Modern Mindfulness Mastery: Ensuring You Reduce Stress and Anxiety Correctly

It is something that we all know we should be prioritizing. Our mental health is even more precious now than it ever has been due to various reasons. Arguably, in a post-pandemic world, things can seem a lot more heavy, but it doesn’t have to be like this. It’s all about having the right tactics when it comes to mindfulness and self-care. So let’s show you what it really takes to reduce stress and anxiety.

Addressing the Root Causes

We can stick a Band-Aid over the problem by fixing the symptoms, but we have to remember that the root cause of mental health issues is the real way to target recovery in the broadest possible sense.

Personalized psychiatry providers like Bespoke Treatment are invaluable here because they understand that it is about recognizing what lies beneath, resulting in quicker and more lasting improvements. Personalized psychiatry is all about customized care, ensuring the treatment is not just relevant and effective but also sustainable.

We can certainly find specific tactics; however, there is that whole period of trial and error, and if you’ve been feeling like this for some time, counseling, Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), as well as more tailored approaches to mindfulness, could certainly benefit you.

Learning How to Ground Yourself

If you are someone who struggles to stay in the present moment, you are not alone. Most of us feel like this for various reasons, and this is why mindfulness is so effective because it forces us to not think about the past or the future.

If you ever have a look at a dog, they’re always right there in the moment, and of course, it’s not always possible to feel like this, but there are grounding exercises where you can use your five senses to bring you back to the present moment. The 5-4-3-2-1 grounding exercise can be a great little tool.

Stimulating Your Vagus Nerve

While a relatively new concept for those who skirt on the edges of self-care, the vagus nerve connects so many different things in your body, and stress completely obliterates its effectiveness. There are many ways to stimulate your vagus nerve, for example, humming, but also deep breathing. Some have even stated it’s the secret weapon in fighting stress, and stimulating the vagus nerve can have many benefits for your mental and physical health.

Vagus nerve stimulation has been approved for treating depression, particularly in cases where other treatments have been ineffective, and can also help to lower heart rate and blood pressure by enhancing the parasympathetic nervous system, which means you’re tackling the symptomatic aspects of stress. But what we have to remember is that stimulating the vagus nerve is pretty simple. From breath work and meditation to the already mentioned vocal exercises, as well as things like massage, exercise, and of course, social connection, can all help.

Progressive Muscle Relaxation

We have to remember that if we’re feeling tense consciously, our unconscious mind may be feeling the effects tenfold. You may be feeling okay in yourself, but you may have a very stressful job that results in unconscious tension.

We can all experience stressful situations in life that have those ripple effects, whether it’s resulting in the lack of sleep or a sense of dread. This is why having an understanding of where tension is in your body can make a huge difference. Something like progressive muscle relaxation, where you tense and slowly release different muscle groups, can reduce physical tension and promote relaxation.

While we’re on the topic of addressing your body, it’s also important to remember to become aware of areas where you are carrying your tension. As you become aware of these areas, you should breathe into them and visualize tension melting away, which takes us nicely on to the next approach.

Positive Visualization

The brain is unable to tell, on a subconscious level, between what is real and what is imagined. This is why visualization has become such a popular and powerful tool in the modern day.

When we visualize ourselves feeling healthier and happier, but also practice this, it can make a huge difference in the long run. Practice is key to all of these things. There are so many people who don’t practice mindfulness enough because it’s not something that we can fix overnight.

Ultimately, it requires so much practice but also those lifestyle changes that we need to look at the things that truly benefit us. Stress and anxiety are so demoralizing if they take over our lives, and hopefully, some or all of these techniques, in the right combination, can really help you out.

This article is not intended as health advice and should not be relied upon as a substitute for professional consultation with a health care professional health care provider.