Hi JoAnn,
I’m sorry that you struggle with anxiety, as well! It’s an ongoing process for me. I now can have big stretches of time where I’m not particularly anxious, but then I’ll have a spell where it’s hard to even take a deep breath and calm down at all! So I certainly haven’t cured myself. I think it’s just part and parcel of being a Highly Sensitive Person. It has its pros, but anxiety is one of its cons.
Honestly, the most effective way I’ve released anxiety and calmed my nervous system is by developing trust in something bigger than myself. At its core I think anxiety is just fear of the unknown. It’s a lack of trust that things will work out, or lack of trust in ourselves to handle the uncertainties and difficulties that come our way. But if you have a connection to something bigger than yourself–call it God, the Universe, infinite intelligence, or whatever you want!–you can learn to release those fears and surrender to the will of something that’s a lot more powerful than any of us, and has our best interests at heart.
Basically, I think having a spiritual practice of some kind is the most effective natural anti-anxiety treatment! Meditation, in particular, can be a very helpful part of that. I’m not always good about meditating, but I’ve done it off and on enough to know that when I’m consistent with it, I almost always feel better than when I’m NOT doing it!
If you want to know more about what helped me cultivate a spiritual practice, I’d check out a few of our past episodes:
Side Chat: Honing your intuition (& knowing when it’s really fear) from June, 2019
Bonus Book Club! Outrageous Openness by Tosha Silver from November, 2018
Learning to meditate (& how to stick to it) with Francisca Hernandez from September 2019