The Six Steps I Used to Resolve my Anxiety

Before I get into the story, I’ll go ahead and give you the list of the most powerful things that worked for me in my quest to reduce my anxiety. I am not giving medical advice, but rather telling the story of how I came to my current calm and enjoyable state. I will further state that my anxiety was never debilitating. If it is for you, please see someone with more credentials than me. That said, here’s the list:

1. Less Processed Food
2. Being Organized
3. Magnesium
4. Self-Authoring
5. Less Coffee
6. Nutritional Yeast

When I told my friends about my anxiety, they were surprised. And I was surprised that they were surprised. I felt like I was always ‘keyed up’ even though I had nothing to be worried about. I just couldn’t figure out how to relax. To find relief, I found myself sighing deeply often and that would cause a momentary recession of the nerves, only for them to rapidly return. I decided I needed to do something. Here is my journey away from anxiety:

1) Less Processed Food: I always ate pretty healthily but also snacked quite a bit. I found that as I started getting older, my weight began to creep up. My wife and I found the Whole 30 diet. The struggle to cut sugar from our diet was surprisingly intense. I remember sitting at my desk overwhelmed by the urge to eat some chips. I could almost taste them, and I couldn’t focus on work. After a few days, that feeling subsided. Next, we added intermittent fasting to our routine, mainly because food preparation was much easier and we had smoother energy throughout the day. When I had a sugary or processed snack, I was more likely to be anxious.

2) Being Organized: One of the jobs I did in the military was very stressful and it was easy to drop one of the tasks I was juggling. You could work very hard, but if you weren’t at the right place at the right time, you would fail. I did work hard, but one day I received a phone call from an important supervisor who angrily asked me why I skipped a meeting with him. I didn’t skip the meeting; I forgot. How could I be so dumb? That day, I went to the library to figure something out. The book I found was “Getting Things Done” by David Allen.

The main takeaway from this book is that the human mind is not designed to hold a list of items. If you go to the grocery store without a shopping list, you’re likely to forget something because our brains are just not that good at remembering things. The book said that once you put your list down on paper instead of in your head, you’ll feel relaxed in knowing you’ll follow the list. This was true as I found myself accomplishing more with less effort, and I didn’t worry about missing anything. If I wrote it down, it would get done.

3) Magnesium: Driving home one day, I heard an interview with Dr. James Greenblatt who was talking about ADHD. I was raised before the medical treatment of ADHD became popular, but felt I had many of those characteristics; so I listened intently. Dr. Greenblatt said many of the behaviors exhibited by children could be tied to nutritional deficiencies. He hardly ever prescribed medicines because he found great success with diet and supplementation. I ordered his book where he said magnesium is the main deficiency and can be tricky to get in a normal diet. He recommends Natural Calm to his clients, and I tried it and noticed that I had better sleep and reduced anxiety almost immediately.

4) Self Authoring: I heard Dr. Jordan Peterson on the Joe Rogan Podcast, where he talked about all the positive studies of people who self-authored. According to him, studies showed people who self-authored were happier, more stable, and more successful. I went to the website, signed up, and started writing. It’s an incredible feeling when you have to face your fears, break them down into their parts and think deeply about why you’re really concerned. I admitted to myself that I was nervous at work because I worried about what people thought of me. I went deeper into the reasons I worried, why it mattered to me, and what I should do. The depth of thinking about my own life was powerful and made me realize that the people who would shun me upon failure really shouldn’t matter to me.

5) Reduced Coffee Intake: I love my morning coffee ritual. Before work, I get to be alone and slowly wake up to my internet news and kitten videos. And I enjoy my two mugs of hot, black coffee. I loved it so much, my wife and I would split a whole pot. This equals two large mugs, which technically equals six cups. Even with all the above recommendations in play, I still had unexplained jitters and we decided to cut back our intake. It was easier than I thought, as I did not have headaches and I didn’t get sleepy throughout the day. I do think this had an effect as I lowered my anxiety levels even more.

6) Nutritional Yeast: Another nutrient that can be challenging to get, even in a healthy diet is Vitamin B. My wife had bought some nutritional yeast, but we didn’t use it much. One day, after work, I felt a little off and poured some in my hand and threw it back. It actually tastes pretty good. For me, it seemed to work in a matter of minutes. I must’ve been really deficient and I go back to the bottle every time I start feeling my nerves creeping up on me.

So that’s it, these were the main things that worked for me. You may be surprised I didn’t mention sleep, exercise, or being in nature. I think all those things are important, but I always was pretty good at keeping those things in my life and so I couldn’t add them into a routine that already had them. Other possibilities that I haven’t tried yet are breathing exercises or meditation. I do know a deep sigh feels good, but I just haven’t incorporated actual breathing exercises into my life and can’t speak to them.

If you experience mild anxiety, maybe you can try these ideas on for size. I am enjoying life more and more able to focus on the things that matter. I hope you find something in here that works for you. I’d love to know if you found something worthwhile here.