Manage Your Anxiety from Within
Building self-awareness and learning to regulate your responses to stress are both great ways to manage anxiety without any pills
Text: Shin Yee Koh with Dr Poorna Menon
Feeling stressed out? Don’t worry, you’re not alone (Credits: Pexel)
Anxiety and stress have taken on a prevalence like never before since the COVID-19 pandemic. With the environment the way it is, and the changes required of us in adjusting back to a semi-normal life, having solutions to manage anxiety that go beyond the use of medication has become more important than ever before.
We spoke to one of Balanced Living’s expert practitioners, Dr Poorna, to find out more. Based at Sixth Avenue, next to the Sixth Avenue MRT Station, Balance Living is a centre of wellness offering holistic health support ranging from health consultations to meditation sessions with seasoned professionals. 'Managing Anxiety beyond Meds' is their newest programme and offers a unique one-on-one experience that will take participants on a journey to rediscover the mind-body connection and manage anxiety beyond the use of medication.
The programme is equipped to address anxiety management through lifestyle, dietary and supplemental interventions facilitated by Dr Poorna Menon ND (USA).
Specialising not only in mental health but also in many other chronic, complex conditions, Dr Poorna is a Doctor of Naturopathic Medicine at Balanced Living. Given her background, one of the sessions is devoted to establishing better 'determinants of health' in the context of supporting mental health, including guidance around running appropriate labs, practitioner-grade supplements from the Balanced Living store, and nutritious meal plans from The Living Café.
The programme provides life skills around identifying your unique stress responses and then building specific self-regulation skills to develop control, calm and resilience from within.
The course of 6 weekly sessions includes building self-awareness around the mind-body's orientation to stressors, after which you are equipped with specific skills to self-regulate responses through the nervous system and psychophysiology. This approach to managing anxiety is what is called a 'bottom up' approach - working with the psychophysiology, or mind-body first - in order to learn self-regulation and experience safety, before utilising 'top down' or talk-based therapies and interventions.
The thing is, it is difficult to successfully address trauma or change cognitive patterns from the past. Especially if you haven’t been able to access and experience safety in your nervous system in the present. This is why the Managing Anxiety programme focuses first on helping you to understand and experience safety in your present life on a regular and practised basis.
Seeking professional help could work wonders (Credits: Pexel)
Depending on your needs, the programme can focus almost solely on bottom-up, psychophysiological approaches and the learning of self-regulation techniques first. However, given that everyone has a unique orientation, you might also benefit from the interweaving of top-down, talk-based approaches, whilst on your 6-session journey.
How the fully customizable programme presents itself differs from person to person, and this is one of its defining strengths. Given the uniqueness with which anxiety manifests in each and every one of us, this programme has been created to adapt to the needs of the individual, whilst being grounded in a framework that is a bottom-up approach to mental health, with the addition of talk-based therapies where required.
Past participants of the programme have found the very fabric of their lives change as they step into one of the most meaningful journeys they could take in the pursuit of wellness. The programme provides a foundation from which the rest of their lives can unfold with health, vitality, and resilience.
Treat yourself to nutritious meals at The Living Café (Credits: Balanced Living)
Stress and anxiety won’t completely vanish if the programme is followed 'perfectly'. In fact, it is not realistic nor is it the programme's goal. The nature of life is such that we’ll always encounter stressful scenarios. This is a reality we cannot escape. The programme's goal is to instead address your relationship with stress and anxiety, two cornerstones of the human experience, so as to discover tangible ways by which to manage this relationship so that you can always know how to regain balance. It teaches you to live life on your own terms, regardless of any hurdle that might come through the course of your life.
You can join the 6-week programme for SGD 1,430 and choose to pay in full or opt for a payment plan, which you can discuss with Dr. Poorna. For more information or to schedule a complimentary 20-minute discovery session with Dr. Poorna, visit Balanced Living’s website here.
Dr Poorna Menon, ND (USA)
Dr Poorna Menon, ND (USA) is a board-certified licensed Naturopathic physician. She is also a member of The American Association of Naturopathic Physicians (AANP) and has a Doctorate of Naturopathic Medicine from the prestigious Bastyr University, USA, one of the pioneering institutions in science-based natural medicine.
