Anxiety Reduction

Hi! I'm new here and had to come in this thread and post.

I used to be so laid back. I guess I'm just worried all the time now. I have growing kids (a worry in and of itself), I lost my full-time career work in 2001 and haven't been able to get back into any full-time position since - which leads to always tight money which is a stressor. Plus I tend to over-analyze and think detailed about everything. I don't know if I can stop that! So of course that can stress. Recently, I found out that I'm starting to have high blood pressure. So now I have to really watch it.

Since I found out that bit of news, lately I've been doing these things to help relieve stress (and my blood pressure!)
*walking - trying to do that daily - as a matter of fact I'm about ready to go out now
*listen to relaxing, peaceful music. I'll come back and post urls later for you to two helpful things - I'm too new so can't post urls yet. But if you want to dig and find these things yourself:
* Earthrain - it's a CD put out by Chetday.com - even if you're relaxed you can still feel the extra tension release
* My "Peaceful and Relaxing" mix of music on Finetune.com (I'm Gankaku there, if you look at my profile you'll find it)
*massage - if I can't find someone to do it for me (neck and shoulders) I do it myself and also the feet.
*hot water bottle - on neck, back, stomach. Very relaxing with a cup of hot tea and under a blanket while watching tv.
*Distract myself with silly/funny cartoons or shows. I also am on the computer a lot; that all helps me to think about what I'm doing and not the stressful things
*I tried taichi for the first time. I was quite relaxed and peaceful after that. I also love yoga. Yoga is very stress relieving.
*I'm trying to learn to meditate regularly. It's supposed to be the best bloodpressure reducer/stress reliever. I'm starting with small things. This particular thing seems to help me:
*Breathe in deeply and slowly while thinking "I am..."
*Breathe out slowly while thinking "at peace"
*Omega 3 fatty oils (fish/borage/flax/evening primrose, etc) help the body deal with stress. I'll probably always take these now because they're helping to reduce my bp and are probably helping my body cope with additional stressors.
*chamomile tea. There are also some other anti-stress tea mixes out there.
*lavender - Sometimes I put a few drops of pure lavender oil on my pillow. You can feel the stress disappear. Once I was so tense in my jaws, I mixed lavender oil with olive oil and massaged it into my jaws. The tension released very very quickly and I was able to sleep peacefully after that.
*sleep helps me and I do take a short nap in the day if I'm feeling extremely tired or stressed
*I used to have panic attacks but don't any longer. I've removed coffee and excess sugar from my diet and that's resolved the issue.

Hope these things help!

There's nowhere I can't reach.

As for me, it only happens during times of high stress. It has only happened to me once this semester, when I just felt overwhelmed. I do a few things to combat this. Just breathe deep, don't talk to people, and listen to some music. Drink some hot water or something warm. You just need to calm down and approach it step by step.

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.

Here's a site that has some techniques which may be useful. It all depends if you believe in this stuff. Or, it may actually work. I've never tried them, but it seems to work with my school. Many other students have claimed to concentrate better after performing things like these techniques.

I'd suggest you go directly to the "Breathing Easy" secion and do that technique. The inital one, I've not heard of that one. But I got this link from my academic advisor.

I am a dolphin, do you want me on your body?