What Calming Exercises have you used ... - Anxiety and Depre...

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What Calming Exercises have you used to help your anxious/depressive thoughts?

MoiveMarcus profile image
15 Replies

What have people explored to address there depressive and anxious feelings? I've looked at a whole tool box such as meditation, mindfulness meditation, anxiety breathing exercises, yoga, yoga nedras, qi gong and alot more.

i have also done alot of research about helping calm down for sleep, to calm down to "re" sleep after waking in the night, as these were among my issues

where ive had success with is understanding how we fall asleep, more precisely the fact we have different brain waves (beta, alpha, theta and delta) each on basically allows you to relax deeper.

where we are able to sleep is between alpha and theta and i found slowing things down and positioning myself so that I'm in calm alpha allows me to sleep so much better. At first i had to learn how to calm my mind to respond to stress or beliefs/situations but it was a really good all natural way for me to get over alot of negative emotions which i have tried to ignore for the last 5 years.

i still have alot to learn, but better sleep has helped me alot and i seem to be much less scatter brained and emotions in control than i was before. has anyone found any calming exercises in particular that would help? I'm quite open minded i would like to trade ideas

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MoiveMarcus
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15 Replies

Interesting. I've tried cbt exercises,challengening thoughts, journaling, breathing, meditation and guided meditation, walks, scents, arts, writing, music.

Agora1 profile image
Agora1

Hi MoiveMarcus, I use a mixture of self hypnosis, affirmations, muscle relaxation andmindfulness and breathing exercises. The key for me is consistency. Using it daily 3x a day builds stamina. Almost like having the security of savings account when needed. :) xx

MoiveMarcus profile image
MoiveMarcus in reply to Agora1

do you work in finance? lol interesting analogy, i agree i meditate twice a day (usually) and it helps alot once in the morning and in the evening, i also do alot of stretching with yoga feels really calming and wakes my body up

notanotter profile image
notanotter

How do you do this: “i found slowing things down and positioning myself so that I'm in calm alpha allows me to sleep so much better”?

How do you put yourself in alpha? It sounds useful to know. Thank you.

LadyZen profile image
LadyZen

I try to swim 15 laps 3 times a week and stretch for 30 minutes after. The swimming forces me to breath in a steady pattern, sort of like meditating. Running achieves the same thing, but the sweat actually stresses me out and negates any positive the steady breathing achieves. The stretching then just relaxes me all over. On bad days, I get through my laps much faster like Michael Phelps 😆.

MoiveMarcus profile image
MoiveMarcus in reply to LadyZen

sound like you might like light flexibility based yoga, check it out! i used to really not like the idea of it but then i sort of fell into it and its a really beautiful 15 mins i have each day in the morning

Kainan profile image
Kainan

Meditating outside helps, either in silence or listening to a podcast. Running outside to rid stress. Or even a short walk outside. Basically anything outside to get out of that hard space we’re in. And good sleep like you mentioned. Not fighting the stress but acknowledging it as happening right now and it will go away on its own✨

Often times I use the app called Stop, Breathe, & Think. It's called MyLife now or something similar but it helps because there are meditations and the speakers use good imagery so you can imagine cultivating good energy and calmness over yourself. :) I like to do these when I'm falling asleep or before a day at work.

MoiveMarcus profile image
MoiveMarcus in reply to

how does it help you to do this at the beginning of the day?

designguy profile image
designguy

My sleep has really improved by switching to decaf coffee, taking magnesium glycinate, ashwagandha and phosphatidyl serine to lower cortisol and melatonin before bedtime. I take it and then read for about a half hour. If it takes me awhile to fall asleep, I mentally count backwards from 100 to 1 slowly. if I lose my count I just pick a number and continue and don't worry about it. If I reach 1 I just start over. I also try not to eat any big meal after 5:00pm. Doing something physical during the day also helps.

MoiveMarcus profile image
MoiveMarcus in reply to designguy

Sounds great! what time do you sleep in the evening?

designguy profile image
designguy in reply to MoiveMarcus

Around 10:00 pm and get 7 - 8 hours of sleep.

quickblizzard profile image
quickblizzard

I do yoga, meditation, journaling, epsom salt baths, trampoline, massages (have a massage gun), going for walks, various teas, and prayer. Recently I've found success with upping my magnesium intake (magnesium glycinate) and taking tart cherry supplements for sleeping. Also briefly used 2 mg thc & cbn gummies for sleep, which helped. When it's cool enough, I sleep with a weighted blanket, and sometimes will even meditate with it on. I've also tried binaural tone meditation, which doesn't put me to sleep, but definitely helps me relax. I tried valerian root tea for sleep, which unfortunately didn't help me, but it does help with daytime anxiety. My go to teas for sleep are chamomile and green tea, though efficacy varies by brand.

MoiveMarcus profile image
MoiveMarcus

thank you , i will be looking into binaural tone meditation and valerian root tea and a few other things you've mentioned not sure what a massage gun is but sounds interesting, how long did it take you to look into all this stuff?

quickblizzard profile image
quickblizzard in reply to MoiveMarcus

Hope it helps. You can find massage guns and such on Amazon. I've kind of collected little things like this over several years. Actually, the biggest issue I have with this is being consistent. I'll tend to my mental health briefly, stop when I feel better, then have a break down later on and wonder what went wrong. Caring for mental health is no different from caring for our physical needs. We need to care for ourselves daily.

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