For someone who suffers from debilitating anxiety, treatment is often sought in many places with the hope and belief that there is someone, somewhere, who can help. Often a ‘cure’ is sought from family and friends, herbal and natural supplements and treatments. Finally, the family doctor is consulted about a prescription medication, really, anything that helps with an anxiety disorder, and can balance mental health and well-being.
Your Anxiety is different from anyone else’s anxiety, so how it is resolved is likely specific to you. However, some treatments are universal and have holistic abilities that will benefit your whole health and well-being. Something you can do right now to help is to go for a walk. Obviously, if your Anxiety is caused by something that will occur during your walk, mitigate that first.
Perfection does not exist in any singular method. However, the human mind has a strength unknown to many, which can play a significant path in recovery management. Sometimes, there are simple unobvious things that you can do to help yourself that have an effect on this disorder. An example of this is going for a walk which may give you some level of natural anxiety relief.
When walking is suggested as an Anxiety relief, you may think to yourself, I walk every day and still I get anxiety. Yes, most of us walk every day as we go about our lives, the key is to find a comfortable route to walk and set yourself a regular time to walk so that you are taking all of the guesswork out of it and do not need to worry about anything triggering your anxiety while you are out there.
There are many benefits to walking including the connection between physical activity and Anxiety symptom relief where burning off energy is important to balanced body wellness,
while anxiety may be triggered by subconscious feelings of being unwell (Rippe, James M., et al.,1988).
Breathing is another benefit of walking, how you breathe changes when you are walking. For many Anxiety disorders, breathing is affected by hyperventilation, a process where you think that you need more oxygen, but really you need to expel more carbon dioxide to let the oxygen in. By walking you are allowing your body to expel carbon dioxide naturally.
The distractions of new and changing things that you will see while you are walking may in themselves be a positive way to relieve/reduce your Anxiety, you cannot be anxious when you are not thinking about it.
As you walk, your physical fitness will increase, you will tone up, and you will feel good, which in turn increases your mental health and well-being. But don’t forget to warm up first. Have you been for a walk lately? Are you ready to start planning some exciting walking routes for yourself?
Referenced sources:
Bernd L, Decker O, Müller S, Brähler E, Schellberg D, Herzog W, et al. Validation and standardization of the generalized anxiety disorder screener (GAD-7) in the general population. Med Care. 2008;46(3):266.
Merom, Dafna, et al. Promoting walking as an adjunct intervention to group cognitive behavioral therapy for anxiety disorders a pilot group randomized trial. Journal of anxiety disorders 22.6 (2008): 959-968.
Rippe, James M., et al. Walking for health and fitness. JAMA: The Journal of the American Medical Association 259.18 (1988): 2720-2724.
Ströhle, Andreas. Physical activity, exercise, depression and anxiety disorders. Journal of neural transmission .116.6 (2009): 777-784.
