[00:00:00] Cynthia Garcia: Feelings of anxiety are often caused by stress and its normal reaction from your body from your mind. 

Welcome back to The Transformational Nutrition podcast. The podcast that is redefining nutrition as anything that feeds you physically, mentally, and spiritually. I am your host, Cynthia Garcia, the founder and CEO of the Institute of Transformational Nutrition.

And in today’s episode, we are talking about something that affects nearly 40 million adults in America. We’re talking about anxiety. Now I know a lot of us struggle with anxiety. I do, I have for as long as I can remember ever since I was a little tiny thing. And especially with, you know, the year and a half, two years, that we’ve all been through with the pandemic and with even now uncertain conditions in the world, there is a lot of things where there are a lot of things that are producing anxiety at an all-time rate. 

So let me share with you a quick story, and then we’re going to get into, you know, what anxiety is, what the difference is between anxiety and feeling anxious, because yes, there is a difference. And I want to also share some great tips on how you can deal with anxiety or feeling anxious, physically, mentally, and spiritually.

So I had a coworker turned friend once. Still do. She still is, and let’s call her Emily. And Emily was just so sweet. We get along so well. She had such a big heart and just she’s amazing. So one day we were going to run some errands and do some shopping, grab a coffee, cause it was, you know, it was around the holidays and we just wanted to breathe and have some girl time.

So we’re driving along and I was pretty excited to do this and a lot of things on my list, I just needed this breath of fresh air. But as soon as I got in the car with her, I could tell that something was wrong. She was quiet and she kept just kind of picking at her sweater. And her eyes were just like locked on the road.

She was just focused in and her knee with bouncing up and down and I thought, okay, she’s anxious. And I knew that she dealt with anxiety because she had shared with me that she had. So I could tell that in terms of her mental health, there was something going on that day. And so we got to a red light and I just said, Hey, you know, how you doing? What’s going on today? 

And she opened up and basically explained everything that she was anxious about. Here was her list. She said she was worried that she had left her hair straightener on, and that, that was just going to burn down her entire apartment complex. And then she would be responsible for any injuries that that had caused. But then she was also thinking about how she had texted her mom earlier and her mom hadn’t texted her back. And so she must be mad at her and she must be a bad daughter. And I said, well, when did you text her? And she said, an hour ago, you know, only an hour. It wasn’t like it had been days but doesn’t matter, to Emily, this is very real. 

In addition to that she had forgotten her license, and so she was afraid if she had to drive, she was going to get pulled over and be arrested because, you know, she didn’t have her license. She also was worried that the Instagram post she had put up about a week ago was not a good one. In her words, it was stupid. And she said that people were probably talking about her and judging her. And how could she ever get past that and post something that they would actually enjoy? 

So these are some of the main points that I can remember. It was just so many things that she was dealing with. So, you know, obviously, anxiety is going to look different for different people. And as I share my story with you about Emily, you might be thinking of situations where you’ve had thoughts like that, or you just kinda spin or you feel anxious about something that you’ve done or that someone said or something someone hasn’t said. Right. So it looks different for everyone. And yet it feels like for those of us who deal with anxiety or just feel anxious, which is what everyone that you can relate. Right. You can definitely relate. 

But I wanted to provide that example to show how real these thoughts and worries are for someone who has general anxiety disorder, which is what Emily deals with. And I think it’s important that we discuss the difference between feeling anxious and having anxiety, because we’ll often say something like, oh, I’m so anxious, or this is causing me anxiety, right. That’s just super common these days because there are a lot of things that make us feel anxious, but not every person who feels anxious actually have an anxiety disorder. 

We’re going to dive into this topic more, but first I want to share the powerful lessons of growth and transformation ITN student, Stine, has gained from her studies and connections at the Institute of Transformational Nutrition. Listen in as she gives us a peek into her world and shares her thoughts about two of the three transformational nutrition model pillars, mental and spiritual nutrition.

[00:05:20] Stine Fjelstad: Life is unpredictable, and we don’t know what’s gonna hit us. By the time I was 23, I didn’t have any parents or grandparents left, but I think that made me realize even more that life’s too short, and finding the confidence to go out there and do what you want and do what you’re passionate about, it’s worth every penny.

I have a quote on my webpage and that is you don’t have to be a victim. You can use the power of your mind to change your life. You just have to find the key how to do it.

[00:06:04] Cynthia Garcia: We’ll chat with Stine later on in the show, but now let’s get back to our topic. 

I’ll often hear people say, oh, I’m so depressed, but they don’t suffer from depression. Right. And so that’s a whole other show that we can do. But for now, it’s very similar to these feelings of anxiety, because here’s the truth. You’re going to feel anxious. Sometimes you just are because you’re human and you live in the world and things happen, but not every person who feels again, anxious has an anxiety disorder. Feelings of anxiety are often caused by stress and it’s normal. You know, it’s a normal reaction from your body, from your mind, and you can almost think of it as a spectrum or a continuum of sorts.

Sometimes feeling anxious can help us prepare for things or help keep us alert in dangerous situations. Right? You’re walking down that dark alley, you start to feel anxious that’s most likely your intuition protecting you. So it’s not always bad. Now you also might start to feel anxious when you have a big project or a deadline coming up or something important that you have to do or attend or show up for or be.

You might spend a few nights tossing and turning fixating on all the things that you need to do before that big day, you might even, you know, your palms might sweat. Your heart might speed up and every time that you think of it, but when you complete the project, you know, when you do the thing, you show up you, whatever it is that’s happening, oftentimes afterward those feelings that you felt they go away.

And that is one of the main differences between feeling anxious and having anxiety. You see general anxiety disorder is not a situational feeling that happens when you’re dealing with like a stressful occurrence. In anxiety disorders, removing the stressor or the trigger, it doesn’t always reduce the anxiety. So you see the difference there, right? 

Another difference between anxiety and feeling anxious is that anxiety is often irrational and not proportionate to the actual situation. So if we go back to the example I shared with you with my friend, Emily, you know, her mom, not replying after an hour probably doesn’t mean that she’s mad at her or that she’s the worst daughter. Right. It’s very unlikely that even if she had have left her hair straightener on that, it would have burned down the entire apartment complex before anyone got out. Right. And if she got pulled over without any license, not to mention the fact that I was the one driving, then she probably wouldn’t be arrested and go to jail for that.

But that is very normal for someone who deals with general anxiety disorder, it can be very normal. Let me just be really clear that it looks different in everyone. We are all different. We perceive things. We feel things differently. We react to things differently. We have different levels of generalized anxiety disorder.

So by no means, is this a cookie-cutter across the board prescriptive. It’s just an example to show you or to share with you what it could look like. So you can see the difference between feeling anxious and actually having anxiety. Now, the truth is suffering with anxiety, whether it’s temporary or more long-term can be scary.

It can make life terrifying for people who live with anxiety disorders, and it can make it terrifying if you don’t. And if you’re walking down that dark alley, but you feel anxious in the moment. It is hard to understand too if you don’t deal with anxiety disorders that why people can’t just let it go or look on the bright side. I’ve had so many people to tell me like, oh, just don’t worry. You worry too much. And I wish I could just stop, but it doesn’t work that way. 

When we ask our amazing student, Stine, what called her to the ITN community and what prompted her to make the decision to become a certified transformational nutrition coach, here’s what she shared.

[00:10:21] Stine Fjelstad: I grew up in a small place outside of the main city that is Oslo in Norway. It was pretty much just like the forest right outside and grew up close to nature. Grew up with a mindset that how you talk to yourself, how you feel in your body, it’s all connected. I would always hear from my mom, like if I said, oh, but I’m feeling so sick. And, uh, if I was sick and she was like, yeah, but if you keep on telling yourself that that’s exactly what you’re going to be. And I was just like, okay. 

So I kind of grew up with that whole holistic kind of thinking when it comes to your health. How everything is. When I started ITN, it was like, okay, you have the holistic approach. You have the science. You have like the fresh cook science coming straight out. And that was really important to me to be into something that was up-to-date and maybe also something that was for Norwegians and maybe Scandinavians a bit far out. People are interested and open in seeing how things are connected together. So just felt right.

[00:11:43] Cynthia Garcia: It just felt right. Man, I love that, Stine. Look, if you’re interested in learning more about ITN’s certified transformational nutrition coach certification program, why not visit us and download a course catalog today. Head on over to transformationalnutrition.com/coursecatalog. Okay. Let’s get back to the episode.

So how can we cope if you’re dealing with anxiety, whether it is an anxiety condition, or you just feel anxious? I have some tips for you that you can focus on. In each of the areas of nutrition here at ITN, so each of the three areas of transformational on nutrition, physical, mental, and spiritual, because sure doing one of those areas, focusing on doing things in one of those areas is great. But if you can fit in all three, it really is game-changing. 

So physically, what can you do? Well, you can move your body for starters. Engaging in any kind of physical activity enough to get your heart rate up and break a sweat can help move your mind away from the thing that you’re anxious about. When you move your body, you decrease muscle tension and you lower the body’s contribution to feeling that feeling of anxious. Getting your heart rate up also changes your brain chemistry. It increases the availability of important anti-anxiety neurochemicals, including serotonin. 

So physical activity very good in that respect. It also activates frontal regions of the brain that are responsible for executive function, which helps control the amygdala, which is our reacting system. And it reacts to either real or imagined threats to our survival. And again, physical activity helps with that. Regular physical activity also builds up resources that bolster resilience against tough emotions.

And the important thing to remember about physical activity is to do something that you actually enjoy. You don’t want to cause more feelings of anxiousness by doing something that you don’t enjoy or doing something that you don’t think you’re very good at and what would be. Right. So do something that you like, something that you look forward to could be a bike ride, a hike, a walk, swimming, dancing, whatever it is, do something that works.

Alright, let’s look at what you can do mentally. Big recommendation here for you is to spend some time in silence. I do this a lot. I love silence. I talk about this actually in episode four. So if you haven’t listened to that, go back and check it out. It talks about the power of silence and the power of just being quiet because if you think about it, we don’t have that a lot these days. You know, we’re on our phones, we’re watching videos, we’re on our computers.

We’re just out and about in the world. And we’re constantly bombarded with noise. We’re having conversations with each other. We are working. There’s just a lot and it’s very rare that we take time and just have silent moments. But if you do, there are so many benefits, especially for feelings of anxiousness or anxiety disorders, including being silent, decreases stress because it lowers blood cortisol levels and adrenaline.

And according to a 2006 study that was published by the National Institute of Health, two minutes of silence relieves tension in the body and the brain. And it’s more relaxing than listening to me. Now, this was attributed to changes in blood pressure and blood circulation in the brain. And ultimately just silence and mental stillness can be a gateway to mindfulness, which has been proven time and time again, to have amazing benefits for anxiety.

So again, silence is the gateway approach to mindful. And then finally they’re spiritually. So what can you do spiritually? One of the things I love to do to help deal with my anxiety is visualization. When anxious thoughts start to flood in, just take a few moments, stop and focus on your breath. Close your eyes count to 10 and just slowly breathe in and out, focusing on nothing but your breath and visualize yourself in a happy place when that’s stress free.

That is enjoyable. Visualize all of your worries just melting away. Visualize what it would feel like not to have the anxiety, and this will help you ground yourself and your thoughts so that they stop running rampant through every bad scenario possible much like my friend Emily did at the beginning of this episode when I told you what she had shared with me. Because our mind will run wild if we let it. 

You can even find recorded guided visualizations or even better record your own. It’s true. You can find some scripts online. You can write your own and then just record it. You can even just record it on your iPhone and then play it back. That’s important because our subconscious mind is way more receptive to suggestions and requests when we hear it in our own voice. Rather than someone else’s voice. That’s true. Right? It’s been studied over and over. So record your own scripts of visualization and it doesn’t have to be fancy. Just speak out loud what you want to visualize and the more details you can include the better.

Doubting yourself imposter syndrome and putting your needs on the back burner happens to the best of us. Listen in as we chat with Stine one last time to hear how she leaned into ITN’s live coaching labs to get clarity on how to drown out all of the noise and truly understand how she beats herself mentally.

[00:17:37] Stine Fjelstad: We have something here called, which is, you’re not supposed to think that you are something or, you know, something. And fortunately, that is like step-by-step falling away, but it’s just like getting to the place where I can be as certain in myself and in what I believe in to think if anyone else says something else then it wouldn’t bother me. 

I’m like starting to get there that I will be free from the so-called, and I got great grades advice from Cynthia in our business building. And that woman is so on point. Throughout all of ITN, Cynthia always says first you then your clients. And sometimes I’ve been mad about that just because I was doing something that made me uncomfortable, but I wouldn’t be without it because it was, I took her word and what she said and going through everything, like the story coaching and all of the methods that we’ll learn in ITN, amazing.

[00:18:52] Cynthia Garcia: We love learning about and celebrating our students and alumni here at ITN. So thank you so much Stine for sharing your thoughts and a piece of your journey with us. For more information on how you can become a certified transformational nutrition coach here at ITN, or to connect with Stine, be sure to check out our show notes. Now let’s get back to it. 

Alright, so today’s topic was a big one. We’ve talked about some of the real-world things that people with anxiety struggle with. How do you know if you have anxiety versus if you’re just feeling anxious and some practical tips for coping with anxiety. Now I do want to encourage you to seek professional help.

If you think you suffer from an anxiety disorder because while the tips I mentioned can certainly help aid in your day-to-day life, therapy and other treatments can be extremely beneficial for those people who do have an anxiety disorder. So definitely none of this is intended to replace the advice of a qualified therapist or physician.

So if you feel like you have an anxiety disorder, please reach out to someone who can help. And that is our episode for today. Please follow or subscribe to the show so you don’t miss out on important topics, just like this one. And if you would please take 60 seconds to rate and review so we can reach more people who need our help to understand that they’re not alone with feelings of anxiety and that there are things you can do.

In fact, if you have an extra minute screenshot this and share it on your social media. There are a lot of people who are dealing with extremely high levels of anxiety these days, and I know from my own experience and from my experience working with tons of clients that these things can help. So screenshot it, share it, tag us @transformationalnutrition because you never know whose life you might change through just that one simple, but very powerful action. 

You can check out all of the show notes for today’s episode over transformationalnutrition.com/episode009. Thank you so much for joining me today and I will see you next week for a brand new episode.