Guilt is a powerful self-conscious emotion that happens when you feel responsible or remorseful for doing something wrong or perceived as harmful. This feeling can manifest even if you are not actually accountable nor participated in the action or situation.

Overall, guilt is about feeling personally responsible or sorry for a situation. Unfortunately, negative feelings are hard to get rid of and can wreak havoc on your personal and professional life. Nonetheless, you do have the ability to stop feeling guilty with the right tools and resources.

Here are four ways to stop feeling guilty and reduce anxiety.

Highlight the Source of Your Guilt

Ask, “Why do I feel guilty?” and, “What happened recently to make me feel this way?” Remember, only you can answer these questions honestly and know the answers. Don’t be afraid to be truthful to yourself. The more genuine you can be, the easier it will be to get rid of the guilt and live a happier life.

If you can’t pinpoint why you feel guilty, it’s a good idea to set up an appointment with your doctor. Feeling guilty for no reason or having guilt completely debilitate your life could also signify that something else, health-wise, may be wrong.

Accept Responsibility and Apologize

If you can find the source of your guilt, it is time to accept it for what it is. If you are genuinely responsible, apologize where necessary and commit never to repeat the action or situation. Truly accepting responsibility and being sorry for your actions means you know you need to do something different to do better and avoid being a repeat offender.

Practice Self-Compassion and Forgiveness

Now that you have accepted full responsibility and are aware of what is causing the guilt, it is time to seek forgiveness within yourself. Most mistakes are not the end of the world. In fact, a mistake can be positive too, as it helps you grow and become a better person.

Take Action Towards Your Goals

The final thing is to move on to your goals. If feelings persist, find ways to distract yourself with the things that matter most. Remember, you already took responsibility and apologized for the mistake. You don’t need to dwell on it any longer. Over time, as you achieve more goals, you will learn that the feeling was helpful and is no longer needed.

If you are suffering from guilt, take the time to follow through on each of these techniques. Note that these techniques will not work if you are not honest with yourself first. You must notice your actions and inactions with full awareness. Without honesty, you won’t be able to highlight the source that’ll allow you to forgive and move on with your life. Use guilt to be a better and stronger person instead, with these techniques.

Breathing Exercises and Other Techniques to Remain Calm

Breathing exercises? Yes if you’re looking to improve your ability to stay calm and collected under pressure, then there are numerous different techniques you can use. One of the most potent is to learn to control your breathing, which can immediately help you to feel calmer and avoid being pushed over into the stress response.
In this post, we’ll be looking at some breathing techniques you can employ to stay calm, as well as looking at some other techniques you can use.

Equal Breathing

Equal breathing is a technique from yoga, which essentially requires you to breathe in and out through your nose. While doing this, you maintain your breath for an equal amount of time on the in-wards and out-wards breaths. So you might breathe out for 4 seconds and then breathe in for four seconds.

This helps you to empty your lungs and fill them with fresh oxygen. What’s more, the slow and deep breathing will allow you to trigger your ‘rest and digest’ state which is similar but slightly different to the ‘fight or flight’ state and is controlled by the parasympathetic nervous system. This is a great way to stave off an anxiety response.

Breathing From the Stomach

Another breathing technique to try is simply to breathe from the stomach as we are naturally designed to do. If you try breathing right now and note whether your stomach or chest moves first, you may well find that you breathe by leading with your chest. This limits the amount of oxygen you can take in with each breath and that can increase stress.

Instead, breathe by first allowing your abdomen to expand. Use your transverse abdominis and expand your abdominal cavity. This will allow your diaphragm to drop into that space, opening up your lungs. You can then follow by expanding your chest and you’ll have more space in total to take in more oxygen.

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Power Positions

Power positions are positions that have been shown by research to trigger the production of testosterone and other positive, stress-fighting hormones. One is the ‘victory pose’.

If you simply stand with your arms above you in a ‘V’ shape, as though you had just won a competition, this will increase your production of testosterone, helping you to feel more confident and more driven. Of course it’s best to do this somewhere private before the event you’re nervous about!

Make sure to learn how you can use the unique breathing muscle trainer to help you with your breathing exercises and restore your breathing capacity and recover your energy!

Find a Creative Outlet to Deal with Anxiety

Having a creative outlet benefits you in a number of ways, both with anxiety and just your general mood and outlook on life. Creative activities often have a calming effect on the body and mind. And don’t worry – you don’t need to be artistic or have a special skill for this to benefit you and help with your anxiety.


Something You Used to Enjoy Doing as a Kid

If you aren’t quite sure how to start, an easy way to transition into finding a creative outlet is thinking about what you enjoyed doing as a kid. Think of it first as a broad generalization, like drawing, painting, playing music, dancing, really anything that used that creative part of your brain. From there, you can then figure out the specifics. Maybe you liked learning new forms of art rather than sticking to one thing, you enjoyed writing poetry or short stories, or loved coloring.

Anything you enjoyed as a kid could be a sign of what you might enjoy as an adult, even if it’s slightly different. Take it to the next level and give it a try right now. You will reduce your stress and your anxiety will suddenly be a lot easier to manage.


Meditate Through Music and Dance

People often think of being creative as having to be artistic and create something like art or crafts, but music and dance can also be part of the creative arts. Music and dance both get you into a type of meditative state. Not one where you are sitting in a quiet room with your eyes closed, but where all your thoughts float away into the melody. From listening to music during your daily self-care routine to dancing it out in your living room, it is definitely worth exploring if you have anxiety.


Learn Something New

This is also a great time to learn something new, whether it is a form of art you have always been curious about, or taking a photography class to brush up on your skills. Make a list of the different creative activities you have been curious about. Maybe you have a fancy camera but you don’t know about all the settings, or you have always wanted to try making pottery or ceramics. There are classes online and in person for just about anything, so let your imagination run wild.


Being Creative Doesn’t Require Being Artistic

Don’t shy away from finding a creative outlet just because you aren’t artistic. First of all, art is subjective, so what you personally love might not be what someone else loves and vice versa. And most people who create things that other deem appealing practiced a lot at it. But when it comes to anxiety, you aren’t trying to be perfect. You are simply finding a hobby or activity that uses a different part of your brain, helps distract you, and gives you something to do just for you.

Misconceptions About Anxiety

Like many things, anxiety is a disorder that only people with anxiety can truly understand. This makes it really hard for others to empathize with you, because they have not experienced it themselves. It also means a lot of common misconceptions get thrown around. Here are some things that are often said about anxiety that are simply not true. It helps to understand them when you are on the path to improving your own mental health, or you know someone else struggling with anxiety.


Anxiety is Just Worrying Too Much

Anxiety and worry can often happen at the same time, but they are not the same thing. Having anxiety is NOT just being worried about something and definitely not something you can just will away by “not worrying as much”. Being worried about something and having anxiety are not the same thing, though you can definitely experience both simultaneously.


You Can “Get Over” Anxiety

Anxiety is a mental illness, just like depression and bipolar disorder. While there are many different facets of anxiety disorders, and not everyone needs professional help for anxiety, it is not something you can just get rid of by thinking positively or going for a run.

This is also a bit of a gray area, since it is possible to reduce the effects of anxiety or reduce panic attacks with daily routines, therapy, medication, and many other treatments. But that doesn’t mean you cure your anxiety or get rid of it completely.


Anxiety Isn’t a Serious Mental Illness

According to the Anxiety and Depression Association of America, anxiety is the most common mental illness people deal with in the U.S. It affects over 40 million adults in the U.S. alone, even though less than 40% of these people get treatment for it.

Why is that? Because the general consensus is that it isn’t that serious. People assume anxiety is just stress or worrying or worse, they are just overreacting. But if you think you have anxiety, you should think about getting help for it. There are many different forms, each with different effects on your mind and body.


Avoidance is the Answer

You can’t avoid anxiety and hope it will get better on its own, just like you can’t avoid stress, depression, PTSD, or any other mental health issue you are facing. Just pretending your anxiety doesn’t exist is only going to exacerbate it because you aren’t learning coping techniques for dealing with anxiety attacks.

5 Ways to Relieve Anxiety During the Holidays

The holidays bring, what seems to some people, as never-ending events, and social gatherings. Unfortunately, this means symptoms of anxiety can be exasperated, which can lead to problems during the holiday and affect your overall happiness.

Not only can the anxiety ruin the holidays, but it can also make everyday life more difficult. If this sounds like you, realize that there are many things you can do to help relieve your anxiety so that you can enjoy the holidays more.

Don’t Change Your Daily Routine

Don’t change your daily routine just because the holiday season is here. Beyond seeing family more, there is no reason to change it up too much. If you have to change it a little, be sure to include the things that are important to your daily life for you. Don’t skip out on the daily meditation, exercise, or self-care as these the things that are known to reduce stress.

Get Sunlight

Go outside or buy a happy light. Many people experience SAD or seasonal depression during the holidays that can produce anxiety. Sunshine or the happy light, which is a way to get simulated sunlight from a full spectrum UV free 10,000 lux bulb, is also a great way to take a break when you are feeling stressed. Go outside and take a short walk, soak in the sun, or plugin that happy light every day that there is no sunshine.

Be Generous

Holidays are the perfect time to be more generous to others as well as to yourself. If you are feeling overwhelmed, pamper yourself with a treat or massage, and treat someone you love while you’re doing it. Offering yourself to others makes you feel good and can lessen the symptoms of anxiety by putting the focus on others.

Set Realistic Expectations

Change your perspective and expectations for the holidays. The more you expect something to happen, the more chances for disappointment that can make your anxiety worse. Free your expectations and even talk with friends and family to make sure you understand their expectations of you. That way, nothing is a big surprise.

If it feels overwhelming, be honest, and tell them. It’s your responsibility to let others know your expectations of them and what is causing you to be unhealthy and full of anxiety. You might even find that your anxiety produced expectations on you that were never there in the first place.

Don’t Strive for Perfection

Perfection doesn’t exist. Don’t strive for it. This will ruin your holidays. Dinnertime, playtime, or certain family events will most likely not go as planned, and this is okay. It is only normal. The more you learn to accept it, the less likely you will disappoint yourself in the end.

There is no reason that you need to permit anxiety to control your life or ruin the joy of the holidays for you or anyone else. Use these tips you’ve just read to relieve your anxiety so that you can enjoy this time of life fully.

Ten years ago, someone with depression would be given a bottle of paracetamol and a “get some fresh air” lecture. Insomnia is best sorted with a cup of tea and a bedtime story. 2020 is a little different.

Today, if these people are lucky, they’ll be referred to a psychiatrist for a prescription and told to take part in a “talking therapy”, if they want to continue to receive medical treatment. Therefore, we need to talk about CBD and its potential to treat depression and anxiety.

How is CBD useful for treating anxiety? Anxiety can be caused by a number of things – mostly this is due to imbalanced chemicals and hormones within the human body, and an outdated way of thinking.

These two cause the sufferer’s body to react with any number of not so pleasant symptoms; most commonly these are tense muscles, a quickened heartbeat and an intense desire to escape. Yet the sufferer does not necessarily feel like they are in danger, and cannot always explain why these reactions occur. This makes reacting to the anxiety quite difficult, and it is easy for the sufferer to end up locked in a vicious cycle, with feelings of anxiety becoming almost a default state.

CBD is able to produce harmonizing effects upon the body’s endocannabinoid system whilst reducing feelings of anxiety, fear, and paranoia. This is achieved through the release of the neuropeptide oxytocin, as well as better balancing of the hormones serotonin and GABA.

DO make sure you have CBD or tincture ready to use straight away. The effects are better felt if you take CBD when it is not a foreseen event.

DO try to give your body ample time to enjoy the positive benefits of CBD before the next dose.

DO consider that CBD is not a fast cure, but the results are long-lasting and can permit sufferers to get out of the vicious circle they are stuck in. CBD allows many to face their fears...

Coronavirus wellbeing: struggling with the uncertainty of the pandemic? Your ‘future anxiety’ could be to blame

How to Sleep Better Even When You’re Anxious

If you struggle with an anxiety disorder or are feeling anxious lately, then it is likely you are also struggling with sleep. This is unfortunate because sleep affects everything in your daily life, physically and mentally.

Research shows that if you don’t get adequate amounts of sleep, it can lead to weight gain, depression, and a weak immune system. Therefore, it is imperative to get sleep every night.  To ensure that you can sleep at night, try these tips for sleeping better even when you’re anxious.

Eat Plants

Cut out the simple carbohydrates and artificial ingredients and preservatives. Stick to a diet rich in fruits and vegetables. The cleaner the diet, the more you can be sure your diet is not making you anxious. You may also experience other positives, such as weight management and improved health.

Drink Enough Water

Drinking water is a soothing task and crucial for overall health. Being dehydrated can make symptoms of anxiety worse. Research suggests that you should drink at least half your body weight in ounces of water a day.

Skip Caffeine

Caffeine is known to make anxiety worse and can be found in many foods and beverages besides coffee. Make sure you switch anything you drink to water to be on the safe side to avoid making it any worse. A proper diet and exercise routine, as well as staying hydrated, can leave you feeling energized throughout your day to where you won't even notice you didn’t drink coffee.

Side note: I personally sleep like a baby ever since I started taking cbd oil  and I highly recommend you try it !

Exercise Daily

Allow endorphins to flow through your body and cause a sense of relaxation through exercising. Exercising is known to release chemicals that make you feel good such as endorphins, which is why it is excellent for stress and anxiety relief. Make sure you do your exercises in the morning so that by the time you are done for the day, you are even more tired before you go to bed. If you exercise right before bed, believe it or not, you may get a boost of unneeded energy, so keep it for the morning time or the 3 in the afternoon energy slump.

Eliminate Lights and Screens

Before you go to bed, make sure you get rid of all lights and screens from cell phones, computers, or TVs. Make sure your cell phone is far away and not within reach. Lights of any kind are a distraction, and your mind may believe its daylight no matter what time it is. Start with 30 minutes before bed, and if that doesn’t work, keep stopping this activity sooner until your body gets it.

Journal Your Issues

A great way to rid of stress is by finding out what is causing it and then seeing how you can combat the cause to make the stress away. Any time you feel anxiety rearing its head, write down what you are thinking and feeling. Then see if there are things you can do to fix it, set up a plan to make it happen. Maybe you are feeling anxious because you forgot to pay a bill. If you have the money, get up for a second and pay that bill so you can get to sleep.

 As with anything, there is a solution to the problem if you work for it. Don’t let being anxious ruin your sleep. Follow these tips, and you will be sleeping soundly in no time.