Banish Anxiety and Other Bad Moods with a Gentle Detox and Soul Care
So many women now are experiencing increased levels of stress, anxiety and low moods. And, often, if they seek help for their anxiety or depression (often showing up as low energy, low motivation, the blahs, etc.) they are quickly put on anti-anxiety/anti-depression meds by docs who really don’t understand the mind-body connection in most cases.
As a practicing psychotherapist for over twenty years, I understand the value of using anti-anxiety and anti-depressant medication for the short-term in some cases. But, to use them as the sole remedy to overcome anxiety/depression is very short sighted and not in the patient’s best interest.
Seems like a good idea, right? Just pop a pill, and you feel better. But, it’s not that simple, or that good of an idea. Here’s why:
Why Treating the Underlying Causes of Anxiety and Depression is Crucial
If you don’t treat the root causes of anxiety, depression and other negative moods, you will most likely become dependent on medications that:
- Don’t cure your underlying emotions. Those emotions will resurface the minute you stop the medication if you don’t use a mind-body approach.
- Blunt your affect, and dull all your feelings, including joy, anger, (that is sometimes appropriate and necessary), etc.
- Cause weight gain, and other negative side effects.
Personally, I suffered from anxiety most of my life until I learned to eat well, meditate, change my negative thinking, and connect with my true self and soul purpose.
That’s why I became a psychotherapist – to help others heal the thoughts and emotions that lead to anxiety, depression, fear, chronic worry, and every kind of disease under the sun.
How a Detox and Soul Care Can Reduce Anxiety and Low Mood
My mission is to help you use a body, mind, soul approach to creating the life you really want to live—free from chronic anxiety, low energy and moodiness.
If you are ready to banish your bad moods, plus say good-bye to belly fat and brain fog, join me for my annual End-of-Summer Slimdown and Soul Reboot. Learn more here.
Here are My Top 2 Ways to Banish Anxiety and Bad Moods
Detox Diet
“Food is as powerful or more powerful than medications,” Susan Blum, MD, tells us in her book, The Immune System Recovery Plan.
I agree with Dr. Blum. In fact, my passion for wellness comes from watching in awe as my life-robbing symptoms of MS melted away day by day when I began to detox, eat a whole foods diet, and practice deep breathing and mindfulness meditation.
What you eat probably has the biggest overall immediate impact on your moods. Even in studies with schizophrenia, a very serious mental illness, it has been found that diet alone can reverse the symptoms in many cases; and I have seen hundreds of clients’ anxiety and panic attacks disappear forever with dietary changes.
How a Clean Foods Diet Makes You Happy and Calm
One of the reasons for this is that 95% of your “feel good” hormone, serotonin, is produced in your gut – not your brain. Your gut and brain are connected – and in constant communication with each other – via the Vagus nerve.
Basically, nothing happens in the gut that doesn’t affect the brain, and nothing happens in the brain that doesn’t affect the gut -and your moods. Your gut and brain are connected by 100 to 500 million neurons – nothing escapes this powerful modulator of gut-brain health.
Eat This, Not That
Your diet has a tremendous influence on your moods. Sugar and processed foods especially cause your body to produce cortisol, the main stress hormone that leads to inflammation, hormone imbalances, metabolism issues and lowered immune function, which also affects your moods.
For a list of foods that you should avoid in order to banish bad moods, see my blog, 3 Mistakes Most Women Make When Trying to Lose Belly Fat.
Bad Moods and Your Soul
While there is ample research on how mindfulness meditation decreases anxiety, depression, worry, anger, etc. and I like to see hard science myself – my focus on mindfulness meditation is as much about helping you reconnect with your deepest, true self – your soul, as it is about how your diet, hormones and exercise regime impact your moods.
Your soul is the oldest, wisest, and always happy and loving part of you; and if you begin to reconnect with it on a daily basis, it will change everything for the better, including your weight, your clarity of mind and your moods.
Your Soul actually has needs – it needs to feel connected to you, to be listened to – when you don’t listen to your intuition it feels pain such as sadness.
When you don’t listen to its call to go within, be still and find the love, peace and joy that reside deep inside you, and you insist on figuring everything out yourself and push yourself beyond your limits, it feels weary and empty.
Mindfulness meditation is actually just one way to spend time each day getting quiet and just being. Anything that allows you to do that works. The key is to acknowledge that you are a human being connected to a greater source – not a human doing that operates alone in the universe.
If you are ready to Banish Anxiety and Bad Moods, plus Beat Brain-Fog and Belly-Fat, join me in my annual End-of-Summer Slimdown and Soul Reboot. Learn more here.
To your good moods, joy and peace of mind,
