There is no set definition of anxiety as it can present itself in the body in many ways. However, stress and anxiety symptoms usually look like consistent poor sleep, racing thoughts, a reduced appetite and overwhelming sense of dread. 

Unfortunately, more and more people are experiencing these symptoms and are looking for stress and anxiety relief by using anxiety medications. However, there are other methods you can take to naturally reduce stress.

When considering natural ways to manage stress and anxiety in our lives, we often think about well-known approaches such as meditation, mindfulness, walking, and breathwork.

While these are really effective methods of managing stress and anxiety, particularly breathwork as it allows us to take control almost immediately of our autonomous nervous system which is completely subconscious, there are other less-known ways to promote the relaxation response in the body.

Here I'm going to talk about 5 effective other ways you can do this that you may never have considered: cold water therapy, inversions, probiotics, laughter yoga, and singing!

Cold Water Therapy

Cold water therapy is one of the best anxiety relief techniques and has been used for centuries to reduce stress symptoms. It involves immersing yourself in cold water or using a cold shower to effectively bring on the stress response in the body, or "fight or flight". The chilly water presents a challenge to our body and jolts our internal systems, bringing us into a heightened level of alertness - it's a natural reaction for survival!

"But Virginie, if I want to reduce my stress and anxiety, why would I voluntarily trigger it?" Very valid question my dear!

The trick is what you do next: deep slow breathing. Ideally rectangle breathing (you can learn to practice it here) with a long exhale. If you tried cold water before, or the first time you'll try it, you'll notice how you either hold your breath or start breathing really fast from the initial cold water shock.

When you take control of that breath and start to breathe deeper and slower, you trigger the relaxation response- effectively counterbalancing what you just did with the cold water.

In short, you are training your nervous system to quickly respond to a stressful situation and calm down. The more you do this, the more your nervous system will be trained to do it.

And because a challenge or stress is the same response whether it is physical, mental, emotional, or spiritual, you're training yourself to become more resilient!

Additionally, there are so many other cold therapy benefits including improved blood circulation, better mood, increased motivation, enhanced mental clarity and energy levels because of the dopamine hit you get that lasts for hours afterward!

Inversions

Inversions are a great way to reduce anxiety symptoms quickly.  

Inversions are the typical name for yoga poses that involve inverting your body so that you are upside down, or at least on an angle where the head is lower than your heart, such as the downward-facing dog, standing forward fold or even child pose.

Anytime you invert your body this way, you get a rush of blood to the head. As your brain is a preeeeeety important part of your body, we have receptors in our throat called baroreceptors that constantly monitor the blood pressure coming to the head.

As a rise gets detected, they send signals to your brain to trigger the relaxation response to open up your arteries and drop your blood pressure. This is beneficial for stress relief because it helps the body and mind to relax.

When practicing child pose, we effectively put ourselves in a fetal position: all of the most vulnerable parts of our body are protected (heart, lungs, guts) with only our strong backs exposed to the world.This helps us (and our nervous system) to feel safe, so we can relax.

By a simple Google search of “yoga poses for beginners,” or “yoga inversions poses” you will find a list of yoga inversions you can do no matter your flexibility. 

Probiotics

There are so many probiotic benefits and you should seriously consider adding them into your daily routine. 

Probiotics are known to support the health of the beneficial bacteria that live in our gut. They help to keep our digestive system running smoothly and also support our immune system functioning properly.

Although not commonly discussed, the relationship between digestive health and mental wellbeing is gaining recognition in the fields of psychology and nutrition. Increasingly, the importance of maintaining a healthy gut for the purpose of improving mental health is being highlighted.

Gut bacteria have a direct link to the brain via the vagus nerve, what's known as the gut-brain connection.

Taking probiotics or consuming fermented food such as live yoghurt or kefir helps to support the health of our gut flora and thus better manage our emotions when under pressure. 

Alternatively, you can find probiotics online. There are specific probiotics for women and probiotics for men that are formulated with the male and female body in mind.

Laughter Yoga

Laughter yoga is one of the best ways to reduce anxiety. Laughter Yoga is based on the idea that laughter is a powerful tool for healing both physical and emotional pain, as well as reducing stress levels in general. It involves engaging in physical activities such as stretching, breathing exercises and even dancing combined with laughing exercises designed to make you laugh out loud even if you don't feel like it!

The end result is usually a sense of relaxation, joy, and improved outlook on life!

There are several reasons that laughter yoga impacts us in that way.

First, when we laugh, our breathing pattern changes: sharp inhales with long exhales. You guessed it, triggering the relaxation response. The sounds we produce, which often is "A", stimulate our voice box and inner ear, where the ventral branch of the vagus nerve passes, again helping us to relax.

Added bonus: it's proven that laughing releases endorphins: the body's natural painkiller that gives us a high!

Singing

When considering how to get rid of anxiety, singing has very similar effects on the body as laughter.

Again, breathing patterns are altered in a similar fashion, and sounds helps to stimulate the various places the vagus nerve passes through. It's also long been known to have calming effects on the mind due to its ability to engage multiple areas of the brain at once including those associated with emotion regulation and stress relief. Singing also triggers the release of endorphins!

Not good at singing? Just hum!

Conclusion

I hope that you have learned some effective methods on how to help anxiety and reduce stress. 

There are many ways we can access our nervous system and "hack" it in order to serve us, and not work against us. It has been developed to keep us safe and alive- and it does this very well.

But too often now, in our modern lives, it goes off on overdrive and we need to bring it back into balance and "retune" it.

All of these alternative modalities that we discussed here will have a positive effect, some of them immediate, and most of them long term!

Give them a go!