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The One Supplement That's Actually Calmed My Stress & Anxious Thoughts*

Colleen Wachob
Author:
April 23, 2020
Colleen Wachob
mbg Co-Founder & Co-CEO
By Colleen Wachob
mbg Co-Founder & Co-CEO
Colleen Wachob is Co-Founder and Co-CEO at mindbodygreen.
Graphic by mbg creative / Contributor
April 23, 2020

These last couple of months have radically changed life as we know it. While Jason (mindbodygreen's founder and my husband) and I have a large "GRATITUDE" sign hanging in our living room, the concept of gratitude has taken on even more meaning in our lives. I'm grateful for my family, community, and our ability to work from home and shelter in place. I am also grateful for the health care workers on the front lines of this pandemic. What keeps me inspired is that I do believe we will emerge from all of this as a stronger, kinder community. 

These are anxious times, though. I've always lived with a bit of situational anxiety. In my 20s I took Xanax for turbulent flights, and early on in my career, I had a lot of anxiety before giving large presentations and meetings. Over the years, I've leveraged well-being tools to help me better manage. Awareness of my triggers, coupled with some slight lifestyle tweaks, has made my anxiety more manageable—until now.

During the last few weeks, there has been an undercurrent of anxiety in my body for most of the day. Knowing that the duration of the global pandemic is likely to be many months, it's become important for me to find tools to help manage my stress, which isn't going away in the short term. Here are four things that I'm working on now: 

1. I control what I can control.

There is so much out of our hands right now that I find comfort in keeping my home extraordinarily clean and organized. It's soothing to walk into a room and see that it's already tidy. I'm taking advantage of being home more to prepare meals for my family and being sure to set the table so that it's a ritual that we look forward to. 

2. I find comfort virtually.

While Zoom fatigue is getting real, it's still incredibly helpful to connect with friends and family we are distanced from. I've found it therapeutic to have regular, two-dimensional contact with loved ones and hope this practice continues once our lives normalize as well. 

3. I take hemp multi+.

Prior to our global crisis, I was an occasional user of hemp multi+ before the trigger moments of anxiousness of flights and stressful days at work.* Now, it's a daily staple to start each morning as I'm feeling overwhelmed and behind on work all day.* I've been increasing the dosage and having another capsule in the afternoon as my toddler gets extra excited around 4 p.m. When I take hemp, I've found that I'm less reactive to news, headlines, and emails and that it takes the undercurrent of anxiousness that I am living with down a few notches.*

4. I practice breathing.

There's really no time for an elaborate meditation practice, so I'm doing short and simple breathwork practices, like this super-mesmerizing one that always hits the spot. When I have a few quiet moments, I'm taking a deeper dive into breathwork.

There's not one thing that's going to make what's happening in the world seem OK, but a combination of hemp multi+, deep breaths, and staying connected are helping keep anxiety at bay, no pharmaceuticals needed.*

Graphic by Jason Wachob / Co-Founder and co-CEO

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