Latest / Callum Walker | Figuring It Out / #101 - How To Instantly Get Rid Of Anxiety (5 Things That Actually Work)

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#101 - How To Instantly Get Rid Of Anxiety (5 Things That Actually Work) · Callum Walker | Figuring It Out

• 0:00
  Callum Walker: I've woken up really anxious, like really anxious.
• 0:03
  Callum Walker: Probably started to to come about like yesterday. You know when you feel that like overwhelming sensation of physical anxiety? It's almost like you've got this contraction. Yeah. This contraction of the body.
• 0:16
  Everything's tight. Everything's heavy. I really, really felt that yesterday. And specifically, I remember being sat on the sofa ready to watch drive to survive. Like while watching the first episode, I was almost kind of like there but not there.
• 0:30
  There was just this feeling while I was on the sofa of just like pure contraction of the body and then there was just this like overwhelming almost kind of like tingling, but not a nice tingling. Long story short, yeah, the anxiety has almost kind of just shown itself from like that overwhelm. And I know that the problem is that I'm just trying to do too many things at once. I'm just trying to take on too many things at the same time. And I I think one thing I have learned over the years is that, like, anxiety, fear, all of these sort of sensations, they are a signal.
• 1:07
  There is a message within it. You trying to cram too many things in at once. Just do one thing at a time. Hello, and we're back. My mood has definitely shifted, which is fantastic.
• 1:20
  And the anxiety has definitely left me. What I'm gonna almost kind of go through are like five things I do and focus on to really help whenever I am anxious. Specifically like how we can use like physical tools alter the way in which we're eating and things to consider. If we are almost kind of going through a little bit of a period of anxiety. The first thing I want to kind of say like before I go into those five things, being anxious is very very normal.
• 1:47
  The first thing that can be a real issue with anxiety is that we're almost going like why am I anxious? Why am I anxious? I shouldn't be anxious. I shouldn't be anxious. Like sometimes when I'm feeling anxious, feel like I've done something wrong.
• 1:58
  I shouldn't be anxious. And I think what's really important is first of all giving yourself permission to know that you are anxious for a specific reason, whether you know you're an entrepreneur and a business owner or even just someone who wants to be the best that you can. I think the first thing is that you are going to experience periods of anxiety. Now if I do get a little bit slightly breathless, I am about to go up a hill. Now you might not see, but this hill is actually higher than you think.
• 2:25
  It's quite steep. It's actually very steep. So if the odd bit of panting comes about, please don't bite me off. But, yeah, like, you know, when you are in a high performing sort of environment, anxiety is going to be natural because there's so much uncertainty. If you you are high performing individual being okay, that uncertainty is going to drive about a bit of anxiety.
• 2:51
  That's completely normal. So I think the first thing I do when I'm anxious and it's more of kind of a mental tool is, first of all, just a place of acceptance that it's completely okay and it will go away. Kind of mentioned earlier, like I was on the sofa and just felt my whole body like clenched and tense and just felt like, I don't know, this tingling. But I think the thing that really did help me in the moment was like, I know this will pass. It's not permanent.
• 3:17
  I know it will go. I mean, it stuck around a bit longer than I wanted to, but if I almost kind of fast forward eighteen hours, I feel kind of back to neutral a bit now. It may stick around longer than you would like it to, but knowing that it's not a permanent fixture in your life really helps. The second thing, is more of a nutritional strategy, not even a strategy, but I'm gonna say a requirement that you need to address if you're going through maybe more of an anxious period or you naturally do feel like you are a little bit more of an anxious person is caffeine. It's such a huge thing to understand.
• 3:52
  Although it's so widely consumed in such a normal way. It is a psychoactive substance. It's a drug. To simplify what caffeine does caffeine really kind of amplifies whatever state you're in. I know that when I'm anxious, what having a high amount of caffeine will do is it will make me more anxious.
• 4:13
  And this morning I really made it a priority to lower my caffeine content. I mean, I literally halved my caffeine, like I'm ADHD. So I do need some caffeine to almost kind of like self medicate and actually be able to work. Cause without caffeine, my mind doesn't really work at all. I had to be really careful of the dose.
• 4:35
  With caffeine, it's really important. The types of beans that you're having. If you have Robusta beans, Robusta beans have twice the caffeine content of an Arabica bean. So if you find that you're quite sensitive to caffeine, look at the beans that you're having, have an Arabica bean. Look on the packet.
• 4:53
  You'll see like Arabica, but you'll also see sometimes like Arabica robusta blend, or even just robusta beans. If you are someone who feels quite anxious a lot, look at the beans that you're having, make sure it's an Arabica bean as opposed to a Robusta or a blend and definitely go through a period of lowering your overall caffeine because what it's allowed me to do, which is what brings me onto the third thing. When I'm anxious, I'm really living in my head and what I need to do is go and live in the world. The way that I almost kind of see it is that like our mind is like in past and future, we're either reviewing the past, looking at what has happened or in the future, to predict what could come along around the corner. Anxiety specifically, anxiety is more kind of around the future.
• 5:43
  That fear of the unknown. If I'm feeling more anxious, which I was yesterday specifically, like when I was sat on the sofa, was like, right. I need to get out of my head and need to get into the world. Getting outside, getting into the world that gets you out of your head. I remember reading from Eckhart Tolle.
• 5:58
  He was just like, what is, what is wrong with in this specific moment? Like all of my fears are in the future. All of my anxieties are in the future. When you'll get yourself out in nature, there are no problems. All of those fears and worries, they're not here.
• 6:11
  They're there. And I kind of have my own little mantra, which is drop the T. Don't be there, be here, drop the T, but then also like just looking at the sun. Today it's, it's actually really beautiful and sunny, which is amazing. When we're experiencing a lot of sunlight, it sends a signal to the brain.
• 6:28
  And what that does is it drives up serotonin specifically. And what serotonin does is it really kind of calms us. It grounds us and it keeps us here. So the first thing is getting outside gets you out of your head, gets you into the world, but also exposes you to light. Even if it's really, really cloudy, you will have 20 to 30 times the amount of light, if not more going outside, even if it's dark gray and gloomy, which it normally is here in The UK, you will have so much more light outside.
• 6:59
  It drives that serotonin. And then also by driving that serotonin, it can make you feel more calm, more collected and feeling better. Now the other thing with going outside, have you ever noticed that when you go outside, you do naturally start to feel better? Well, first of all, by going outside, we're doing two things. Most of the time we're walking, we're moving forward, but also we're altering our vision.
• 7:21
  Now, how can that help from an anxiety point of view? So if you almost kind of see here, like I've got this wide field. Now what's really important is that the way in which our vision kind of works is that when it's narrowed, we're very much in focus mode, focus, go exert energy. And the brain very much gets into like concentrated mode. However, if you're ever feeling anxious or worried, the best thing that you could possibly do is stare at the horizon.
• 7:49
  Because what happens is that when you stare at the horizon, whether you near an ocean or even like I'm in a field right now, I'm able to fully stare at the horizon. What happens is it widens your vision. And when you widen your vision, the brain can't really focus on anything, and it automatically relaxes and calms the fear center in the brain. The thing that you'll almost kind of find is, and I remember Tony Robbins saying this, he was like, live in a box. We live in a box.
• 8:15
  We stare at a box by staring at our computer. Then get in a car, which is we drive in our box, even to go to the gym. We go to the gym, which is in a box or inside. Our vision's narrowed by getting outside. Widen our vision, calms the fear center of the brain, which also then brings me to the other thing that really helped me within getting outside was walking.
• 8:36
  Have you ever noticed that when you go for a run, when you go for a walk, that anxiety and that fear starts to leave you? Well, a couple of things like when I'm walking, it's a meditative act for me again. By listening to the birds, feeling my feet again, I'm getting out of my head. I'm getting into my body. Naturally, what that's doing is it's allowing me to be calm.
• 8:58
  It's allowing me to be collected and it's a meditation of getting out my head and getting into the world. But the other thing is something that is referred to as forward ambulation. What does that mean? Well, now I'm walking and I'm moving forward. Specifically, what's happening is as I'm walking, things are moving past me.
• 9:19
  And when things move past your vision, that is something called forward ambulation. So as you're moving forward, what happens is that that forward ambulation things moving past you calms what's known as the amygdala. And that's a fancy word for the fear center in the brain. So when you're moving forward, it almost kind of signals to the brain like, we are safe. It's okay.
• 9:42
  Things are predictable. We can see everything that's going to happen. So the third part and the third thing that I do to really kind of address my anxiety, get out of my head, I get into the world, getting outside into nature. You see that there aren't really the problems. Your problems are in your mind.
• 9:58
  Whereas when you're out into the world, there are no problems right now. You get your sunlight, you get your serotonin that naturally physiologically puts you in a great spot. You're also then able to expand your vision, widen it, that calms the amygdala. And then also you're then able to walk, move forward, go through forward ambulation that also calms you and it really gets you into a great spot. Now what's the fourth thing that I did?
• 10:24
  I did some breath work this morning and I've been focusing on my breathing today. From a physical point of view, anxiety is a high concentration of adrenaline circulating throughout the body. And effectively, we can use the breath to decrease not necessarily just the adrenaline, but something called epinephrine. So without going too crazy into details, you have two molecules, adrenaline and epinephrine, and they are the exact same. But the only difference is adrenaline is in the body.
• 10:56
  So we need to see it as the brain and the body are two separate things. You have something called the blood brain barrier that is almost kinda like below the neck effectively. And adrenaline is adrenaline that lives below the neck, but epinephrine is epinephrine that lives in the brain. So when you have someone who says they are overcome with anxiety, what happens is you have a high concentration of adrenaline in the body, but also a high concentration of epinephrine in the brain. So you have high amounts of adrenaline in the brain and the body.
• 11:27
  But by using the breath and specifically using exhalations, So what I did was, I do almost kinda like a four second inhale and a long exhale. When you do that for a prolonged period of time, when you're doing kind of longer exhales, it decreases epinephrine in the brain. So if you've ever done an ice bath before, really interesting thing happens when you get in there, you start to panic and you're like, but then once you get control of your breath and you're exhaling, you're almost kind of signaling when you're doing a long exhale, we're in control, we are fine. And what can happen is that you can decrease levels of epinephrine in the brain while the levels of adrenaline in the body stay the same, which means that you are not overcome by the anxiety. You overcome the anxiety.
• 12:25
  And that brings me into the final part, which is number five. The thing that makes your anxiety worse and makes my anxiety worse is when I say I am anxious because I fully identified with that. But what's interesting is that when I actually say I'm simply feeling feelings of anxiety, Well, what is the feeling of anxiety? The feeling of anxiety is just adrenaline. So actually, I'm just feeling feelings of adrenaline.
• 12:52
  By knowing that I'm feeling feelings of adrenaline, I'm feeling feelings of epinephrine, I do a couple of things. One, I can decrease the level of adrenaline or epinephrine, and I can do that through breathing. Also by doing hot stuff. So having a hot shower or a hot bath that naturally will kind of decrease levels of adrenaline a little bit. The main thing really is then utilizing that energy, which is why kind of going for a walk or utilizing that adrenaline, that stored energy can really help.
• 13:21
  So almost kind of like, you know, to get your antidote, you have to kind of find out what the poison is, so to speak. It's high levels of adrenaline, which is why also we want to avoid having high amounts of caffeine because high amounts of caffeine would then drive up adrenaline even more. So the final part is really seeing it as it's just adrenaline. That's it. It's just adrenaline.
• 13:41
  It's just a physical sensation. And looking at it and going, okay, if there is an anxiety that's in my mind, what is it that I can actually control? What can I control and what can I not control? So I look at it and I go, okay, well, what can I actually control in terms of the situation I'm in? I'm definitely not firing my member of staff.
• 14:03
  Can't do anything about the tax side of things. I've got money going into adverts, which should bring me more customers. And even if it doesn't, I can always turn the ad machine off if things are getting, you know, bad, but also I run a business. And if from a financial point of view, my fear is potentially losing money. The beauty of running a business is that I can go and bring in new customers.
• 14:27
  So what can I control? I can control bringing in new customers. There's certain acts that I can't, you know, there's certain things within the process of bringing new clients in that you can't control, but what can I control? I can control my outputs in terms of what work can I do? What conversations can I have?
• 14:43
  What can I do to bring in new clients? I can control those things. So that kind of brings me to the final part, which is control what you can control and what you can't control. It's almost kind of in the hands of the gods. Do you know what I mean?
• 14:54
  So hopefully that helped today. So again, know I've been here for like what twenty minutes now, but today in terms of the training side of things, I'm going to try and go for a little jog like it's it's what it's it's quarter to two. I've got a call at 02:00 with a client today. It's really nice actually, because I'm working with someone who isn't a personal trainer and I've made like a real big decision that I'm actually going to help in coaching coaches and personal trainers for the past five years, I love it. And I'm going to continue it.
• 15:25
  But I close my doors to working with people in terms of their own health and fitness. And and I'm actually opening my doors back up to to do that work, which is really, really exciting, which is partly why I'm doing this channel as well to really kind of get myself back into the the actual coaching game from a fitness point of view. So, yeah, I've got a client today. She's amazing. So I'm really excited to have a conversation with her.
• 15:47
  It's also my future mother in law's birthday today, which is a very special day. I must say I absolutely love her. I'm very, very blessed, very blessed. So, yes, so we're I think Alice finishes work at like five. Sorry, just after four.
• 16:02
  So we're going to drive down to there. It's about forty minutes away, have some food. Again, they've suggested a tie. So now I am ketogenic. So in terms of like a tie, what am I going to have?
• 16:15
  Well, I have a look at the menu now. The thing that is probably going to be likely is going to be a weeping tiger. Now, what's a weeping tiger? It's almost like a sizzling sort of steak. Like I would have a curry, but I know that they put some sugar in a curry.
• 16:30
  I will have a look at the menu, but realistically, it's probably gonna be like some skewers, like some chicken satay, weeping tiger. I'll see what else there is. But what I'll also do is like, I'll make sure that I have some food beforehand just in case. And I think that, you know, when you are ketogenic, that is a really important thing. Like knowing that when you're eating out and then food is out of your control, like accepting that and going like, right.
• 16:53
  Okay. I need to kind of plan ahead. Now I definitely also want to think I definitely feel dehydrated. I really do like the color of my pee was a bit dark and I can like, I can feel feel the dehydration. So I've got some electrolytes that I'm going to have.
• 17:10
  And again, in terms of those electrolytes, I'm using pure sports at the moment. So yeah, and and I really, I really like them. I really do like them there. I've got like, I've got two electrolytes, so I have one called element. So LMNT, I get them from The States and they're really, really high sodium, but they're like £45 a box.
• 17:30
  And I mean, they're nice, like they're really nice, but they have the exact same profile from a nutrient perspective as the pure sport ones. Very, very high sodium. Again, when you are ketogenic, you've got to make sure that you're ramping up your your salt intake. So I'm going to have to almost kind of like nail some electrolytes And then I've got my call. I'll probably edit this video and I'll try and get like a little jog in.
• 17:55
  But one of the things I was almost kind of saying to Alice about this, like I am really, really busy. Like I've run a business and I am running a marathon. And I think the one thing that like I see so many people doing when they are running marathons, like it becomes their life. And, you know, don't get me wrong, I understand I do need to train for this and I am training for it. But I also know that I'm like, you know, like my nervous system is the most important thing.
• 18:19
  Like, was really anxious today. Earlier on today, I didn't sleep great last night. I'm definitely a little bit fatigued like we were traveling. My mom would say, You've got to get a run-in. But actually my schedule is a little bit calmer and quieter tomorrow.
• 18:35
  And I can almost kind of like train at a higher intensity tomorrow. So I'm almost like getting two runs in a week because that's all I can kind of fathom. Not saying fathom, but it's all I can almost kind of like fit in, in all honesty, in terms of the running side of things, because I also like doing my strength stuff. And I think partly why I'm doing this as well is to almost like, I was saying this to Alice last night, like, I think one of the main reasons why I'm really kind of returning to the fitness industry is because like I find the fitness industry isn't healthy. Like they just talk about fitness, but not health.
• 19:08
  Like it's not healthy. I look at what so many coaches do and the kind of coaching that they're coaching, like it's not healthy. And I also look at like with myself, yes, I want to run a marathon, but I also want to live my life at the same time. Want to be present and yes. Okay.
• 19:22
  I do need to, you know, I do need to train and I am training for it, but I'm not trying to hit a specific time. Like I get so many people who like, they hear me say I'm doing a marathon. Like what time you go from? Like, I'm genuinely not interested in a time that you must be. And I'm like, no, I'm genuinely not.
• 19:36
  I have no interest. And this is going to sound really silly, but I'm doing a marathon in Paris. The reason why I'm doing this marathon, like one I'm running for alcohol change and I will go into much more detail about that. Probably on my next vlog, I think, my next vlog, am definitely going to kind of share like the, the reason, the real reasons for why I'm running this and I'm running it for a charity called Alcohol Change, which I really do really like, you know, really love. But then also, like, just seeing it as like, Paris is one of my favorite places in the world.
• 20:08
  Like it's the first place me and Alice went on holiday together. It's a very special place. Like I've been with my mom so many times. I've been with Alice so many times. I love it.
• 20:16
  Like, I think one of my favorite things to do is sitting in the, the Louvre Gardens. I've got a really specific spot reading my book in the sun, having a coffee. Like it's just, it just brings me so much, like, oh, just brings me so much joy thinking about that. And I get to run around Paris. How cool is that?
• 20:39
  And I'm doing a run walk strategy. So again, like I know that I'm going to have so many people be like, don't give up, don't give up. I'm not giving up on walking cause I'm not running the time. Like I'm, I'm literally like, get to participate in the Paris marathon. I get to see Paris, like the best way possible through foot.
• 20:59
  And I've got like a four or five hour journey around Paris. Like if it's five hours, it's five hours. If it's four hours, it's four hours. I genuinely don't care. And I'm not just saying that like a genuinely don't care.
• 21:11
  I mean, I don't want be running for six hours because like, it's just a really long time, But I think that like, you know, health and fitness needs to be healthy. And there's so much about the health and fitness industry that isn't healthy. And I think me doing a marathon simply because I want to run around Paris and I don't care about the time and I'm not becoming a slave to a marathon training schedule is really healthy for me. So, yeah. So I'll keep you posted with how that goes.
• 21:42
  And until the next one, I will see you later.