In Ayurveda, the main culprit of anxiety symptoms is the unbalanced vata dosha. The recommendations below are the fundamental habits to start managing anxiety, not only to balance your vata, but also to calm down your fight-flight sympathetic nervous system, to improve the tone of the vagus nerve (it plays a very important role in relaxation) and to increase production of the “happy neurotransmitters” in the brain, such as serotonin.
🌬️ Daily deep breaths - don’t wait until you get anxious, establish a practice of taking slow, deep, diaphragm breaths in the morning and before bed for 10 minutes. If you control you breath, you control your mind.
💻 Reduce screen time - the excessive exposure to screen lights and overload of information will increase anxiety to a hundredfold. Also if the type of information is stress-causing,(i.e.: the news) it’s even worse.
😴 Practice sleep hygiene - lack of sleep, in quantity and quality produce anxiety, that produces insomnia, that produces anxiety…. (You get the idea)
🕰️ Live in the now - whether you’re washing dishes or socializing, try not to think of what to say or do next, there’s no anxiety in the present moment. Mindfulness is not overrated.
🧘🏽♂️ Meditate - choose from the dozens of meditation practices that are out there, 10 minutes a day will help you tremendously and it has a cumulative effect.
💨 Balance Vata dosha - practices to balance vata dosha vary depending on each individual. The best rout is to consult with an Ayurvedic practitioner, but you can get started by reading what is vata dosha and how to balance it.
🌱 Grounding practices - read grounding is much more than walking barefoot
🏃🏽♀️ Move: don’t overthink this just start moving, and it’s more helpful if you’re doing something you enjoy!
🌳 Leisurely activities, connection with nature, community, pets are proven to lower anxiety levels.
🍎 Eat more naturally and less packaged, processed foods, highly processed foods are not only inflammatory to your whole system, but also lack real nutritional value, and life force known in ayurveda as prana. Favor items given to us by nature, fruits, vegetables, grains, nuts, seeds, beans...
It’s not a magic pill and it takes work, but don’t give up, be disciplined and calm and bliss will find you!
To a balanced life!
Namaste,
Grazie Prokopetz, Doctor of Ayurveda
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