Natural Therapies for Anxiety: Herbs, Massage Therapy, Energy Healing, Meditation – QiGong – Tai Chi
See video at the end – ANXIETY: Frankincense & Energy Work
Approximately 38 million Americans suffer with chronic anxiety or depression with one out of eight adults currently taking antidepressant medications for these symptoms. While these medications can offer support and benefit on certain occasions, there are many people that do not respond well to this form of treatment. What happens when you need to try something else?
Natural therapies can offer tremendously helpful support in healing the root causes of this epidemic. This approach is much more comprehensive and much less invasive to the brain than using SSRI medications. Oriental medicine looks at the whole mind-body-spirit, and treats on all 3 levels.
Chinese & Western Herbs
There are a number of Chinese herbal formulas that can work wonders for anxiety disorders. Here is a brief list of formulas an acupuncturist may use to treat anxiety followed by several common Western herbs that can be easily found at your local health food store:
- Peaceful (or Calm) Spirit
- Salvia and Amber
- Heavenly Emperor’s classic formula
- Free and Easy Wanderer – one of our favorites!
- Suan Zao Ren Tang
- chamomile
- valerian
- lemon balm
- passion flower
Massage Therapy
Many people have found Massage Therapy to have a wonderful effect in relaxing the body-mind and re-integrating a sense of peace and calm into the nervous system. Regular massage, which we suggest either once a week or every other week for about one season, trains our body to attain and maintain a strongly serene state. It can become much easier to avoid or release the feelings that anxiety brings on.
Energy Healing
Many people find light touch/no touch energy healing helps them to reach a mind state that is so relaxed it becomes a mentally transformative experience. In this altered state, it can feel like floating, energetic sensations throughout the body or in focused areas, and simultaneously being in a deep sleep while being aware of not being asleep. Medical QiGong Energy Healing externally re-balances energy (Qi) flow to assist in healing symptoms. The therapist helps the energy of your heart and kidneys communicate harmoniously again so that deep healing can occur.
Meditation – QiGong – Tai Chi
Many people find meditation, qigong, and tai chi to be their most powerful allies in healing anxiety. With regular practice of various breathing techniques and tai chi postures, people often feel that they have much more control over their anxiety and that it need not run their life anymore. These practices can be direct gateways to the rest and restore mode of the nervous system. On a deeper level, they can help us forge a spiritual connection with our lives that instills an unshakable sense of trust and safety in the workings of the universe.
From a holistic perspective, our symptoms are never random. There is always a reason why they creep up. In the case of anxiety, it is helpful to disengage from our personal feelings about it and look at the bigger picture. What is the anxiety telling us about ourselves and where we are at in life? Is it a warning sign that something is amiss and needs to be acknowledged or changed? In any regard, the practices mentioned here can offer a profound level of support in getting to the root of the problem and inducing a gentle course in a new direction of calmness and insight.
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