Home healing: holistic methods to help ease stress and anxiety

It’s official, anxiety levels have soared to their highest since the peak of the pandemic last April, according to latest ONS figures. And with most of our go-to sanctuaries for stress relief closed for now, de-stress can be hard to come by. Time to take things into our own hands, quite literally: from DIY reiki to sorting your own headaches, these are the anti-anxiety healing methods to know.

Breathe easy

Aromatherapy is a holistic healing treatment which harnesses the power of plant extracts in the form of essential oils to promote feelings of relaxation and calm. The best bit? It’s cheap and easy to do from the comfort of your own home. “Scent is so powerful because it stimulates the olfactory nerve; the short nerve between your nose and brain, signalling the limbic system, which is the part of your brain that controls emotional stimuli — it’s the only one of our senses to do this,” says Emilie De Block, co-founder of Bio-Scents, which sells organic essential oils (bio-scents.com). “It’s also one of the biggest triggers of memory. Every scent and smell becomes associated with a particular experience, person or time period which is repeatedly paired, so as a self-care ritual, scents can bring back instant happiness, relaxation and calm — many things that are needed in our lives today.” To help ease feelings of anxiety and promote better sleep, look for pure (not pre-diluted or synthetic) essential oils in aromas such as frankincense, ylang ylang, geranium, bergamot and lavender, she suggests.

Try it: The best way to reap the benefits of aromatherapy is by inhaling the oils, De Block says - that way the vapours get through the olfactory nerve to the limbic system quickest. To make more of a ritual of it, add three to four drops to a hot bath or to an oil burner while you meditate.

Ease headaches and tension with self-acupressure

Acupressure is an ancient form of massage, which has been used in traditional Chinese Medicine for thousands of years to treat pain, illness and stress — and you can easily do it yourself. “The pressure sends a signal to the body to turn on its own self-healing mechanisms,” explain Escapada Health TCM practitioners Emilia Herting and Maeve O’Sullivan. “In TCM, Qi ‘vital life energy’ circulates through 14 natural pathways in the body called meridians, but this Qi can often be blocked due to imbalances in the body, which are seen as illness or pain. Acupressure helps correct these imbalances and restore flow to bring you back to a state of wellbeing.”

Try it: The Hegu, meaning “joining valley” in Chinese medicine, located between the index finger and thumb at the highest spot of the muscle, is the command point of the face, nose, jaw and mouth and one of the most important acupoints in the body. Apply firm pressure to this point for two to three minutes to help release tension, stress and soothe headaches. Breathe deeply into it as you massage the area to help you relax and let go of worries.

Commit to morning pages

Everyone’s taken up journalling in lockdown, as many use it as a form of self-care to organise their thoughts and make sense of pandemic life. If you’re looking to start, there’s one particular journalling practice worth your time and chances are you’ve already heard of Julia Cameron’s “morning pages”, from her cult self-help book The Artist’s Way. First published in 1992 and with more than five million copies sold, the book was written as a 12-step programme to help artists overcome creative blocks, but many have adopted its writing practices as a ritual for healing and clearing the mind.

Try it: The concept is simple, write three sides of A4 paper first thing in the morning. It’s a brain dump, a stream of consciousness, whatever comes into your head. There’s no wrong way of doing it — and if you don’t know what to write, just write that, Cameron says. Then put it aside and start your day — think of it as a morning meditation. Many say it’s a powerful way of checking in with themselves on a daily basis.

Shake it out

Can’t sit still? Shaking therapy, a form of shaking meditation or shaking yoga, could offer some relief. Steve Haines, a London-based specialist practitioner in TRE (tension and trauma releasing exercises, trecollege.com), also known as the shaking mechanism, explains the method has a simple set of seven exercises, involving stretching, grounding and tiring out muscles in the legs and pelvis to reveal natural tremor reflexes in the body that helps to release stress and tension in tight muscles. “The therapeutic tremors help reset the reflexes and habits in the central nervous system,” he says. “In trauma, old parts of the brain are fixed in defence strategies, like ‘fight-or-flight’ mode. Slow, gentle, natural tremors generated by TRE stimulate feelings of joy, ease and connection, leaving you more flexible and less sensitive.”

Try it: Download the TRE app (traumaprevention.com) for videos of the exercises, or opt in for one-to-one online sessions with a trained practitioner.

Treat yourself to a reiki bath

Just feeling a bit flat? Treat yourself to a reiki bath — it might sound a little woo-woo, but it’ll leave you feeling recharged and relaxed in no time. Established over 100 years ago by Mikao Usui, the Japanese healing system of reiki is another method used to clear blockages and stagnancies in the flow of energy in your body to promote physical and emotional wellbeing. Goop-approved reiki master Jasmin Harsono, founder of Emerald and Tiger, has written Self-Reiki (£9.99, emeraldandtiger.com), a book full of self-care rituals and mindfulness meditations that can help with everything from easing anxiety to promoting better sleep. Harnessing the powers of healing hands, a method of using the palms of the hands to give energy healing to yourself and others, is one of the key principles of the reiki system.

Try it: Run yourself a warm bath, put some soothing music on, light some candles and arrange some healing crystals (if you have them). Then give yourself a full-body reiki treatment, moving through the body’s seven chakras — starting at the crown, at the top of your head, and finishing with the root, at the base of your spine. Rest your palms on each energy centre for around three minutes, using visualisation techniques to imagine your body filling with healing, white light. And breathe.