6 Natural Remedies to Manage Anxiety with Ayurveda
Updated: Jan 8
Do you experience anxiety? Excess Vata in the mind is the root cause. Here are six tools for balancing Vata dosha, and when that happens....anxiety is soothed. Are you ready to learn how to shift from fight-flight-freeze mode to rest, relax, restore?
Explore more on the Saumya Blog, selected top Ayurveda blogs and websites to watch.
Many people struggle with feelings of anxiety. In the United States alone, there are more than 40 million people affected by anxiety disorders. Natural anxiety remedies, such as Ayurvedic practices, can be an excellent way to calm feelings of anxiety and maintain your health. Herbal remedies, diaphragmatic breathing, pranayama, and Ayurvedic lifestyle choices are powerful, simple tools that work.
It's common for people to experience anxiety symptoms because of a Vata imbalance. When Vata is out of balance, it's typical to be plagued by restless thoughts, worries, constipation, and dry skin. These practices can help you to restore balance and ground Vata dosha.
How to Manage Anxiety with Ayurveda
1. Choose Calming Foods as a Natural Remedy to Anxiety
It's important to maintain a balance between your body in mind, which is why you'll want to be careful about what you eat. Eating the right kinds of foods can help to calm Vata dosha, which can reduce feeling anxious.
You should try to eat warm , moist, cooked, well spiced foods whenever possible; soups and stews are an excellent choice. Using herbs like dill, cardamon, black pepper, and cumin can also be beneficial. Try to minimize your intake of white sugar. Instead, try natural sweeteners, such as maple syrup or honey.
2. Try an Ayurvedic Cleanse to Reduce Anxiety and Rejuvenate
Ayurvedic cleansing can help to clear your body of toxins and balance your doshas. Not only can a cleanse help you to manage your anxiety more effectively, but it can benefit you in other ways as well. Cleansing can help you to sleep at night and have more energy throughout the day.
Saumya Ayurveda can work with you to create a cleansing program that's right for your needs and lifestyle. After you've completed a cleanse, you'll feel revitalized, and you'll find that it's easier to stay calm even in the face of stress.
3. Focus on Your Breathing to Shift from Anxious Flight-Fight and Reclaim Your Calm
Breathing exercises can calm your body and help you to relax, even when your anxiety feels overwhelming. Pranayama, the practice of controlled breathing exercises, can help to calm and balance your energy. Pranayama allows you to adapt your breathing according to your doshas.
1. Learn diaphragmatic breathing and change your life by learning to create and carry a sense of calm with out throughout your day. Breathing links us both to the mind and the body. And the more we pay attention to breathing by way of a gentle awareness, the more we can relax and find our mind concentrated.
2. Make daily use of our guided practices.
Once diaphragmatic breathing is established as a habit, then alternate nostril breathing follows. Pranayama practices should not be attempted until diaphragmatic breathing is a well established habit.
Alternate nostril breathing is one of the most effective pranayama exercises to relieve anxiety. This exercise can restore Vata balance and put your body and mind at ease.
Method:
1. Bring the right hand to the nose, fold the index finger and the middle finger so the right thumb can be used to close the right nostril and the ring finger can be used to close the left nostril (vishnu mudra). Alternatively, you may place the index and middle fingers on the bridge of the nose between the eyes.
2. Close the passive nostril and exhale completely through the active nostril.
3. At the end of the exhalation, close the active nostril and inhale through the passive nostril slowly and completely. Inhalation and exhalation should be of equal duration.
4. Repeat this cycle of exhalation with the active nostril and inhalation with the passive nostril two more times.
5. At the end of the third inhalation with the passive nostril, exhale completely through the same nostril keeping the active nostril closed with the finger.
6. At the end of the exhalation, close the passive nostril and inhale through the active nostril.
7. Repeat two more times the cycle of exhalation through the passive nostril and inhalation through the active nostril.
Return your hand to your thigh and exhale and inhale through both nostrils evenly for three complete breaths. This completes ONE cycle or round of the nadi shodhanam practice. It is customary to do three cycles or rounds of the practice.
Note: When practicing three rounds in one sitting, the second of the three rounds begins with the opposite nostril, and the pattern of alternation is therefore the reverse of rounds one and three. The third round is exactly the same as the first round.
4. Free Guided Practices to Shift from Flight-Fight-Freeze to Rest-Restore-Relax
Saumya Ayurveda's Two Step Meditation Process
Step One: Ayurveda and Diaphragmatic Breathing
L Learn Diaphragmatic Breathing and Change Your Life This article covers in detail how to breath diaphragmatically, the benefits, and the qualities of diaphragmatic breathing. When we are breathing diaphragmatically, we are in the relaxation side of our nervous system.
When we learn diaphragmatic breathing, we remain relaxed, focused, less anxious and overwhelmed. That is every client’s number one goal,as it impacts mental and physical health.
Change my breath and it changes my life? It may seem an overly dramatic claim, yet it is not. Without breath, where is life? There are many sayings in English about breath, we lost our breath, we catch it, we hold it, we take a deep breath--yet the breath of life--meaning something one depends on, is among the most profound. Breath is now something to connect with consciously.
Step Two: Use Our Free Daily Guided Practice: 11 Minutes in the morning and evening.
When you create your Ayurvedic morning routine and evening rituals, anchor both with our guided meditation practices. Keep your routines simple, and be sure to start and end your day with our meditation practices.
Ayurvedic Morning Routine | 6 Rituals for a Calm and Centered Day 10 Ayurvedic Evening Rituals for a Calming Night
5. Ayurveda Herbs for Anxiety and Grounding Vata
Many Ayurveda herbs have properties that naturally soothe the mind and ground vata. Ashwagandha, Brahmi, Bhringaraj, and Jatamasi are a few of the most common herbal remedies for anxiety.
Herbal protocols should be personalized to the individual, based on their prakruti (original constitution) and vikruti (current symptoms). Ayurveda herbal remedies may be applied through Nasya oil, Abhyanga massage, aromatherapy, tea, or even used for cooking.
A note on herbal remedies: An incorrect herbal can cause doshic imbalances. Stated simply, herbs are dynamic and have a synergistic relationship in herbal formulas. As such, the thinking that one has such and such problem, therefore take this herb, is incorrect thinking. Herbs are unlike western pharmaceuticals in which one has a headache and may take an aspirin. An assessment, consultation, and monitoring with a trained Ayurvedic expert is essential to make sure you identify the best herbal formula and avoid endangering your body.
6. Ayurvedic Daily Routine for Anxiety and Soothing Vata
Why build an Ayurvedic morning routine?
Our lives are a reflection of the small choices we make each day – how we treat ourselves, spend our time, and direct our energy. Unfortunately, in our busy modern world, it’s easy to feel spread thin or swamped with endless obligations.
When we’re stressed and overwhelmed, we don’t always make the best decisions for our physical and mental health. This trends our bodies towards illness and imbalance over time. As a result, we may develop “lifestyle diseases” like diabetes, obesity, and heart disease. We might just also feel blah, disconnected, and uninspired.
An Ayurvedic morning routine sets the tone for a healthy, centered day. It doesn’t need to be complicated. By creating a few rituals that work for you, you can harness the energetic rhythm of the day for greater overall wellbeing.
Create your Ayurvedic morning routine: Ayurvedic Morning Routine | 6 Rituals for a Calm and Centered Day
Create your Ayurvedic evening routine: 10 Ayurvedic Evening Rituals for a Calming Night
"Keep it simple and pick a few appealing routines that resonate for you and then be consistent, as that rhythm grounds vata dosha. Less is more and simple changes create lasting differences." --Veena, Saumya Ayurveda
There is a saying, "The mind is more in the body, than the body is in the mind." The Saumya 3 step meditation process shifts us from fight-flight-freeze mode, to rest-restore-relax mode. Give it a try for forty days and observe the changes. The more grounded and relaxed we are, the smoother life flows.
"The breath is the connection between the mind and body, so by training the breath, we become calm, focused, and grounded, we slow down the aging process by decreasing stress. These practices are so simple and easy to have as part of our daily life. We actually feel and look younger."
- Veena, Saumya Ayurveda
1. Learn Diaphragmatic Breathing and Change Your Life. When we re-learn to breath diaphragmatically, we move from the flight-fight-freeze mode, to rest, restore, relaxation mode from where we want and need to live.
2. Daily Guided Practices: 11 minutes in the morning and in the evening, as anchors of your daily Ayurveda routine.
3. Ayurveda Daily Routines: --Ayurvedic Morning Routine | 6 Rituals for a Calm and Centered Day
"Choose a couple of practices from the routines that provide you with the greatest support. Perform them while applying our two minute meditation technique and your mundane tasks, just transformed into a mellifluous meditation. This is meditation applied to daily life." - Veena, Saumya Ayurveda
"Veena was able to help me regain my energy in just a few months and I’m feeling like my “young” self again! I love the food plan she designed for me, and all the supporting practices (am/pm routines, breathing techniques, herbs, and spice mixes) are so enjoyable to incorporate into my day. I highly recommend Saumya Ayurveda if you want to feel better and have more vitality.”
-Molly Rossini, Minnesota
Explore More: Ayurveda Breathwork Pranayama
“I feel greatly improved. Stress fell of like an old hairy coat. I’m just not anxious. Depression is way decreased. I was haunted by anxiety my whole life, and it’s just gone. The mudra, mantra...WOW. This is so cool! I have regained hope. Something wonderful is taking place. You and your knowledge come to me after a lifetime of searching and prayer. I am forever grateful.” --Mark Hughes, Minnesota
“I found Saumya Ayurveda at a time when I truly needed an ally and an unbiased outside perspective on some health imbalances in my life. After years of reaching out to various conventional medicine practitioners and relying on my own limited knowledge, I felt tired, lost and overwhelmed.
The first few minutes of my initial consultation with Veena were a breath of fresh air. I felt a huge sense of affirmation. I felt like my head was finally above water. She helped me gain a holistic look at where I am while devising a wellness plan that was simple and do-able.
Transportation limitations and bouts of crippling anxiety have historically prevented me from seeking help, so I really take advantage of Veena’s virtual consultations.
I’m very grateful for Veena's presence on my journey and look forward to having her at my side for many years to come.” – Lindsey R., Texas
Discover the Saumya Ayurveda Way
We all want to be heard, understood, and cared for as whole beings, not a set of isolated symptoms. True health is more than the absence of disease, which is why Western medicine so often leaves us feeling hopeless and unseen.
Deep down, you already know what you’re searching for: a new framework for living – one that brings your entire being back into balance. With Saumya Ayurveda, you’ll receive individualized guidance to create the physically, mentally, and spiritually vibrant life you crave.
Saumya Ayurveda provides concierge, top-notch, award-winning Ayurveda care. We strive to keep it simple, so you can focus on you! Opt for virtual consultations and we'll come to you.
Our practice model is client focused, we’re not in the retail herb business. We’ll guide you where to order herbs directly online. Our top-shelf Ayurveda oils and herbalized ghees are the best in the land and we’ll ship your care package right to your doorstep.
Our effective multi-appointment consultation packages provide you with experienced Ayurveda care, enthusiastic guidance, and inspiring support.
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Veena is a Certified Ayurvedic Practitioner and meditation teacher, and monk.
She is President Emeritus and teaching faculty of the Meditation Center.
Veena fell in love with the traditional medicine used in her family’s home, learning herbal remedies at her grandmother's knee.
These childhood experiences were the seeds of a lifelong passion. For over 30 years, Veena has dedicated her life to the world’s oldest healing system: Ayurveda.
She draws on this ancient wisdom to help others find their compass to a healthy life – and support those left wanting by Western medicine.
An experienced Certified Ayurvedic Practitioner, Veena’s deep, intuitive knowledge of Ayurveda empowers her clients to reclaim their fullest, most vibrant lives –mentally, physically, and spiritually. Veena individualizes treatment plans to each person, rather than offering a one-size-fits-all approach, so it fits your life and becomes woven in your lifestyle, naturally.