At the back of my new book, first, we make the beast beautiful, I promised to share on my site a list of treatments that have helped my anxiety and where to find them. This is that list.
Please bear in mind these are my own personal techniques and chosen brands. I’ve not been endorsed in any way for this post. You can check out my policy on sponsored posts and advertising.
Exercise
I walk. Here’s a link to a weird post I did on how to walk well.
And I hike. Check out my hiking guides for inspiration and details of how I go about planning and packing for them.
I also ride a singlespeed bike. If you’re wanting to get into biking, I can recommend Chappelli Cycles.
I do a heated Vinyasa style of yoga and find the heat and slower style perfect for anxiety. It’s sometimes called power yoga. In Yoga in Sydney, One Hot Yoga and Power Living in Sydney and Melbourne are favourites. I share the names of studios in New York, Byron Bay and London in my various travel guides.
I also do reformer pilates. At the moment I find KX Pilates great. As I explain in the book, core work is a boon for supporting anxious modulation.
Meditation
I practice the vedic style (with a mantra, 20 minutes twice a day). I’ve blogged about it here.
My teacher Tim can be found here and teaches in Sydney, Melbourne and Byron Bay. He has a link on his site to affiliated teachers elsewhere.
SCENAR machine
This is a weird hand-held device that uses a harmless (unless you get a little bit addicted to the pain, as I do) electric impulse that stimulates the body’s own adaptive mechanisms, via a biofeedback process. I write about it here. I apply it to my stomach when anxious and the activation of the vegas nerve helps big time. I’m not into weird gadgets. But I make an exception for this one.
Chinese Medicine and acupuncture
Traditional Chinese Medicine helped me with anxiety, insomnia and fertility issues. I used to see Lily Lui in Surry Hills. She also has hashimotos and gets the whole AI caper. I’ve also consulted Nat Kringoudis at The Pagoda Tree in Melbourne.
Naturopathy
Find a mature naturopath with a sound understanding of the science. A true complementary practitioner. I see Dr Leah Hechtman. Others you might like to check out is Angela Haywood in Perth.
Massage
Wherever I am in the world, I find a nearby Chinese or Thai place. I like the lack of elegance, the lack of expectation. I’ve never encountered a bad one.
Infra red sauna
It assists with a whole bunch of auto-immune and elevated cortisol symptoms and issues. I go to Alkaline Spa in Sydney. In Byron Bay you can check out Mullum Sari. In London, Pur Wellness is great. You can also read more about how infra red saunas help with autoimmune issues.
Some other resources…
When I travel, I’ve had to learn ways to make it work for me. I’ve written about that here.
Hope that answers some of your questions… and, out of interest, are there treatments you do that you’d add to the list? Feel free to do so below. And feel free to share similar practitioner contact details in your area…
