I suffered badly from anxiety for years and I know that lifestyle is the best way to treat it. I describe anxiety as the feeling you get if your mind is not anchored. The things make you feel solid and safe make chi descend. The things that make you feel anxious are things that make chi ascend. Just get chi moving downwards, so you feel grounded, and you will naturally cut off many triggers for anxiety. If you take an anxiety medication such as Xanax, it creates the impression of solidity and safety as it makes your chi move downwards (this is why it is called a ‘downer’). So, you might ask, why not just take Xanax (or another medication) for anxiety? Well it hijacks the descending mechanism and then it destroys it. So you can end up even more anxious.

If you suffer from anxiety you can do a lot with simple lifestyle changes. Firstly avoid what makes chi ascend such as: diet fads with insufficient protein (if you eat salads that ‘light meal’ feeling is chi ascending); harmful levels of stress, prolonged periods of intense concentration, physical overexertion, drug and alcohol abuse, violent movies and computer games. Permanent chi ascension harms the yin and creates the grounds for chronic anxiety. So always work on things that make chi descend instead. These include breathing techniques, exercise (weight training is a great anxiety buster), a diet with sufficient protein (protein three times a day for anxiety) and complex carbs; a calm and cooked breakfast because stomach chi grounds you. Never ever skip breakfast if you have anxiety, otherwise you’ll start your day in an off-grounded and vulnerable state.

Book a holistic lifestyle consultation to find out what is contributing to your anxiety and what you can do to combat it naturally. Look into the calming Chinese herbal formulas. The basics on preventing anxiety are covered well in my book Clock On To Health. If you have post-drug anxiety, which is very common, get my book The Rebel’s Guide to Recovery.

*This is a very simplified version of anxiety offering an intuitive approach to understanding it and a couple of simple things you can do. Anxiety is a complex symptom but in TCM the solution is always simple.

VCM

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