Hi Gorgeous,

I wanted to talk to you today about anxiety and how I can help you treat it.  I myself have suffered with anxiety over the years, and can truly empathize with those of you who have it.  Heart palpitations, fear, insomnia, and depression can all creep in when anxiety is at its worst, which only perpetuates the cycle.  The good news is that I’ve kept my anxiety at bay for quite awhile now, and you can, too.

Here are a couple great ways to get started:

1. Get checked for food allergies.  Food allergies can trigger a rapid heartbeat and panic attack anywhere from 5 minutes to an hour after you eat them.  That is because the brain has a direct line of communication to the gut.  And if the gut’s not happy, your brain will signal your body that it’s not happy, either.  Case in point: I had months of severe panic attacks every day at 9am.  I was eating breakfast about 7:30am, which consisted of either eggs and spinach, greek yogurt with nuts, or a green protein smoothie, and I knew that at least one of those was the culprit.  So I had a food allergy test done, and BAM- eggs and dairy came up as highly reactive.  I eliminated them altogether, and my morning anxiety was completely gone within 7 days.  

2. Fix your gut.  Most of us experience some gut issues on a daily basis: gas and bloating, belching, constipation, or diarrhea.  But we also experience depression, ADD, anxiety, and insomnnia–which are also related to how well your digestive system is or isn’t working.  Work with a functional medicine physician or dietitian to find out if you need digestive enzymes, have some funky bugs cooking inside your intestines, or need to eliminate allergenic foods.

3. Balance your blood sugar.  Ever wake up in the middle of the night and can’t fall back to sleep?  Often times this is a blood sugar issue; when your blood sugar plummets in the middle of the night, your cortisol shoots up as a result, making it very tough to fall back asleep.  Getting the right cocktail of protein + fiber + fat + carbs = a deep, restorative sleep.

4. Have a cocktail.   I love to steep 3 bags of Yogi Bedtime tea in water and sip it after dinner while reading a book.  It takes the edge off and helps me unwind.  I also take a supplement stack of trace minerals, lots of magnesium, and brain food to quiet down my mind.

5. Hold hands and sing kumbaya.  Meditation is my go-to drug of choice when it comes to telling my brain to shut the hell up.  No, you don’t need to don a $200 yoga outfit and chant in a room full of candles and wise people.  You just need to pay attention to one thing, like breathing in and breathing out.  At bedtime, I like to focus on the image of a burning candle.  It takes so much effort to just focus on that image that I can’t possibly think of anything else, so I wind up clearing my mind and conking right out.  Visualizations are another great trick to clear your mind: imagine yourself lying on an empty beach, with noone else around.  You watch the clouds floating by and hear the sound of waves softly lapping at the shore while seagulls fly lazily overhead….zzzzz.

Want to learn more ways to shut down your anxiety, heal your depression, fix your gut and sleep?  Click HERE to sign up for The Anxiety Summit.  Totally FREE and you will enjoy amazing and super helpful info that you can put to immediate use!

XO,

Esther

PS> If you wish to purchase any Designs for Health supplements, plug in the discount code BLUM2015 at checkout for 15% off.