An hour of Chopin at the piano, a long kiss or a slow dance, cuddling a baby in my arms, a vigorous cross country ski, dark chocolate covered fruit with a cup of tea, Strauss' Federmaus played by Evgeny Kissin, reading a book with my son....
No chemicals, no vitamins, no potions or elixirs...just the small pleasures of life.
I don't mean to sound rude, as all of those small pleasures in life sound very nice, and we all experience things like that on an almost daily basis... but that's really no match for people who are experiencing Anxiety with a capital A and not stressed, or Generalized Anxiety Disorder. Having panic attacks, never being able to calm down, having extreme muscle tension, being really jumpy, having to piss a lot, weird sleep patterns, headaches, being really short of breath, not being able to breathe in, etc. That's what I'd consider slight anxiety. All those nice things you mentioned can't really combat a reoccuring state of mind that fills me with fear and makes me feel like I have to either find some way to immediately calm down, or create a shitload of art which isn't always realistic if I'm too fucking tweaked out to create.
Anyways, um, I'd really enjoy if there was more discussion about this. I refuse to use drugs, though, like Xanax. I'm sure it'd help but I just don't want to go there. I'm very against big pharma and all that stuff.
I know the proper first steps I should be taking, but they seem so contradictory. Basically, my situation is like this: the only thing that totally calms me down if I'm feeling anxious, which is often, is the feeling of love/sex, so in other words, being around my lover. That's great, but I can't be around him all the time. And we don't always want to have sex. But it's made me notice, sex is definitely a sedative for me. Which is normal, a little, but kind of fucked up that I need it to calm down. So then I'm worried it will turn into a sex addiction. And then, conversely, I also sort of adore my anxiety because of the idea that all anxiety is essential to the production and creation of great art. But that sort of just makes me feel even more anxious. Fuck. Anyways, then there's caffeine, which I probably ingest way too much of - but again, I love coffee, I like how it makes me feel, I'm totally addicted to it, etc. But I could cut back if it meant less anxiety. I'm not addicted to cigarettes but I do smoke a few a day or so, especially after sex, a feeling I very much enjoy, so again, I know nicotine is bad for people with GAD but after sex it is bliss.
I've also started doing Yoga for breathing and relaxation purposes.
Now, as for muscle tightening... there, I'm out of ideas.
