My Top 5 FREE Ideas to Reduce Anxiety for Moms

There seems to be turmoil all around us. Turn on the local news and it’s nothing but bad. Turn on the National news and it’s bad. World news isn’t a bed of roses either. Compound it with worrying about our own families and communities and it’s real easy for anxiety to fester and grow into a huge, green, hairy monster with googly eyes, a wart on his nose and a hairy chin that sits on your shoulder magnifying unhealthy, anxious thoughts in your head.

Here are some down to earth techniques to deal with any kind of anxiety.

Top 5 Free Ideas to Reduce Anxiety

1. Prayer

Pray to God that he will fill your heart with peace and trust that He is Lord and King of your life. Leave your worries at his feet. A helpful book on this topic is “In Pursuit of Peace: 21 Ways to Conquer Anxiety, Fear, and Discontentment” by Joyce Meyer. The payment for prayer was paid thousands of years ago. Enjoy the gift.

2. Journal

This one is actually my personal favorite. Write about what’s troubling you. Get all those thoughts and feeling out of your head and onto paper. Sometimes the act of writing things down gives you discernment and clarity about what you are worrying about. You can develop your plan of attack to conquer the worry, or you may just realize that you are worrying about nothing. This one won’t cost you except maybe the paper. But, my bet is you have a journal or pile of paper laying around that you bought a long time ago, so I technically say it’s free.

3. Breathe Deep

Deep breathing can reduce stress. Stress and anxiety alters your breathing patterns and it can lead to tension in your upper back, shoulders and neck. That in turn can lead to the dreaded headaches or trigger migraine headaches and pains in your chest. Deep breathing draws your focus to the act of breathing and can start to relieve the muscle tension. The side benefit is that deep breathing will deliver more oxygen to the body and help nourish the brain. So far, oxygen is free!

4. Walk

Get your body to moving. If you aren’t a woman that enjoys exercising, at least get up and walk. Movement (Exercise) is a natural anti-depressant and anxiety remedy. And it won’t cost you a cent!

5.Focus on NOW

Some call it being ‘in the moment’. Work on your task at hand and concentrate on every movement. Don’t let your mind wander. Just take it one movement, one step at a time. It’s in the wandering that sometimes the path of worry is traveled.

I don’t want to sound preachy, but worrying never solved anything. Coming up with a plan of action. That solves. Worry does nothing but degrade your health. Have you ever said to yourself “Worrying about that made me feel GREAT!”. Probably not. In fact, more times than not, we end up saying “I was worrying about nothing.”

JUST TO BE CANDID. I would never want you to think that I don’t struggle with this myself. I’m human just like YOU! Yes, I sometimes catch myself allowing the worry monster to sit on my shoulder as well. But, I’ve learned thru the years to give him the boot as soon as possible.

I really do hope these tips can help you to make some of your anxiety monsters vacate your shoulders!

Hugs and feathers from the nest~~()~~

Kim Steadman is the Content Curator and COOP (Chief Online Operating Person) for The Re-Feathered Nest, a place of encouragement for moms entering the Empty Nest Zone who are ready to RePurpose and ReDesign themselves according to God’s purpose for their lives now that the kids have flown the coop. Kim can be found on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/TheRefeatheredNest and on Google+ at +Kim