Episode #33: 10 Anxiety Busting Natural Remedies!

Welcome to the Podcast! Stressed? Full of Anxiety?

Well, I am right there with you! I know how you feel - matter of fact, although your situation is unique to your experience, we have all felt stressed and/or anxious.

It does not DEFINE you - you can work through it.

On today's episode, I will give you 10 natural, anxiety busting remedies that I use - and they work!

Some of the topics include:

• The stress of social media
• The hypothalamus-pituitary-adrenal axis
• The 10 methods I use to help with stress/anxiety
• Wrap-up with my FREE giveaway!

I decided to extend the FREE giveaway a couple of weeks to get your lot casted! How to enter:

• #1 - Leave a rating or review (has to be 5-stars so this Podcast can be shared)
• #2 - Share the Podcast with someone
• #3 - Email me a Wellness Question who would like answered! Email me at [email protected]

Thats it!

By the way - are you sleeping well? If not, here is a FREE 5-day Sleep Challenge downloadable that could help you start getting better sleep tonight! Download it HERE

Here are the show notes for this episode:

Frank: (00:00)
If you're like me, then you have had stress and anxiety in your life. Matter of fact, it might be in your life right now as you're listening to this podcast. Wow. Stay tuned. I'm frank. This is unconventional wellness radio and on today's episode I am going to talk to you about 10 natural anxiety busting methods that I use and I want to share them with yourself. Stick around unconventional wellness radio and we will talk to you very, very soon. Hey everyone, and welcome to unconventional wellness. Radio is a powerful and inspiring podcast, such a revolutionize and disrupt healthcare. It's trying to put you in the driver's seat. That'd be the force of change necessary for the lifestyle you've always wanted. Hey, what's going on? Everybody? Frank here? Um, oh, I just noticed that I still have these on. These are actually a kind of cool. 

Frank: (00:47)
These are those blue blocking types of lenses. So whenever I'm like working on the computer and stuff like that, I try to wear these. Um, they have like a yellow tint to them and it's a little ticks, a little a second to get used to them. But what's really cool about it is that, uh, they're, they're really great. If you're joining us on, uh, Facebook, um, awesome. Uh, we're doing another simulcast. Uh, this is Oscar Maine, uh, in correlation with my podcast that I'm doing. It's our weekly podcasts. It's unconventional wellness radio. So if you're listening to us on there and hello, hope you had a great weekend, uh, if you're like me, you're pretty excited cause college football season is essentially upon us again, and even when we're even where we're at, we've got a little bit of cooler temperatures, so it's maybe time for that fall to start creeping its way in, uh, here shortly in the next couple of weeks. 

Frank: (01:39)
And so we've got a small preview of what, uh, what fall is going to be bringing. But anyway, we're here to talk today about 10 anxiety busting remedies that I want to recommend to you. Uh, we are just so stressed out and so anxious and our society just, you know, it causes us to, to be so uptight and just go, go, go, go, go. And people often don't have a chance to relax. And so, um, you know, really anxiety could be a symptom that you are having of, you know, a much deeper issue. Okay. And I'm not just talking about a mental health concern. It could also be something like, you know, uh, some various different, uh, diagnoses are actually related to having, um, issues with anxiety. You know, like high blood pressure can be a reason because, uh, if you're having high blood pressure, say palpitations, um, that could be anxiety causing OK. 

Frank: (02:39)
Uh, issues with, uh, different types of hormone problems, right? So like say you have like, you know, a, some sort of adrenal fatigue or hyper or hypo thyroid as I'm, that can cause anxiety. Um, you can have diabetes, diabetes can actually cause anxiety and stuff like that because that's sort of like a mellow metabolic problem, right? Um, autoimmune or chronic illness can actually cause it. Uh, just simple deficiencies in various different types of nutrients can cause it. And then, you know, stuff that we do. Um, you know, more often than not, when I was in the military, uh, people, we combat sleeplessness with having heavy consumption of caffeine and cigarettes. And so what those things will do is those will always wreak havoc as well. People get more snacky and they'll usually, uh, go after those sugary, uh, types of snacks and things like that. 

Frank: (03:33)
And that'll cause, uh, anxiety issues as well. There are even, uh, different types of medications. You know, if you're somebody who either yourself or one of your, uh, close, you know, family members or, or friends has asthma, um, that might be using an asthma albuterol inhaler and then may actually cause anxiety as well because, um, the nervousness and all the agitation stuff like that that may come with using albuterol. There's different types of birth control that may cause it. There's different types of like, say, uh, cold medicines if you will. Uh, those may cause it as well. So the long story short is that if you're alive, we're going to have anxiety. And so what w what can we do about it? How can we actually get ourselves feeling better? Well, one of the things that I tell people immediately is to be very careful with social media. 

Frank: (04:25)
Now, I mean, I am extremely grateful for social media because it's given me an opportunity to, you know, take what, what knowledge I have in here from the last 10 years and be able to actually tell you about it, you know, the things that I had been doing and stuff like that. And so I am super grateful for social media, but I try to use it as a blessing rather than a curse. A lot of us will grab our, you know, different devices or whatnot and we'll kind of do that. You know, we kind of are just a, you know, just a passive kind of scroller on Facebook and stuff like that. And the only problem is, is that if we don't monitor what Facebook allows, oh, this brings me less stress to as this wonderful woman right here in my life. But anyway, uh, it was a picture of my wife on my phone for you guys are listening on the, on the podcast. 

Frank: (05:09)
But anyway, so, um, yeah, so these, these images and things that are going on in the world and, and things like that, those may be bringing it and you might have a, you might have a friend that's on Facebook that might be posting negative things and stuff like that. And so that also could be something that just, you know, really sets you off, right? You could be having an okay day and like all of a sudden, you know, uh, somebody who you may not even know posted a video that ended up on your newsfeed and that could be something that can cause a lot of anxiety for you because it might be something that brings up a traumatic event for you that happened maybe a decade ago. And so needless to say is that like social media put it in its place, use it for the benefit and the absolute amazing techno technological connecting that it is. 

Frank: (05:58)
But of course with that also being said, you know, keep it in its place. Learn that the unfollow button as a really, really awesome thing and use it to the advantage that you want to use it for. So that's my only little piece on social media. Then last thing that we want to talk about is our HPA. Okay. HPA access inside of the body as a regulator, it's a neuro endocrine regulator that we have. We all have it, and what it stands for is it stands for the hypothalamus, pituitary adrenal axis. Okay. And that's a big fancy way of saying in the brainstem is the hypothalamus right ahead of it is the pituitary gland. These two glands work synchronously in order to help eventually create hormones that go down to the kidneys and activate the kidneys. And without an HPA axis, we wouldn't have our, our thing that we may know commonly as the fight or flight response. 

Frank: (06:55)
Right. The thing is though, is that since we live in such a stressful, anxious environment with just how it is sort of like here in America, we have a chronic activation of that HPA access, whether it be through stress and anxiety or even other different types of hormone disruption. We might actually have a perception of always being awake and activated is that, if that makes sense. And so [inaudible] excuse me. Unfortunately that can lead to burnout, right? Because if we leave something on for too long, we can actually have a lot of issues. Uh, by the way, for everybody that's joining me on Facebook live, hello, how are you? Make yourself known. Say Hi. Um, give me a wave or there's let me know who you are. Uh, anyway, when we look at chronic activation of the HPA access, like I said, it can cause a myriad of a bunch of different types of symptoms. 

Frank: (07:49)
And so those symptoms may cause us to feel anxious and those symptoms may cause us to feel very, um, you know, very activated. In scientific terms, we look at a, it's a massive sympathetic response, whether we're fighting or flighting, it's a massive sympathetic response, right? Pupils get dilated, heart rate goes up, breathing becomes more shallow and things like that. And so these are typical symptoms that one would experience if they also have anxiety. And so it's very important to center our sympathetic nervous system by a parasympathetic response. Uh, because we have an autonomic nervous system. It's something that I like to, you know, how I remembered in school is that it's automatic and I'm so grateful that we have an autonomic nervous system that's automatic because that means I don't have to worry about, you know, things like breathing or my heart rate because if I had to focus on that with all these other things I've got going on, I would die before I even had a chance to wake up in the morning. 

Frank: (08:44)
Okay. Um, so it's really wonderful to have this on the Ma autonomic nervous system, which breaks down into those two branches. We have a sympathetic side and a pair of sympathetic side. So sympathetic is your fight or flight parasympathetic? The way that I remember that in school and the way that a lot of people remember it, medical schools or physician assistant schools or what have you, um, we learned that as rest and digest and so we need to be able to find that great balance of activation of the sympathetic nervous system. But then to be able to activate the parasympathetic nervous system at the Times that we want to relax in order to be able to keep things at a happy medium. Right? And so the, the thing is, is that a lot of these different tricks that I want to give you are going to be focusing a little bit on that parasympathetic nervous system and how can we activate that better in order to be able to get that response back toward anxiety? 

Frank: (09:32)
That way we don't have that chronic overstimulation and those chronic symptoms related to anxiety. If that is, that all makes sense. I hope. All right, so here are those tips that I want to give you and there's 10 of them. So write them down real, listen to this podcast if you need to in order to really be able to understand what this is all about. Okay. And Oh, by the way, I'm going to say this at the beginning of the podcast too. I'll just do a quick run in, but I am going to extend my giveaway for two more weeks. The reason why is because, um, I think that we weren't reaching as many people as we are now. And so I really want to give the opportunity for this really great giveaway that I'm going to do. Um, we're, all you've got to do is go onto my podcast and, um, give me a review, make sure that you, excuse me, share it with someone and then also give me any questions that you happen to have about what you want me to do for a future podcast as well as a Facebook live content in order to really continue to help bring my, bring my stuff to you guys, you know what I mean? 

Frank: (10:37)
Meet you where you're at. And so bring those questions. So once again, leave a rating and review a send somebody else this podcast or this Facebook live. And then third is to make sure that you, um, give me questions. Okay. And give me questions, give me advice on different things that you would like me to talk about on the podcast and on my Facebook lives. And so anyway, I promise I won't hold that off anymore. I just had to do a quick little plug, I apologize, but let's move on to these 10 anxiety busting natural remedies. Okay. The first and foremost is, uh, you want to practice some form of meditation breathing or some focused, uh, prayer, right? So like, whatever you a practice, I want to make sure that you are looking at ways to help bring it natural relaxation to the table. Okay? 

Frank: (11:28)
You want to practice, practice, any one of those or a myriad of those? I meditate, I pray, I do breathing exercises. Why it helps center me. It helps bring me back down and it helps me really just be aware of what is going on during my day in order to be able to really combat anxiety or stress, I should say, before I can internalize it at as anxiety. And so one of the things that I do every single day as I have a very simple aspect of my prayer that I add and what that is, I just simply say, please allow me to be the best version of me that I possibly can be today. That doesn't mean that I need to be perfect. I don't need to be like this superhero, right? If I am experienced in my own suffering or anxieties or stresses or whatever, I'm just simply asking, can I be the best version of myself that I possibly can be today? 

Frank: (12:27)
Okay. And what I also do is I also look for ways that I can help others, okay? So every day I wake up and say, please put somebody in my life, two people that I could do something good for, whether it be hold the door, shake a hand, say hello, buy a coffee, whatever. I'm looking for a way that I can put a small period of joy in somebody else's life. Okay? So that's my first tip. Second tip, oxytocin. Oxytocin might be one that my pregnant ladies may recognize. A is the, it is the one of the hormones that's responsible for helping with Labor, okay? It's the one that like, you know, a women will naturally create when, when they're getting ready to have or ready to have their baby. It's the one that's pushing. But did you know that it's also a, an amazing multifaceted hormone that also helps with bonding. 

Frank: (13:17)
It is known also as the hormone of love. Okay. Um, there are some sexual things that are related to oxytocin in terms of the metabolism as well as, uh, the function of the, of the, uh, system for the reproductive system and things like that. But it's also phenomenal at being able to reduce stress and anxiety in the human body. And guess what you can do today that will allow you to release some oxytocin. Give someone a hug, find a significant other, find a friend, find a dog, find a cat someone and give them a hug. Make it last. Make it like a 15 second non awkward hug. Okay? 15 seconds, 20 seconds. Make it an amazing hug, okay. Or just ask somebody you feel comfortable around and just say, can I give you a hug? May I please just have a hug and that will naturally release Oxytocin, which is a wonderful anxiety. 

Frank: (14:16)
A fighter. Okay. The next thing is get outside, right? Be exposed to sunlight, get outside, take a breath, go and relax. In nature. It is a wonderful way of being able to combat anxiety. Okay. Get outside, get natural light, get your vitamin D levels up and experience anxiety, natural anxiety relief at its finest. Okay. Number four, consider the use of different types of essential oils. I love lavender. It's a wonderful essential oil for being able to bring on feelings of relaxation. Uh, the Lynnel, l, I n a l o l is a component inside of lavender essential oil that does help relax, okay. Blood vessels and things like that. So it's really, really wonderful to be able to do that. Another thing that I've also used in the past is something called [inaudible]. That is an amino acid that is found predominantly more so in like green tea. 

Frank: (15:14)
You can find it in a bunch of different things, but I really try to find it in my green tea. I like green tea because has a little bit of caffeine in it, but not so bad at all. But really the biggest thing that hasn't is LTE and nene and LPN is really great for helping to reduce those feelings of stress and anxiety as well. Okay. Um, it would, that also goes number five. So number four. Number five, we're kind of interrelated with the [inaudible] DNA. Watch your caffeine and tech. Okay. If you're having like a cup of coffee, well first of all, if you're like a lot of those providers that I used to go to school with, they would carry their coffees and like something like this. So welcome. You're welcome Yeti for the quick plug. But uh, but then we carry their coffee and containers like this cause not only does it keep their coffee hot but they can just consume massive quantities of it throughout the morning. 

Frank: (16:01)
Okay. The thing about that is is that a lot of people use these containers throughout the day. Um, they also, you know, drink lots of energy drinks and do a lot of those different types of energy shots that you can do and things like that. The long story short is that the more caffeine you have there is benefit to caffeine that is written in medical literature. But the thing is, is that caffeine later on in the day, it's just going to keep you awake. And when you get lack of good, restful sleep, it's going to increase your anxiety and stress for the next day. Okay? And it has a cumulative effect. And so then you follow this, this spiral of I'm sleeping so I need my caffeine throughout the day to help keep me awake. I might get this like excessive daytime sleepiness as well. Any more caffeine. And then I go to sleep and I'm wired and caffeine and I can't get sleep. 

Frank: (16:45)
And so therefore I'm going to just repeat the process over and over and over again. So Watch your caffeine. The a good swap for having lots of caffeine. Have some tea in the afternoon, okay. It could be a cat, it can be a Cayman meal team. A something with Elfie, any like I talked about with green tea, really great as a coffee substitute to help relax and promote wakefulness, but yet a good wakefulness that you're going to be nice and relaxed. Um, number six is alcohol. Okay? Don't drink alcohol to, to, to, to, you know, reduce stress and anxiety, but maybe alcohol is causing you to be stressed out. A lot of people turn to the bottle when they're, when they have stress and anxiety and the, the longterm effects of alcohol. We all understand. And so what I would offer to you is like maybe challenge yourself. 

Frank: (17:30)
I think it was back in February of this past year, uh, because of all of the, uh, celeb or all the, uh, all of the celebrations that go on at the end of the year with Christmas and all that sort of stuff. People wanted to take an entire sober month and it was actually one of a, a challenge to take an entire silver monk. I believe it was either the month of January, month of February this year and a lot of people participate in. So I would offer that same to you is consider not drinking alcohol for an entire month. See how you feel at the end of that. Okay. Uh, that would be a really good thing. So watch your alcohol level. Some alcohol is okay, but excessive drinking can actually cause anxiety. Okay. Number seven, cut out refined sugar. Okay. Refined sugar does release some of those feel good hormones in the body. The problem is, is that they actually become pretty addictive themselves. 

Frank: (18:17)
And some people will actually end up having sugar because they want to have that feel good. So they're like sort of naturally medication medicating with refined sugars. And so you want to cut out refined sugar, have more protein, have more vegetables, eat a more sensible diet because that will help balance your hormones in a much better way. Okay, so cut out excessive sugars. Number eight is consider using, um, some sort of like a magnesium in the evenings. Okay? You can do a topical magnesium. I, myself, I use a magnesium supplement. A make sure you get your blood test. I'm always an advocate of doing blood tests. Uh, if you, uh, want to make sure that your magnesium levels are going to be OK, but maybe just use topical magnesium and it does a really great job of helping relax the body at night. Okay? So that's one thing. 

Frank: (19:08)
Another tip for a number eight is consider using like a hemp oil. OK. Um, something that has a natural cannabinoids in it. Uh, lots of really great turpines that are really great for relaxation. You can use those sorts of things. People will promote, um, when they use those, they have a sense of relaxation when they use a hemp or a oil like that. Okay. So that's number eight. Number nine, um, not only in addition to doing the right types of exercise for your body, maybe consider doing some yoga, excuse me, a half hour to an hour of yoga has been really great to help improve mindfulness, relaxation, body, centerdness, all of those really great health benefits that you can get from yoga. Maybe do yoga half hour to an hour a day. Not only will you get a great exercise, but you'll also improve your sense of balance and you'll really help balance your body and your mood. 

Frank: (20:02)
So Yoga is something that you can really do as well. And then very last but certainly not least, create community. Okay. Have people around you that you can talk to. Um, I've got somebody who is in my kind of circle, if you will, that, uh, I don't have any advice for them. Like I, there, there are situations that they have been through and that they're currently going through. I have no clue what to even remotely tell them. Uh, in terms of advice, you know what, that's hard because I have always been a fixer of sorts. Okay. But the fact is is that I told this person just simply if you need to call me and I'll just listen, like you can just externally process things and I'll just listen and, and you know, honestly, I'm hoping that that can provide continued benefit for you guys because you know, if you don't even have the answers, you don't have to give advice. 

Frank: (20:58)
Like we all try to be a bit of a problem solver, right? But sometimes just simply being there for someone in that moment, if they're going through something good, bad, or indifferent, just be there for them. Okay. And by investing in others, we received the joy of knowing that we have improved the life of someone else. And so I urge you just simply just do that. Just have a, just have a, uh, a conversation, create community, find friends, find people with other interests and, and really be able to invest in the lives of others. Because that right there is like the secret sauce to a lot of the things that I've been able to do is find likeminded individuals that I share common interests with and create a community. And that's what you guys are all doing here with me is that by being on my unconventional wellness tribe, you have started to create that community. 

Frank: (21:49)
So I want you guys to talk to one another, get to know one another and be able to interface in such a way that you, you know, that you're here and that you're being loved because as long as you've got a heartbeat and you breathe, you are, you are a part of our group and we love to have your, OK. Um, we have broken people, we have imperfect people, we have people who need help. That's what we're all here for. And so create community, find likeminded individuals and really be a part of the tribe because that's what it's all about. So that was it. That was my list of 10 things that you can do naturally right now to get yourself some anxiety relieved. And so if this content is good for you, give me lights, make sure you turn on notifications. If you're catching me on Facebook, join my Facebook group. 

Frank: (22:37)
That way you can see my face that probably should've just been designed for radio, but come check it out. It's UWU. So capital u, capital w with Frank. Uh, if you just searched that in a, in Facebook, you should bring my page up on conventional wellness with frank [inaudible]. And, uh, and like I said, I love doing this for you guys. I hope you have a very fabulous week. Um, leave me a rating, leave me a review, share this with somebody else. Get Yourself, uh, entered automatically from my free giveaway that I will now do in a couple of weeks. Okay. And so, um, I hope that you have been very blessed and happy week. Um, let me know what you've got for questions and, uh, and yeah, until next time I'm frank and this is unconventional wellness and I hope 

Frank: (23:23)
shove it very, very wonderful week. Take care. Now everybody.