How To Calm Yourself From Anxiety

Get Outside And Get Moving

One of the best ways to counteract those stress hormones flooding your body is to exercise. I find that going out for a walk or a run is one of the best ways to calm down. Getting out of the house is a good way to change the scene the fresh air is soothing, and flooding your body with endorphins is a great antidote to all the stress hormones.

I love to listen to music while I exercise. Music is another great way to distract yourself from your anxious thoughts. It gets your body moving, and can elicit feelings of excitement and lightheartedness. Ive also found that singing along to music is a great release and a good way to calm down and ease tension.

Stay In The Moment To Relieve Anxiety Attacks

Although your gut response might be to leave the stressful situation immediately, dont. Let your anxiety level come down, advises Carmin. Then you can decide if you want to leave or if theres a way to get back to whatever you were doing when the anxiety attack started. Staying in the moment will help you overcome anxiety, but its hard to do this at first.

Its one of the things I respect the most about people I work with, that they are taking the leap of faith and willing to do the things that terrify them, Carmin says. That takes a lot of courage.

Read Also: What Vitamins Are Good For Anxiety And Panic Attacks

Acknowledge It And Write Down The Signs And Symptoms

Having an anxiety attack is definitely scary. It can also feel like a heart attack.

But once you know youre having an anxiety attack, acknowledge that it is happening.

Now, try to jot down a few of the symptoms, feelings, and thoughts you are experiencing. By writing it down, you can see it from a different perspective. This makes it less overwhelming.

Don’t Miss: Can Amitriptyline Be Used For Anxiety

Plan Your Life 12 Hours At A Time

Ive started to retrain myself to plan only for the day that lies ahead, explains Rachel Bowie, PureWows director of special projects. Compartmentalizing my life into 12-hour chunks makes all the worry for the future feel a bit less daunting. It may not be true, but I like thinking, OK, today? That I can control! Its also a great retraining on living in the moment. Pre-COVID-19, I spent so much time strategizing my next move. The restriction to focus only on the present has made me breathe a bit deeper, inhale fresh air from an open window a bit longer and cherish moments with my familyas long as my 2-year-old isnt melting down.

Controlling Anxiety Takes Time

Theres no quick fix for anxiety, and it may often feel like an uphill struggle. But by gaining awareness of what causes your symptoms, and getting help from your doctor, you can manage your symptoms.

You may find some of these hacks work for you straight away and others may have no effect at all, but the important thing is to keep trying.

Giving in to feelings of anxiety by retreating from the world only served to make my life more difficult in the long run. Continuing to search for solutions that work for me has been key to my recovery. Practice makes perfect, so dont stop trying to find ways that work for you.

Fiona Thomas is a lifestyle and mental health writer who lives with depression and anxiety. Visit her website or connect with her on .

You May Like: Does Anxiety Raise Blood Pressure

Burn Off Your Anxiety

When youre anxious, it can sometimes be too hard to perform a technique like deep breathing, as your adrenaline makes it difficult for you to concentrate.

In these moments, try doing something that rids your body of this adrenaline, which could include:

• Chores that need a lot of energy to complete
• High intensity exercise
• Dancing around the house to loud music
• Any aerobic exercise
• Go outside and get some fresh air

Its important to try and release the anxiety youre feeling. These activities can calm your brain and body, helping you to focus and think rationally. If doing something physical isnt working, try writing your anxiety away. An anxiety journal can help get negative thoughts out of you head or be used as a way to think clearly about how youre going to remain calm once youve finished writing.

Go To The Root Cause Of Your Anxiety

This is the most important step in recovery. If you skip this one, you might just well skip the entire article. You wont calm your anxiety in a million years if you dont know where it came from.

There is a cause and effect to everything we do and feel. So, try to understand that, diving deeply into your own anxiety is crucial to your recovery. To manage this, keep a journal and do 20-30 minutes of journaling every day.

It took me four years to discover my root cause. The cause was my toxic upbringing. The reason why it took that long was because I was, for a very long time in denial that my family was dysfunctional.

Psychologists and researchers concluded that, a majority of people who struggle with panic and anxiety grow up in dysfunctional or negative homes. If you didnt have a secure attachment as a child , you will become anxious and confused about yourself and the world.

Action step:

Try to go to the root cause of your anxiety by talking to a therapist or counselor whom you can trust.

Warning: dont drag friends into this, as it is not their duty to guide you.

Recommended Reading: How To Overcome Test Anxiety

What Does Debilitating Anxiety Look Like

Debilitating anxiety is one step past crippling anxiety. While your crippling anxiety might be constant and overwhelming, you still may be able to do some of your day-to-day tasks.

Once your anxiety reaches a point where you start to break down and are unable to think of anything else, you have reached the point of debilitating anxiety. For example, a panic attack is when anxiety becomes debilitating.

Do You Have 90 Minutes To Discover How Everything Can Change

To understand how a simple technique can provide so many benefits, sign up for one of the free informational seminars that are organized around the country. Just fill out the form below, or select your nearest city on the map below. You will be able to:

• Meet a certified TM teacher
• Learn all the benefits that 20 minutes twice a day of TM practice can bring to provide happiness and balance, create deep rest, reduce stress, improve sleep, increase your self-confidence, improve your relationships etc.
• Ask any question you may have
• Schedule a TM course

Recommended Reading: Is Ashwagandha Good For Anxiety

What Is The Resilient Zone

Once stress has hijacked your body and brain, you want to get back to your Resilient Zone as soon as possible. What is the Resilient Zone?

CRM describes the Resilient Zone as a state of well-being in mind, body, and spirit. Youre in your Resilient Zone when you feel capable of handling the stresses of life. Its also called the OK Zone, a term that works especially well when sharing these skills with children. And some of my friends in the CRM teacher training here in Hawaii dubbed it the Aloha Zone.

The Resilient Zone isnt the same as a happy zone. You may feel happy and content at times when youre in the OK Zone, but you can also feel challenged. Difficult emotions like anger, annoyance, sadness, or fear can arise.

The difference is, when youre in the Resilient Zone, you dont feel overwhelmed, disabled, or swept away by events, triggers, or your associated emotions. You feel able to handle whatever arises.

Some people have big zones of resilience. Others have small ones. Its different for every individual depending on many factors from genetics to environmental stresses to previous life experiences that may have made you more vulnerable.

Heres the good news. By using the skills taught in CRM, you can gradually strengthen your Resilient Zone, so stress and trauma impact you less.

The Benefits Of Focused Meditation

In this style of meditation, what youre really doing is exercising your mental muscles. Your brain is highly affected by dedicated and concentrated meditation practice.

Scientists have performed countless studies on focused meditation and have found that active meditators have more gray matter volume in their brain and, therefore, offsetting the cognitive decline that comes with aging. So, not only does practicing focused meditation help you learn how to focus better on certain tasks, but it also improves similar functions, such as memory.

Likewise, it helps in reducing symptoms of depression and anxiety, which our society is currently crippled with. By settling your attention on an object, you are essentially building your ability to observe your thoughts and sensations from a place of objectivity. This allows you to detach from negative self-talk that is often the breeding ground for depression and other mental illnesses.

From a guided meditation for focus to practicing it yourself, daily meditation for focus comes with several benefits:

• Itll reduce stress
• Helps you to focus on the present moment
• Increase your creativity and imagination
• And boost your patience and tolerance for things.

You May Like: How To Help My Anxiety

How To Calm Yourself Down When Angry

Anger is probably the most difficult emotion to overcome because it feels the most justified. Our anger is often a reaction to a violation of our values or boundaries. But anger is really a secondary emotion. It is the default emotion we express when were trying to actualize another, primary feeling like fear or sadness. Learning how to calm yourself down when angry can help you access the underlying emotion and resolve it.

• Vent in a safe place

Find a loved one that is unconnected to the situation and share how you’re feeling. If that’s not possible or you don’t have the time to talk, try writing your feelings out in a journal or an email .

• Validate your feelings

Anger often stems from feeling misunderstood. There’s a saying that people yell when they don’t feel heard. Even if no one else agrees with you, take the time to validate your own feelings and ideas.

Write down: I feel angry because I don’t feel _______.

• Get into their shoes

If someone upset you, try talking the situation out from their point of view. You don’t have to agree with them, but doing this as a thought exercise can help you depersonalize the exchange.

• Meditate

Meditation is a great way to learn to depersonalize your thoughts and separate from the initial angry trigger. Mindfulness allows us to watch the thoughts without attachment and learn what they’re really trying to tell us. You may be able to identify the underlying feeling.

Sign up to receive our latest content, tools, and resources.

What Makes Anxiety Worse

Avoid soothing your anxiety with things that can lead to more anxiety, advises Dr. Albers.

For example, stress eating is like putting a Band-aid® on a gaping wound, she says. You want to deal with your anxiety directly.

Dredging up bad experiences from the past or imagining scary scenarios in the future will just heighten your anxiety. When this happens, realize what youre doing.

Remind yourself that bad things happen relatively sparingly and that our brains are well-equipped to handle a crisis, if one occurs, says Dr. Bea. Be engaged in your real life, not in imagined moments.

The best way to begin is to work on developing a new relationship with your thoughts.

Thoughts are like breezes. Theyre not good or bad, they just come and go, he says. You dont have to react to them Oh, wow, works better than Oh, no. Being grounded in the present moment, without judgment, is the place to be.

Recommended Reading: What Can Help My Anxiety

Set Yourself Up For Healthy Sleep When Stressed And Anxious

If you try all of these steps and still struggle to sleep soundly, consider reaching out to your doctor or a sleep expert for support. Treatments for a generalized anxiety disorder or a sleep disorder can vary significantly.

One mental health treatment, Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Insomnia , is an evidence-based therapeutic technique that looks at the interplay of thoughts, feelings, and behaviors that can impact sleep.

Your sleep and anxiety are interconnected. Finding ways to better manage one will ultimately help you find relief with the other.

Also Check: Can Stress Cause Chest Tightness

How To Calm Down During A Panic Attack

Here are 3 quick and easy tools to help you calm down during a panic attack:

The best way to practice is when youre already feeling calm so you get used to these exercises and can easily recall them whenever you notice youre not feeling well. Set aside a few minutes each day to practice .

You May Like: What Is Good For Anxiety

You May Like: How To Get Tested For Anxiety

How To Calm Yourself Down From An Anxiety Attack

Panic attacks can be debilitating. You may feel like youre having a heart attack or even dying. Calming yourself during a panic attack can seem impossible. If you experience feelings of anxiety frequently, it can help to have an anxiety relief game plan in place.

• Notice whats happening

The faster you can identify the stress response as a panic attack, the faster you can regain control and manage your symptoms.

• Label your thoughts

The act of labeling and describing our thoughts in detail pulls us out of the emotion center of the brain and into the prefrontal cortex. This will help make it easier to reframe your emotions so theyre not so overwhelming.

• Get to a safe place

If youre expending a lot of emotional energy trying to appear okay, leave for a place where you feel safe. Whether thats the bathroom, an office, your bedroom, or just outside, youll feel better if youre trying if youre not trying to look fine.

• Reduce stimuli

Particularly for highly sensitive people, excess stimulation can result in panic attacks. Take steps to reduce the input in your environment. Turn off the radio and the ringer on your cell phone. Put your fan on silent, close the window, and turn off the lights. Take a few moments to bring your attention to your body and a few deep breaths.

• Let someone else tell you what to do for a bit

Be Mindful Of Triggers

Anxious people always have triggers. And unfortunately, sometimes you cant avoid them. During a run with PTSD, I developed a two-year long fear of the moon . There was no getting out of it. Every time the full moon came out, Id go into hysterics thinking I was in danger. I couldnt avoid the moon coming out each night and it glared at me and haunted me during a difficult period. The point of the story is, sometimes you cant escape your trigger. You have to accept that its there. You can take small actions to help minimize its impact such as staying over at a friends house to feel safe, scheduling a meeting with a psychotherapist to learn coping strategies, or joining Facebook groups for people who suffer from similar triggers to get specific advice from others.

You May Like: How To Stop Shortness Of Breath Anxiety