Infinity Health & Wellness Magazine October / November 2016 | Página 4

ASpiritual sk Sage Woman: Advice for the Real World with Sage Woman Dear Sage Woman, I suffer from depression and anxiety. I am seeking a more holistic and spiritual way to deal with it. If you can offer any tools to go alongside the professional/ medical care I am receiving, I would so appreciate it. Thank you, Celia D. _____________ Dear Celia, I am happy to share some of the tools I have used during my own experiences of depression and anxiety in life. What I am offering today should not replace any professional and/or medical care you are currently under. Please discuss these suggestions with your doctor before incorporating them into your daily routine. Many of us experience periods when we have feelings of anxiety and depression. At times we can trace these feelings to a particular life experience, trauma or loss. Other times we just feel the way we do and have no idea why. If the symptoms continue for an extended period of time, it is important to seek medical advice. Alongside, however, there are many ways you can begin rebalancing yourself and reconnecting body, mind and spirit. As you begin your healing journey, know that the real you isn’t truly depressed and never has been. Your essential nature is pure love, pure spirit and pure potentiality. 4 The first thing I do when I feel anxiety, is breathe. I use a simple breathing exercise that takes very little time, but packs a big punch. If possible, stop all movement, close your eyes, and take seven slow deep breaths. Send each breathe to the seven chakras. Inhale and send your breath to your root chakra and exhale and do the same to the remaining six: sacral, solar plexus, heart chakra, throat, third eye and crown. Connecting with your sacred breath will connect you with Source and will instantly bring an inner calm. I still do this at least once or twice a week. It works! Numerous scientific studies have found meditation to be effective for treating anxiety. All mental activity requires a physical correlation to the brain, and this connection is often studied in relation to anxiety. Regular meditation allows your brain to develop new pathways, replacing the old patterns of worry. If meditation is difficult for you, simplify it. Choose a mantra such as: “I am centered,” and repeat it over and over as you sit comfortably in 3-5 minutes of silence. Do this every day and it will become a habit. A habit in which you are giving your mind, body and spirit permission to detach from the outside world in order to reboot. When I was experiencing my own “dark night of the soul,” I incorporated walking into my morning ritual. I was filled with much grief, anxiety and sadness, and it sometimes took a miracle just to get me out the door. Once I began to experience the magic of walking in nature, however, I began to organically decompress. Walking is proven to be a simple and effective way to elevate your mood. Unused energy in the body appears to cause anxiety in the mind. The mind/body connection really does exist, and since a lack of activity causes Oct / Nov 2016