How I Overcame My Crippling Anxiety
I would imagine everyone experiences anxiety from time to time.
But have you ever had full blown panic attacks or had to go on antidepressants, because the symptoms were so bad your will wasn’t strong enough to handle them?
I have.
Yep, you heard me right. Upon graduating from college, I couldn’t have foreseen the heightened levels of anxiety and pressure I’d undergo trying to become a successful lawyer. I was so afraid of letting my parents down and not achieving the level of stature and recognition I thought I needed to achieve in order to be seen, respected, or looked at with any measure of pride.
It was awful.
I wasn’t sleeping. I couldn’t concentrate. Any hope I had at holding a decent first-year associate job was going down the drain, and my emotional instability was the root of the disaster.
I couldn’t eat. My weight got WAY too low. So low that most people diagnosed me with an eating disorder. Who knows — maybe I did have one. I needed control in my life, and I sure wasn’t getting it anywhere else. My life had become a living hell, with me at its center.
I went to doctors to help me ease my pain. I begged for anti-anxiety meds. What did I know at the time? Apparently nothing. Only that I needed to feel better. Not that I needed to get to the root of my problems.
So Xanax and Prozac became my friends. Yet I continued to push myself, still filled with the same fears, still doing the same old song and dance.
The meds just masked the truth of all these fears I was housing inside. Fear of failure, disappointment, the pressure to succeed and be seen a certain way. It was like carrying the weight of the world on my shoulders.
Anxiety is no joke. It is the worst feeling in the world to feel like your world is spinning out of control. And if you let external factors take over, you can let your life fall apart, masking the real issues.
It was years later that I turned to holistic healing. I knew there had to be a better solution than synthetic medications that were destroying my gut and not getting to the root of my problems.
I turned to yoga, self-awareness, changing my attitude and natural medicine.
It took me a while to become a believer. As a daughter of a physician, I thought going inward and using holistic products like essential oils was cuckoo. Where was the science?
Come on. Connecting to our true nature and using products given to use from the earth were enough to heal? For real?
YES!
Essential Oils have been used for thousands of years to treat ailments, illnesses and emotional and hormonal imbalances.
Our sense of smell is connected to our limbic system, which is the seat of our emotions. Aromatherapy works at a cellular level to deal with all the emotional upheaval associated with anxiety. Essential oils can calm anxiety and even make it disappear before it arrives.
Here are five oils you can use to help calm your fears:
1. Ylang Ylang, pronounced (eeelang, eeelang), is notorious for balancing the solar and sacral plexus chakras, and can help alleviate stress and lower anxiety.
2. Lavender relieves mental stress and is a great relaxant. It can even help you sleep.
3. Geranium helps release negative memories and nervous tension. It is extraordinarily uplifting.
4. Bergamot is calming and uplifting. It is known for its antidepressant properties.
5. Wild Orange is elevating for the mind and body and is known to bring joy and peace.
The most effective way to use these oils is aromatically. Put a few drops in a diffuser and let the aroma take over. If you don’t have a diffuser and need a quick release, put a drop or two in the palm of your hands and deeply inhale several times.
About the Author:
Hayley Hobson is an author, speaker, business coach, yogi, Pilates and holistic nutritional expert based in Boulder, CO. Hayley creates lifestyle transformations by coaching her clients to strengthen, nourish and evolve through the cycles and shifts in life. Combining cutting edge understanding in all three disciplines due to years of anatomical study and dietary theory, Hayley’s approach leverages their blended benefits and results. Her unique and intelligent style promotes strengthening while softening–empowering her client’s to heal not only their physical bodies, but their hearts and minds as well. Hayley studied at the Institute for Integrative Nutrition, continues her studies with David Wolfe, raw food expert and is an essential oil expert in her own right. She is a doTERRA Certified Pure Essential Oil Diamond Director and a Pangea Beauty Ecologist. Her insights and articles can also be found on her blog, Elephant Journaland Islaorganics. She has also been featured in Pilates Stylemagazine, Natural Health magazine and Triathlete Magazine. She has fun running and playing in the mountains with her husband, former world-ranked triathlete, Wes Hobson and their two beautiful daughters, Makenna and Madeline . To learn more about her nutritional courses, events she’s hosting and custom programs go tohayleyhobson.com or follow her on Facebook or Twitter or Pinterest.
