How to reduce anxiety at Christmas – Health and Wellbeing

Whether your family has been practicing it your whole life or you’ve indulged in a little yoga here and there, most of us have at least heard of Ayurveda. This ancient system of natural medicine (more than 5,000 years old) is a holistic approach to health and wellness that unites the mind, body, and spirit, providing tools for living better physically, mentally, and spiritually. Assuming that each person has a unique combination of the three Ayurvedic doshas (also known as types of health or energy patterns)—vata, pitta, and kapha—the goal of Ayurveda is to achieve the proper balance of each element for optimal health. And you can learn how to reduce anxiety at Christmas with this.

How to reduce anxiety at Christmas
If you’re feeling sad, distracted, or more anxious than usual, Ayurveda has an answer for that, too. Fall is considered the season of Vata, and is known to be a time of heightened anxiety because Vata is more vulnerable to the vicissitudes of life. The good news? We’ve found some ways to reduce anxiety at Christmas, through diet, exercise, and transformative self-care rituals. It’s time to restore.

Keep a daily schedule
The change of season requires an update of the routine to maintain balance and harmony with nature. Since vata can be destabilized by an unstructured schedule and lack of sleep, it is suggested to schedule extra downtime and get a good night’s sleep. Not getting enough sleep is known to affect mood and emotional health, which can make anxiety worse.

Now you know what to do: Follow a consistent sleep schedule, get eight hours of sleep, and establish a relaxation routine. Rubbing your feet with oil at night, especially one that contains relaxation-inducing botanicals, can help the body and make the transition from day to night smoother, setting you up for a night of uninterrupted rest.

bask
Sunbathing can help keep stress levels in check. The bad news: With shorter daylight hours and cloudy forecasts plus VAT properties, we’re more likely to worry in the fall and winter.

The medication system also offers a daily schedule, or when to do certain activities based on energies throughout the day. Especially in autumn or winter, it is recommended to get up with the sun to get more sun exposure time. So resist the urge to take a nap when your alarm goes off, and soak up the sun an hour after you wake up.

Move your body
With the transition to cooler weather comes changes in the body, and for good reason. Ayurveda honors change—internal within ourselves and externally in our environment. This time of year shares many of the traits that characterize Vata: cold, dry, and harsh. To balance your vata energy, follow light, gentle, thermogenic exercises, such as hot yoga, pilates, or brisk walking. Getting your heart pumping changes your brain chemistry, increasing anti-anxiety neurochemicals, such as serotonin.

Change your diet
We’ve all heard the saying food is medicine, and eating in season takes it a step further by creating a greater sense of harmony and balance with our surroundings. Results? It can help us be more adaptable to change and practice mindfulness, which counteracts rumination and anxiety.

Lean towards fatty, moist, and soft foods. Add healthy fats and oils to dishes, such as avocado, coconut, olives, yogurt, cheese, eggs, whole milk, nuts, seeds, berries, melon, pumpkin, zucchini and yogurt.

Practice mindfulness
In our fast-paced, frantic culture, we go on full throttle or on autopilot. So how can we focus our attention on current experiences and become more aware of our sensations, thoughts, and feelings without judging them?

Joy and calmness come when you take your attention away from problems and focus instead on the tangible things that can be experienced with the senses (sight, hearing, touch, smell, and taste). In other words, mindfulness helps reduce anxiety and depression by teaching that we respond to stress by being aware of what is happening in the present moment. .

Source: Aquatrolated