Anxiety & Stress
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Learn how to navigate stress and anxiety.
On this page you will find a wide array of resources crafted and sourced by MindBlossom’s team.
Do you know of a resource we should add? Send us an email at info@mindblossom.org.
Anxiety disorders are the most common mental illness worldwide affecting over 300 million people in 2019.
Let’s start with a deep breathing exercise
Deep breathing, in particular box breathing and cyclic breathing, are evidence-based methods to reduce stress both acutely and in the long-term. It just takes a few minutes to learn, but it’s a technique you can lean on for a lifetime. Check it out!
Anxious Nation: A Powerful Documentary
This award-winning documentary dives into the lived experience and research progress on anxiety in particular among kids and teens. We highly recommend watching it!
Download our handouts!
We have crafted handouts that guide you through evidence-based stress and anxiety management techniques. We use them in our courses and workshop and they always garner a lot of popularity. Get your own copy by going to the product page or click directly on the image of interest below!
Get acquainted with the different stages of anxiety
Anxiety can manifest in many different ways and intensity levels. This video provides an overview of the different intensity levels in which anxiety can present itself:
- Minimal anxiety
- Mild anxiety
- Moderate anxiety
- Severe anxiety
- Debilitating anxiety
In the video, you will get an overview of the signs and symptoms of each anxiety level. No matter what level you are at, it’s ok to ask for help and seek support from professionals.
Read these books!
Everyone can experience anxiety and stress. These books may help you better understand why you are experiencing these feelings, and what you can do to manage it.
Make sure to tune into our weekly book clubs where we review a new book every month!
Use the links below to purchase the book from Amazon while also supporting MindBlossom’s mission!
If you are interested in stress research and biology, then this book is a MUST read! Go to the end of the page to learn more about the author, Dr. Sapolsky!
In “The Anxious Generation,” Jonathan Haidt explores the decline in youth mental health, focusing on the impact of smartphones and social changes on Gen Z. He identifies key harms and offers solutions for healthier development in the digital age.
In his book, Judson Brewer offers a clinically proven, step-by-step plan to break the cycle of anxiety and addictive habits using brain-based techniques. He explains how to identify triggers, defuse them with curiosity, and retrain the brain using mindfulness, providing a practical program for reducing anxiety and improving well-being.
This “survival guide” helps teens identify and manage different types of anxiety, from everyday worries to more serious conditions like phobias and OCD. Written by a cognitive behavioral therapist, it offers practical advice to regain control and achieve confidence, independence, and happiness.
This book is a helpful and humorous guide for managing late-night worries and anxiety-related procrastination. It includes centering activities, soothing facts, and memorable mantras to provide relief and stress reduction.
Written by a licensed psychologist, this book provides a great guide of breathing techniques to reduce anxiety and stress. It includes journaling prompts and worksheets to keep you engaged!
If your child is struggling with anxiety, then this book is for you! You’ll find scripts for explaining anxiety to children of different ages, creative strategies for navigating common phobias, and “Do It Today” activities that help them implement the book’s advice right away.
“Hardcore Self Help: F**k Anxiety” is an engaging and humorous self-help book that tackles anxiety with a friend-like approach, full of swearing and humor. It offers actionable information to help readers understand anxiety and find effective ways to overcome it. Note: Stay away from this book if you don’t like swear-words!
A crash course on emotions and stress
This 10 minute video provides an excellent and entertaining insight into what emotions are, how they are culture-specific, and how we start feeling stress.
They dive into the superpowers of stress, and how they can trigger negative effects on your body.
There are many different kinds of anxiety and stress-related disorders
Anxiety can appear in many forms. Sometimes, it feels like you’re anxious about everything; other times, it’s triggered by specific events, people, or situations. It’s crucial to recognize that any type of anxiety, whether experienced by you or a loved one, is valid and deserving of support. Recovery from anxiety and stress-related disorders is possible.
The first step in your treatment and recovery journey is identifying the type of anxiety you are experiencing. This process should be done with a clinical professional, such as a psychiatrist, psychologist, or psychotherapist.
Empowering yourself with knowledge about your triggers, symptoms, and underlying causes is a significant step toward full recovery. We recommend seeking information on various anxiety disorders to help you identify which one best aligns with your unique symptoms and experiences.
We have crafted a quick overview of some of the current anxiety and stress-related disorders recognized by the clinical community.
What is “lifetime prevalence”?
Lifetime prevalence refers to the percent of the population that has experienced a specific diagnosis at some point in their live.
You can also come across other prevalence estimates. For example, some prevalence estimates measure how many people had a certain diagnosis during the last year. These numbers could be substantially different from the lifetime prevalence measures. Consider, for example, how the COVID-19 pandemic suddenly caused a surge in anxiety across the globe. This led to a high annual prevalence for that year, but did not necessarily change the average lifetime prevalence.
Register for our upcoming course on anxiety!
We are kicking off a totally new virtual course on Anxiety. Led by a seasoned psychologist with lived experience, this is your opportunity to get deeper insights into what anxiety looks like, the underlying roots, and support and prevention strategies that really work!
The course is 6 weeks long and provides a certificate upon completion. You can attend the sessions live or watch the recording at your own convenience.
Use the link below to get updated on when course registrations starts!
Listen to these podcasts!
Join Kelli Walker – nurse, health coach, and former agoraphobe – on an anxiety adventure. Learn what anxiety is, why it affects us, and how to move past it with practical tips and expert insights. No special techniques or diets required. Tune in for a good laugh and start feeling more human today.
For over a decade, this weekly podcast has supported those with PTSD, stress, and anxiety. Hosts Shann Vander Leek and Ananga Sivyer discuss tips with experts and provide calming guided meditations and breathing exercises.
Host Kimberley Quinlan aims to give listeners a virtual hug with each episode, offering real-time tools and inspiration to combat stress and negative emotions. She covers a wide range of anxiety topics, interviews diverse psychosocial professionals, and shares her own insights.
Motherhood is stressful, and UK-based mum Zoe Blasky created this podcast to help mothers live their best lives. Episodes cover all aspects of self-care, from health and relationships to career.
Obsessive compulsive disorders are closely related to anxiety and stress
Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) is a highly misunderstood mental illness that is characterized by intense feelings of anxiousness.
Understanding OCD, and any anxiety disorder, needs to be understood from both the scientific and personal experience. These two videos provides you with a starting point.
Sign up for peer support
Sometimes, to reduce our anxiety all we need to do is share with someone we trust. These peer support groups can be a great place to start if you’re looking to connect with and learn from people that also have lived experience with anxiety and stress.
The National Alliance for Mental Illness (NAMI) is a leading organization providing free of cost peer support for everyone. They offer both for those struggling and for those supporting someone struggling.
The Anxiety and Depression Association of America (ADAA) offers four different online peer support communities. Check out which one may fit with you!
The Tribe offers peer-to-peer support that is tailored to your mental health challenge. It also offers specific support groups for LGBTQIA+ and teens.
The Neuroscience of Anxiety and Fear
What’s the difference between fear and anxiety?
What’s the neuroscience underlying anxiety?
This TED video provides an excellent but short overview of the science behind anxiety and our brain!
You must meet Dr. Sapolsky
Dr. Robert Sapolsky is professor and researcher at Stanford University and has been a trailblazer in our ability to understand the psychology and neuroscience of stress.
His work is inspired from many years of observing natural animal behaviors and conducting extraordinary experiments. He’s an author of many insightful books, some of which you can find in the book recommendation section above. We highly recommend tuning into this or another podcast episode featuring Dr. Sapolsky.
Pro-tip: Many of Dr. Sapolsky lectures can be found on YouTube!
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MindBlossom is on a mission to empower people’s mental wellbeing through mental health education and community engagement. We utilize evidence-based methods to help people understand themselves and others in ways that are proven to enhance mental health and prevent mental illness. While we work with companies and other institutions, MindBlossom’s overarching cause is to help develop and implement mental health education programs in all K12 schools, colleges and community programs. All profits are reinvested in this cause.