Reducing Background Anxiety Increases Mental Clarity: Here’s How

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Recently published in the Journal Of Neuroscience (June 2015) researchers looked at the role of norepinephrine in songbirds to determine what effect it has on stimuli detection and processing.

 

What they found is that norepinepherine helped decrease the “background noise” of the brain, allowing songbirds to not only enhance their auditory signal detection but to accurately encode complex incoming information.

With higher norepinepherine levels, the brain had less background activity and less spontaneous firing of neurons, allowing the songbirds to distinguish the relevant incoming information from irrelevant incoming information.

 

Meaning… the less background noise in the brain,

the more clear a signal is received and understood.

 

Norepinepherine is a neurotransmitter that affects how the brain functions, something that has not escaped notice by pharmaceutical companies. Newer anxiolytic medications (SNRIs such as Effexor and Cymbalta) work by increasing serotonin levels and norepinepherine levels in the brain.

This latest study helps us understand a potential pathway that norepinepherine may be helping treat anxiety — by reducing the anxious background chatter of our brains.

 

  • Higher norepinepherine levels decreased the spontaneous firing of the brain and allowed the songbirds to distinguish important from non-important information.
  • To distinguish relevant from non-relevant signals.
  • To respond to the most important incoming information, and filter out the rest.
  • In short, to decrease the background noise of the brain and increase clarity.

 

If we can decrease the irrelevant antics of our baseline mental chatter, we can decrease anxiety, feel calmer, more centered, and act on more crystal clear incoming RELEVANT information.

This is exactly what healing from trauma, or PTSD recovery, is all about.

And you don’t have to use a Rx to modulate your norepinephrine to decrease this mental chatter.

Back-to-back with a study (I blog about here) that shows that anxiety actually ages your chromosomes and that treating anxiety reverses the aging process on these chromosomes, it is very clear:

 

Address anxiety, don’t ignore it.

 

How? Here are 14 ways to help holistically treat your anxiety and have you feeling better, living longer, and increasing your mental clarity…

1. Take fish oil:

Omega 3 fatty acids offer a calming effect on the brain. They have been in medical studies to actually increase brain volume and prevent brain aging (I blog about this here.)

Fish oil has been medically proven to be so soothing on the brain it is actually an effective, highly recommended treatment for ADHD (I blog about that here.)

From flaxseed oil to ultra purified fish oil, there are lots of ways to be sure your brain is getting the omega 3 fatty acids it needs to stay young and think clearly.

 

2. Probiotics:

The link between the body and mind starts in our gut… and probiotics are so powerful at supporting our brains that they are a viable, effective, proven option for treating anxiety (as I blog about here!)

Thorne makes a great vegetarian probiotic supplement

 

 

3. Magnesium:

Magnesium is absolutely crucial for our bodies and most of us don’t get enough. Magnesium helps support our muscles, bones, heart, and brain. It has an immediate anxiolytic effect… I love this magnesium drink to have on hand for immediate relief during times of heightened anxiety and highly recommend this bio-available magnesium supplement Re-Mag by Dr. Carolyn Dean.

 

4. GABA supplements:

Norepinepherine is not the only neurotransmitter that can help calm and clarify the brain… GABA is actually the cheif calming neurotransmitter in the brain and can be taken as a very soothing supportive supplement that helps treat your anxiety without the Rx.

Thorne’s PharmaGABA is a vegetarian GABA supplement that is very effective…

 

5. Connect your body to the earth:

Using the calming resonance of the earth’s core to calm your central nervous system, deepen your sleep, allow you to relax deeply and restore a natural sense of Well Being… sleeping grounded all night long or using a wrist strap, grounded hot water bottle, grounded socks or a grounded mat during the day when you feel anxiety approaching can greatly reduce your anxiety levels in the most natural possible way.

Having a panic attack?

Get out there and touch the earth directly and feel the excess tension, anxiety and panic give itself over to the direct, massive, ummutable support of the earth.

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Don’t want to go barefoot?

Wearing a shoe that allows you to remain grounded while cushioning and protecting your feet is key.

 

 

6. Enhance your ability to navigate a crisis:

Use the power of your emotions to feel your way through a crisis…

…here is and article I wrote to show you how (and I give you a free printable poster to hang up and remind you how to use this techinque every single day!)

 

7. Acupuncture:

Acupuncture is one of the best tools to PHYSICALLY and energetically release pent-up anxiety… I blog about this more here.

 

8. Surrender:

To recover from stress and trauma faster, just drop your resistance.

Works every time. Here’s how.

 

9. Deep sleep:

Sleep is absolutely necessary for increased daytime resiliency. It is non-negotiable… you *NEED* restorative sleep to function. Good sleep is in-and-of-itself a treatment for anxiety.

In this video I walk you through 6 simple holistic techniques you can implement tonight to increase your sleep quality immediately.

 

10. Walk:

Boost your mood and decrease stress/anxiety through exercise.

Simply walking can boost your sense of well being and boost your health incredibly. Walking is a valuable healing tool, helping everything from cancer recovery to decreasing diabetes and heart disease to increasing life span!

Get out there and walk every single day… and better yet, walk grounded (see idea #5 above!)

 

11. Protect your sense of hope:

Hope is your most valuable healing tool… don’t let anyone take it away.

You can feel hopeful even under incredible stress… in this article I show you how.

 

12. Deep breathing:

Use the centering power of your breath to provide calming bio-feedback immediately to your body.

Dr. Weil has some great suggestions for you right here.

 

13. Get good at distinguishing your mental chatter from true intuitive knowledge:

I created this video to help you do just that!

 

 

14. Let’s connect: get professional support for anxiety relief!

Want to work together? Me too.

Let’s schedule a phone consultation today.

To your positive, joyful, uplifting future…

…and enhanced mental clarity right now!!!

xoxoxo, Laura