symptoms you experience, the more likely your are to fear your anxiety, which in turn causes even more anxiety symptoms.
Still experiencing anxiety? Chat with us on the site now or call 877-471-9091.