How to lower your anxiety levels with natural remedies.
Anxiety isn’t an inherently bad thing. It is part of our body’s survival instincts: Anxiety is how we respond to uncertainty and the unknown. The emotion is meant to put us on high alert, getting us ready to react at a moment’s notice. This is very useful when you are alone in the jungle and you just heard a strange noise.
In the modern era, however, the range of problems that humans deal with is so complex that our anxiety-response systems have trouble coping. Death of a loved one, divorce, moving house, major illness and job loss are amongst the top stressors causing anxiety and/or depression. So, it is not surprising that many stressed-out single parents suffer from anxiety. This is often the result of having experienced more than one such stressful life event at the same time; followed by high levels of stress as a result of socioeconomic factors, such as financial worries, lack of social support, and feelings of low self-esteem and/or isolation.
Combine that with the fact that many of us have diets that are high on caffeine, sugars, and other anxiety-inducing substances, and it’s no surprise that it’s hard for many of us to calm down. And that’s before you even factor in the existence of serious anxiety disorders, which further impact the brain’s biochemistry.
The good news is that there are natural tools that can help you reduce your levels of anxiety. If you’d like to try and calm yourself down without relying on pharmaceuticals, here are some of the best anti-anxiety tools nature has to offer:
1. Sleep
Let’s start with a simple one. Studies have shown that a good night’s sleep can help regulate the levels of stress hormones in your bloodstream. Those hormones have a direct impact on your levels of stress and anxiety throughout the day. This means that if you don’t get enough sleep every night, you will experience feelings of anxiety with more intensity, and more frequently.
You may be wondering why our bodies would even act this way. Why does insomnia lead to more anxiety? Well, it’s because your body does a variety of maintenance tasks while you sleep, and those include normalizing your hormonal levels. Sleep loss can lead to a variety of hormonal problems, which include feeling more anxious and stressed. 
2. Chamomile
A hot cup of chamomile tea can help melt your anxiety away, so consider making it a part of your routine. There are other ways to take chamomile as well, including using concentrated chamomile extracts: The aroma of the tea and the warm feeling of it going down can both have a calming effect on the body. This means that while other methods of taking chamomile are available, tea is generally the best way to go.
3. Exercise
Like sleeping, exercising can help regulate your hormonal levels. That, in turn, can help get your levels of anxiety and stress under control. Depending on your personality type, exercising and practicing sports can also be a way to let off steam and get your mind off work or worries for a while. 
4. Lavender
There are many ways to get lavender into your system, but most of the substance’s calming properties come from its comforting aroma. This means that if your goal is anxiety control, you should seek lavender products that allow you to enjoy said aroma. Keep an eye out for lavender air fresheners, perfumes, bath bombs, and — of course — lavender tea.
Lavender is a regular feature in many types of aromatherapy treatments, but you don’t need professional help to enjoy its therapeutic benefits. Just run yourself a hot bath and use a lavender bath bomb, then let yourself soak for a while to melt the stress away.
5. Chocolate
Strictly speaking, chocolate isn’t “natural”. It’s a man-made concoction created with cocoa by-products. But then again, making plants into tea also isn’t really “natural”, and no one is suggesting you chew on raw chamomile leaves, so including chocolate in this list seems fair.
Chocolate has been shown to have a variety of benefits when it comes to mood regulation. It can help reduce your feelings of anxiety and may even have an impact on depression. Chocolate is also rich in antioxidants, which is good for your overall health.
Bear in mind that, as mentioned above, sugar is bad for your anxiety. This means that to get the most benefit out of chocolate, you should stick to dark, bitter chocolate.
6. Whole grain foods
We often think of our body as a series of separate systems, but that’s a mistake. Your digestion can and does impact your overall mood. You just have to think back to how bad you felt the last time you had food poisoning, and you’ll see how true this is.
Whole-grain foods help reduce your feelings of anxiety in a variety of ways. One of them is by boosting the quality of your digestion, which can make you feel better across the board. The second way is by providing a variety of nutrients that are fundamental for your well-being. For example, whole-grain foods are generally rich in magnesium, and a magnesium deficiency can cause anxiety.
Another way to help your digestion or even help with pain relieF is to add CBD or THC products into your food, as those are rich in antioxidants and can help reduce gut inflammation. CBD in particular also has anti-anxiety properties, as this Cibdol guide explains. You can purchase both in many different forms, although tinctures are probably the most popular form. However, they can also be purchased as an edible form of supplement, but are then often more expensive than simpler product types and more difficult to microdose.
According to single parent statistics, mums and dads raising their kids alone face a number of difficulties and challenges leading to a disproportionally higher risk of anxiety in single parents. This is particularly true for single mums who make up 90% of all single parent households. It is therefore of utmost importance that single parents look after their mental health.
If you’re a single parent feeling worried or anxious, check out more pages from our Single Parent Blog:
- A Survival Guide for Newly Single Parents
- COVID-19: Practical Tips for Single Parents During Lockdown
- Life Coaching for Single Parents
- Financial Support for Single Parents
About the author:
Single Parents on Holiday organise fun and fabulous single parent holidays exclusively for solo mums and dads and their children as well as solo holidays and singles ski holidays for anyone travelling without kids.
