Anxiety and stress are an increasing part of modern life. However, I didn't want to turn to strong medications to help manage my feelings of anxiety.
Anxiety medication can be addictive and come with strong side effects which affect your long-term health. A popular and more natural way to reduce anxiety, depression, and stress is to use Valerian root.
Valerian root is my favourite natural supplement for anxiety because it has calming and soothing properties without the side effects of anxiety pills. It can help to calm your nerves, boost your sleep, and help prevent stress headaches.
Keep reading to learn more about how Valerian root can help fight stress and anxiety, and why so many people choose Valerian root over other medications.
A cup of Valerian root tea is the best natural supplement for anxiety
If you are suffering from stress and anxiety, you may constantly feel on edge. The nerves in your brain are working overtime, and this additional activity places stress on your brain. This is where Valerian root comes in to help.
The root works to help slow down the signalling in your brain and prevent your nerves from feeling anxious. It’s really just a way to calm your brain and slow everything down.
The plant’s root has anxiolytic properties, which affect the levels of gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA) in your brain. GABA is responsible for passing signals and ensures everything in your body is communicating.
This means it's crucial for those stressful moments where you need to think fast and react.
Some studies say that the Valerian root helps stimulate GABA, which makes the signals in your brain clearer and less confused, preventing panic attacks.
However, other scientists think the root may help to calm brain signals, slowing nerve signalling. It means you feel generally calmer, a little slower, and more relaxed.
Therefore, taking Valerian root may stop you from overthinking and panicking when you feel stressed.
Drinking Valerian root tea is a super-effective, totally natural way to help your brain calm down and stop anxiety.
However, the effects are so strong that most doctors recommend we shouldn’t take Valerian root while on antidepressants.
It may result in excessive sleepiness or increasing side effects such as confusion, and difficulty concentrating.
To find out more about feelings of stress and how being stressed can impact your body, check out this article on stress and pooping!
SUMMARYValerian root has a unique impact on the GABA signals in your brain. GABA acid and receptors are responsible for passing signals in your brain, and the Valerian root helps to stop overthinking and calm down the signals in your brain. You may immediately feel less stressed and can think more clearly in stressful situations. |
Valerian root may boost sleep and mood
Anxiety and depression may be triggered by or made worse by a poor night’s sleep. When you are tired, you can’t think clearly, and you may feel irritated, overly emotional, and depressed. Everything can seem worse.
Valerian root can be used to help break this downward spiral by giving you a good, long sleep to help reset your brain and your mood.
If you regularly lose sleep because of stress and anxiety, you may end up in a vicious cycle which is tough to break.
The less you sleep at night, the more likely you will become stressed, making it even harder to sleep the following night.
Sleeping well is crucial for feeling your best and ensuring you can handle stress, relax and prevent anxiety. If you lie in bed every night overthinking and worrying, Valerian root can help you drift off.
Valerian root has been proven to stop overthinking and slow your brain enough to slip off into a good night’s sleep.
More sleep and better sleep with Valerian root
An additional benefit to having Valerian root as a sleep aid is that it can promote deep sleep.
Also known as slow-wave sleep, deep sleep is the essential stage of the sleep cycle. This is the stage that your body needs to heal, repair, and function at its best. It gives your brain a proper break.
This clinical trial of Valerian root found that taking just 400mg of the plant before bed increases the chances of achieving deep sleep.
Unlike strong sleep medications, Valerian root helps to promote deep sleep without leaving you feeling dizzy or nauseous the following day.
Being well-rested helps to promote rational thinking, stop panic attacks and prevent stress.
Valerian root can help you fall asleep faster and sleep better. This means you will wake up feeling refreshed and ready to face the day.
Ensuring your sleep is crucial for feeling positive and in a good mood. If you struggle with falling asleep, you can discover other great ways to naturally induce sleep in this article about the best Australian sleep remedies.
SUMMARYGetting a good night’s sleep is crucial to beating anxiety and making sure you can tackle any stress that comes your way. Valerian root could make you fall asleep faster by slowing your brain down so you can drift off into a peaceful sleep. The root can also help you sleep deeper, giving your brain a proper rest and the chance to heal and reset. |
Drinking Valerian root tea may eliminate feelings of depression
Depression can leave you feeling drained, stressed, emotionally tired, and unable to function. Fortunately, Valerian root may help to prevent and minimise your negative thoughts and counteract feelings of depression.
Depression is heavily linked to having clinical anxiety and feeling overly stressed. This is more than just being in a bad mood or having a negative outlook; depression can be crippling.
The GABA inhibitive properties of Valerian root don’t just help with overthinking; they can also help stop depressive thoughts.
By regulating and impacting the GABA receptors in your brain, drinking Valerian root tea could prevent depressive thoughts from having a lasting impact on your brain.
Real depressive thoughts can physically impact your brain, changing the structure of your neurotransmitters and receptors.
You can take control of your thoughts by giving your brain the boost it needs to move away from dark thoughts into a more positive frame of mind.
By restricting depressive thoughts and not letting them affect your brain, Valerian root helps ensure that you are less likely to develop into clinical depression if you have very negative thoughts.
SUMMARYRegular depressive thoughts can change the chemical structures in your brain, sending you into a downward spiral. Valerian root strongly affects the GABA neurotransmitters in your brain, slowing down the transmission of negative thoughts and helping prevent changes to your brain. This can combat depression and encourage a more positive outlook. |
Relieve stress headaches with a warm cup of Valerian root tea
Valerian root is also a great natural remedy for relieving tension headaches, and migraines. It is estimated that tension headaches could affect as many as 2 in 3 adults. That’s a lot of stress!
Relieving stress headaches isn’t the same as treating a usual headache.
Valerian root is a much more effective natural treatment than other medications because it helps eliminate the root causes of the headache rather than just treating the symptoms.
Valerian slows down brain signals and can help stop the throbbing, pulsing pain associated with overthinking and being stressed. Slower brain signals between your nerves give you a chance to slow down and not become overwhelmed.
One primary reason you get tension headaches is that you contract your neck and scalp muscles. We all do this when we are thinking hard and trying to focus.
A warm cup of Valerian root tea is a great herbal remedy because it slows down your brain and helps you take a moment to just relax your muscles and ease away the pain in your brain.
Drinking Valerian tea daily can help prevent stress headaches before they happen. With improved brain function, better sleep, and fewer negative thoughts, you’ll find it easier to focus on your regular daily tasks.
You’ll be less tense and find yourself more relaxed in stressful situations, so you just won’t get headaches at all. Prevention is better than treatment!
SUMMARYDrinking Valerian root tea daily can help stop stress headaches and tension migraines by slowing your thoughts and relieving tension held in your neck. As well as treating stress headaches, you can prevent them from happening by taking a small amount of Valerian when you feel stressed to help you relax and focus and not hold tension in your body. |
Other tips to naturally overcome stress and anxiety without drugs
Tackling stress and anxiety head-on is crucial for starting to feel better. You can’t just wait and hope the feelings go away.
Adding Valerian root tea to your diet is a great way to start by actively impacting your brain to be more positive and less overworked.
But if you want to get down to business and stop stress in its tracks, here are some additional tips to help overcome stress and anxiety without the need for prescribed medications.
Keep a stress diary
Keeping your stress bottled up is a huge problem many of us face. One of the most effective, easiest, and cheapest ways to help reduce stress and anxiety is to write it down.
Keep a stress diary where you track moments when you feel overwhelmed. This not only helps you to get it out, see it on paper and deal with it but also makes it easier to spot patterns.
If you notice you are regularly feeling stressed on Wednesday morning, you can look at what happens on a Tuesday to cause this.
Get outside
Being outside in nature is a fantastic way to keep anxiety in check. Go for a stroll, do a landscape painting, go for a run, visit a local flower garden.
It doesn’t matter what you do but getting outside and into the world can help you leave your stress at home and give you a moment to breathe.
Nature is a fantastic healer, so put on some boots and let nature do its thing.
Take a moment for yourself
Even if it's only a small moment, try to take time every day to let yourself relax.
Maybe you want to take a hot bath in the evenings, or perhaps you like to drink your Valerian root tea from a proper mug in a comfy armchair.
We are always on the go, and being very busy can make you feel overworked and stressed. Staying still and taking five minutes to breathe and relax and sit down can change your outlook on the whole day.
Exercise
It sounds clichéd, but getting your body moving really does help you feel better mentally.
When you exercise, your body releases hormones that make you feel better. These hormones rush through your brain, pushing negative thoughts aside and allowing you to feel better.
A short, brisk walk, a run or a trip to the gym can help. Exercising daily helps to manage stress by providing an outlet for pent up energy and emotions as well as keeping your body in shape.
SUMMARYFinding ways to deal with stress and anxiety on a daily basis is important to effectively manage stress. Valerian root tea is an excellent way to get started, but you can also keep a stress diary to help you identify the causes of stress. Taking five minutes to take a warm bath, running, or getting outside can also help reduce stress and anxiety. |
Conclusion
Most people want to manage stress without the need for strong medications. There are plenty of ways to help handle stressful situations, including keeping a stress journal and finding five minutes to relax every day.
One of the most effective ways to naturally reduce stress is to take Valerian root daily. Valerian root is a herbal remedy that can actually impact your brain to reduce depressive thoughts and help stop overthinking.
The Valerian root helps to promote healthy deep sleep to help you wake up feeling relaxed and ready to face the day.
Valerian root is a popular natural way to actively handle stress and help reduce feelings of anxiety. Why not start by drinking one cup of Valerian root tea before bed and see how it can help you?