Ever Feel Anxiety and Stress?

Between rush-hour traffic, longer hours at work, running children to ballgames and seemingly never-ending demands on our time, it’s easy to feel like we’re stretched too thin.

What is stress and anxiety? Most of us know what those terms mean, but we may be thinking how do I manage stress and what are ways to cope with anxiety?

According to the Anxiety and Depression Association of America, there are 40 million U.S. adults who suffer from some form of anxiety. This is not confined to older adults as USA Today reports stress is attacking the younger generation too. In a survey of young adults ages 18 to 33, the survey found 64 percent experience moderate to extreme levels of stress in their lives.

Stress has become so prevalent, the American Psychological Association conducts a survey it calls Stress in America. The survey is part of the organization’s campaign to examine the state of stress across the country and understand its impact on mind, body and health. Among its findings, the survey revealed 43 percent of American adults said stress kept them up at night, and 38 percent said stress caused them to overeat.

If you’re looking for help with stress and anxiety there are a number of anxiety management techniques. We all have different ways for what helps with anxiety and coping strategies for stress.

This is important because stress can not only cause us to lose sleep, it can trigger physical health problems. People often associate stress with heart disease, but it goes much deeper than that. People who are stressed out can suffer from health problems all over the spectrum.

WebMD says higher levels of stress can worsen asthma, increase excess belly fat and obesity, cause tension headaches and migraines, raise glucose levels to adversely affect people with diabetes, and could even be linked to Alzheimer’s disease. This is in addition to its well-known association to heart disease.

There are drugs for anxiety and anti-anxiety medication on the market, but it’s not always necessary to rely on traditional Western medicine where the common solution is to take a pill for any ailment. This often does not solve the problem but only masks the symptoms.

A yoga and meditation program like the one offered at the Isha Institute of Inner-sciences can be an effective way to reduce the stress and anxiety in your life without potentially dangerous medication. This yoga and meditation is an all-natural way to feel better about yourself, improve concentration, and refine focus. Yoga is a way to achieve clarity in all aspects of life — physical, mental and spiritual.

Yoga and meditation have been proven to work. A study conducted on 536 Isha yoga practitioners showed improvement in the following areas:

• 91 percent reported greater inner peace
• 87 percent reported improved emotional balance
• 80 percent reported greater mental clarity
• 79 percent reported increased energy levels
• 74 percent reported improved self confidence
• 70 percent reported improved concentration
• 70 percent reported increased productivity

The Isha Institute of Inner-sciences offers a series of guided meditation programs to help direct your mind and channel your energy to improve personal well-being.

Isha founder Sadhguru says people with increased levels of stress and anxiety in their lives are fighting an obstacle that can inhibit their ability to reach fulfillment. He says stress can prove to be a powerful adversary.

“If you create any tension either in the body or the mind, you don’t need another enemy in your life,” said Sadhguru. “You will just slowly work against yourself and not just in terms of physical health. You will turn your own life energies against you. You are inviting a whole host of problems in the world because eventually you draw those types of situations toward yourself, those type of people toward yourself.”

“What we’re talking about is not just about beating the stress,” Sadhguru continued. “We’re not talking about just being a little more peaceful. If you want to create your life the way you want it, you need to take charge of certain fundamentals, otherwise you are just working your own energies against yourself.”

“The very source of creating is here,” Sadhguru said. “It’s better the source of creation is working for you, not against you. It’s such a powerful thing, it must always be working for you. If the very source of creation within you is working against you, nothing in this world is going to save you. It’s not about being more free from stress, being a little more happy, it’s not about that. To create your life the way you want, it’s important the mind and the body and the energies are right. It’s more important than going out and making money for your family because you can do that and still be miserable and also make people miserable around you.”

An answer to relieving stress in your life is through the meditation and yoga offered at the Isha Institute of Inner-sciences, which has centers across the globe.