Anxiety is a normal emotion to experience until it becomes a problem. It helps us stay clear of danger or perilous situations. But anxiety can also have a negative effect on everyday life. It can be triggered even when there’s no danger in sight, just in the mind. Hence the phrase “state of anxiety.” Anxiety can happen to you anywhere and anytime, working its way into your daily routine. Maybe you’re pushing your cart down the condiment aisle in the grocery store looking for that elusive organic ketchup that’s on your grocery list with the word ”organic” heavily underlined (your daughter’s handiwork). Then suddenly, your heart starts to flutter. The cart comes to a halt, and the only thing you can think of is your daughter’s teenage ire. You try to catch your breath and put your hand on your chest to feel your heart pounding. Your hand is sweaty, warm, and damp against your shirt.
You might recognize these feelings from previous incidents. Like when your heart started knocking in your chest seconds before you jumped on that video call recently. You were fine until your face appeared in a box on the screen. Is it something about that constricted space—the “box”—that’s making your heart race now? Or, moments later, was it the sight of others in boxes all staring back at you? Is your microphone on mute? Your heart pounds faster, anticipating a bad meeting. Or how about when you were maneuvering your luggage at full speed past Gate 2 around “people obstacles” at the airport with minus zero plus minutes to catch your flight leaving from Gate 22? How can you catch your breath when everything in your body says, “Go, go, go!”
Anxiety can occur even when there is seemingly no reason to be stressed. You could be at home lying back on the couch with the remote flipping through channels. Just the frustration of not finding anything to watch can trigger anxiety. As you keep stabbing at the remote, you feel anxiety nagging at you, asking why you are wasting valuable time on the couch when you could be doing all those things that you know you should be doing. You’re constantly being held back from doing what you really want to do, like a daily battle against yourself. Everything is against you. Even the TV. (If only there were a button on that remote that could turn your heartbeat down!). Anxiety can turn up at any time and be felt in many different ways by everyone. It can feel like a small shift in your mood or as big as something taking over your body, moving into your chest, like a wave you want to release. Anxiety might even feel like a roller coaster ride; it’s the ride up the hill with the constant wondering what’s on the other side and questioning if your seatbelt will keep you safe. According to the National Institute of Mental Health, about 18% of U.S. adults will experience anxiety at some point. And about 4% of adults have anxiety disorders classified as severe. Already, the pandemic has increased anxiety and depression cases by 25%.
But while anxiety sometimes interrupts our lives, it doesn’t have to take control of it. It’s helpful to be aware of common anxiety signs and symptoms that can come on quickly and may feel like they’re coming out of nowhere. This includes feeling nervous, restless, or tense, the feeling of dread and impending danger, panic or doom, rapid breathing, hyperventilating, and an increased heart rate. Even having trouble focusing or concentrating on a task you’re trying to finish can signify anxiety. It’s possible you could also be feeling the urge to avoid things that trigger anxiety.
Anxiety can constrict both the body and the mind. The tension is physical and mental. The best way to ease anxiety is simply to relax. But easier said than done, we hear you mutter through clenched teeth. The two things are opposing factions. When you feel anxious, everything seems to tighten up. Your muscles and tendons constrict, and your mind narrows with negative thoughts. So how to transform that fear and worry into a tranquil mind and a calm body? The power of the mind over the body is, of course, one way to control anxiety. Another is 1906 Chill.
Alleviating the feelings anxiety brings on was a key reason we created Chill. Knowing how prevalent uneasiness, worry, and fear have come into our daily lives, we knew cannabis and other plant medicines could help ease anxiety. With a high dose of CBD (25 mg), Chill was created from cannabis and two plant medicines widely used for their calming properties: L-theanine helps to soothe an overactive mind (those inner thoughts telling it’s time to get out of the grocery store) while helping you to put the brakes on constant overthinking. Chill also contains an amino acid from green tea, stimulating the brain’s soothing alpha waves. This can lower stress, reduce anxiety, decrease depression and even improve creative thinking (like: “Maybe I’ll make something totally new for dinner!”) Not only can Chill help you make those little decisions, but it’s great for helping you take on the bigger things in life, too. Work decisions, family matters, and love relationships, to name a few. We all know stressful life can be. Sometimes just coping with everything the day throws your way is enough to cause anxious thoughts to take up residence in your brain. And when 6 P.M. rolls around, and that overworked, forever-analyzing brain starts thinking “cocktail-time,” think Chill instead. Chill is also a great replacement for alcohol. After a long day of planning, texting, emoji-ing, organizing, and just pushing a shopping cart through a busy grocery store, it can help you relax. So even when tasks like buying ingredients for dinner become stressful, they can be made more manageable with Chill.
