12 Signs You are Stressed Out and Anxious

I have suffered for a long time with anxiety, except I didn’t know I had it.

It was hard for me to recognise I had symptoms of anxiety, because the way I reacted and felt day to day was normal for me. The tightness in my chest when I went into a crowded room, the racing heart when I was asked what my opinion was, the clenching of my jaw when I slept and when I was meeting deadlines, and terrifying panic attacks which seemed to creep up out of nowhere. 

I was like a lot of other people. I found it very difficult to identify when I was stressed and anxious, because most of the time my mind was racing and focused on the next thing I had to do, not on how my body felt, or how it should feel. 

What happens in your mind is transferred to your body. When your mind is stressed your body is stressed. Your mind alerts your body into survival mode in order to cope with the stress it is perceiving. 

Often the symptoms of stress and anxiety can be the cause of a whole range of ongoing stressful events such as:

• job pressures
• change in living arrangements
• family & relationship issues
• coping being a parent
• emotional shocks and traumas 
• health related stress
• worry about the future

Everyone’s stress is different because how your mind perceives an experience as threatening, can be perceived as non threatening to another person.

For me, anxiety started becoming a regular friend in my teenage years, where I had terrible body image and self-esteem.I was bullied in primary school and high school for the way I looked, how I acted and who I was, and I found it very hard to be myself in the world.I feared being hurt, rejected, ridiculed, and taunted. Being in social situations was terrifying for me.

I didn’t want to be seen.

Over the years anxiety became a daily experience. It created debilitating back pain that was impossible to alleviate.

This pain was my body’s alarm system telling me to listen up and do something about it.

My journey to freedom from anxiety

I needed help, but where on earth was I going to start? I was swinging between anxiety and depression day to day. I was in emotional turmoil. I was in pain.

So I began seeing a psychologist and physiotherapist as directed by my GP, but there reached a point where I wasn’t moving forward and getting better. I still had strong anxiety symptoms and the chronic pain didn’t budge. So after hearing about a healing modality called Kinesiology, I sought the help of a practitioner. 

I laid down on a comfortable massage table, and the Kinesiologist began to test various muscles as feedback from my body to gage what was blocked, stressed, disconnected, and imbalanced.

After an hour and a half, I had noticed my whole body had relaxed, and I felt a sense of peace and calmness wash over me. Over many sessions, I found out that my body was in a heightened state of stress and survival caused by dysfunctional ways of coping and debilitating fears playing out in my subconscious mind everyday (that I wasn’t aware of). These patterns and fears were at the root cause of my symptoms.

Through Kinesiology and self development work, old emotional traumas and locked in emotional reactive patterns were identified, recognized, released and cleared. My anxiety symptoms reduced dramatically, and I could deal with the same stressors in my daily life with calmness of mind and understanding that I hadn’t had before. I finally let go of all of the emotional baggage I had been carrying with me for so many years.

Through my own  journey with anxiety and chronic pain, I have learned deeply about the mind body connection, and how to recognise, release and gain control of my emotions again. I have learned how to believe, love and accept who I am, and from the very core of me know I am enough. To know that I am enough regardless of what I look like, what relationships I have, what job I have, how much money I earn, to know I am enough just for being me was liberating.

Having had my own personal experiences with chronic stress and anxiety, I now specialise in helping others with stress and anxiety symptoms. I combine Kinesiology with coaching and other powerful techniques to create long lasting results from your physical symptoms to stress.

Anxiety can be managed, and resolved long term. You don’t have to live with the physical symptoms of Anxiety stopping you from moving forward in your life.

Interested in learning about how I can help you? Find out here.

Common symptoms of anxiety you may not know about

It is really important to recognize the common symptoms of Anxiety, before they begin to rule your life. The hidden signs of stress and anxiety that you may not be aware can have a psychological origin such are:

*Headaches. Clenching your jaw; tensing your facial, neck, or shoulder muscles; or grinding your teeth are physical responses to stress that could cause head pain.

*Body aches or muscle tension. When you are exposed to stress, your sympathetic nervous system activates the fight-or-flight response. Blood is then sent to major muscle groups that increase muscle tension and prepare you to fight or flee a situation. If you don’t take any action to reduce your aches and tension, muscles may stay tight long term causing other structural & muscular pain.

*Panic attacks. Stress causes your baseline arousal level to be higher than typical — closer to the level at which people begin to experience panic attacks which may increase your likelihood of experiencing a panic attack.

*Emotional eating. Using food to comfort and cope with anxiety and other emotions that are out of control.

*In a constant state of overwhelm. Finding it hard to focus on anything else but the overwhelming feelings of anxiety.

*Nausea. When under stress, your body releases hormones particularly adrenaline which can disrupt the enzymes and acids of the stomach and intestines causing nausea, and pain.

*Rapid Heart Beat, Trouble Breathing, Lightheadedness: When your body is in fight or flight it sends signals out to certain organs to respond. These signals tells your heart to beat faster, causing you to take short sharp breaths to deal with the stress that you are faced with. This shallow breathing can lead to lightheadedness and difficulties in breathing deeply.

*Restlessness, biting your nails, repetitive tapping. Stress or anxiety can cause these common nervous habits.

*Gastrointestinal distress. For some people, the gut can be a barometer of your stress leading to constipation, nausea, bloating or an upset stomach.  

*Increased sweating. We sweat when stressed, thanks to hormones such as adrenaline, which is involved in the fight-or-flight reaction.

*Nightmares, Insomnia, & Disturbed Sleep Patterns. Chronic stress increases rapid eye movement (REM) sleep and decreases slow-wave or deep sleep, disrupting cell and body maintenance and repair.

*Frequent illnesses. Stress promotes overproduction of hormones that regulate your immune system and affects your ability to produce the white blood cells that fight infection. This can weaken your immunity against viruses, causing frequent illnesses.

What does it feel like to feel calm, confident and connected?

> You are in tune with your body’s signals and recognise the telltale signs of stress and anxiety

> You honour your body’s wisdom and become in flow with your own rhythm

> You treat your body with kindness, understanding and compassion

> You are no longer stuck in cycles of intense worry and catastrophic fear

> You know your worth, strengths, talents and gifts

> You know your boundaries and have cultivated the capacity to be assertive and say no

> You are connected to your own needs and desires

> At the very core of who you truly are, you know you are enough.