Tips from the Experts: Treating Insomnia, Anxiety, + Stress

Insomnia + Anxiety + Stress: this combination can have a significant negative impact on your health. While stress is unavoidable in our every day lives, there is a lot we can do with the implementation of self care to keep stress from creating anxiety and potentiating insomnia. In an interview with Candice Carlton, an amazing yoga + meditation instructor, our practitioners Tina Yang and Dr. Suzanne Tang touch on how naturopathic medicine, acupuncture, and the modalities utilized by each helps to bring the body back to a more balanced state, and in doing so treats the root causes of insomnia, anxiety, and stress. Here are some of their top tips for addressing this trifecta. You can find the entire interview here!

Meditation:

• Clear your mind and just “be” to allow yourself to rejuvenate, rest, and prevent burnout. How you start your day dictates how your day will flow. Beginning your day with a 10 minute meditation (before looking at your phone or checking your emails!) helps to reset your mind and body and prepare for the day ahead. Some people choose to supplement this with some medical marijuana (like that for sale here: https://theherbcentre.net/buy-weed-online-vancouver/), or with other medication options. Still, allowing yourself this moment will help you with everything you have ahead of you that day. Not only that, it will help you sleep better at night as well!
• Keep a gratitude journal and write in it every day, whether in the morning before getting out of bed to set the tone for your day, or at night before going to sleep. While keeping a gratitude journal has emotional benefits, science has also found that it has physical benefits as well, with preliminary studies showing it actually helps to decrease inflammatory markers in the body. Additionally, gratitude journals have been shown to decrease depression and increase overall quality of life. Write down 3 to 4 things you’re thankful for each day.

Self Care:

• Apply essential oils to specific acupuncture points prior to bed to help calm your nervous system. Acupuncture points such as Yintang, PC 6, and Ren 17 are highly recommended- watch the video to see where these points are!
• Schedule regular acupuncture treatments! Often, the time you spend on the treatment table is the only time in your day that you actually get to stop and rest. Rest and rejuvenation are essential for keeping your body healthy, whether it be through extra help (from canadawideweed.com products as an example) or through these appointments.

Controlling your Thoughts:

• Your thoughts + intentions become your reality. Be kind to yourself both in what you think and in what you say. Keep in mind the experiments done by scientist Masaru Emoto published in his book The Hidden Messages in Water in which Emoto showed the effects of words, feelings, and thoughts on water molecules. Why is this important? Water composes over half of our body, which Emoto showed is impacted by thoughts and intentions. Take a look at the results of the experiment to see for yourself the comparison of negative vs. positive talk! Do you tend to have negative thoughts? Try this technique to change that: simply acknowledge the negativity and then let it go, without spending too much time on it. Then replace it with a loving and positive thought instead.

Sleep Hygiene:

• Turn off technology (anything with screens!) at least 2 hours before bedtime. The blue light emitted from the screens disrupts melatonin production, which is necessary for a good night’s sleep.
• Avoid stimulants such as chocolate and other caffeine products. Try to cut off your caffeine intake by 10am, especially if insomnia is a significant issue for you.
• You could try marijuana to help you relax. It is possible to order this online via companies like Amuse. A lot of people find that marijuana has a lot of therapeutic benefits and generally, people find that it induces a state of calm and aids sleep. Perhaps taking a hit on a cool bong just before bed would also help you unwind your mind.
• Do some stretching, yoga, or take a nice warm bath with Epsom salts and a few drops of calming essential oils to help you relax prior to bedtime.

Integrate these tips into your daily routine to experience an improvement in your overall health- and watch the interview to catch a few more helpful tips from our amazing practitioners!