5 Quick Ways to Reduce Anxiety

Anxiety is not a simple emotion; it’s complicated. We can’t live without it. It readies our body and mind to mitigate threats like bears, bad people, the IRS (can you tell I’m writing this in April?). Anxiety helps us focus on and meet challenges that threaten our future. We “batten down the hatches,” and prepare our ship to endure rough weather. If we didn’t feel this anxiety, we wouldn’t be “inspired” to take action to keep ourselves from harm.

Fun fact: Ever wonder why stimulants (Adderall, Ritalin, Vyvanse) are prescribed to individuals who struggle with attention deficit? Those drugs work by inducing a fight or flight response—helping those individuals focus and meet challenges.

Often times anxiety is not meeting our needs. Let’s pretend we have a test or presentation tomorrow morning. We have spent adequate time preparing and the only thing left to do is to sleep—to ready ourselves for tomorrow through rest. We lay there, trying to sleep. Anxiety does an excellent job in protecting us (by inspiring us to prepare) and also can do an excellent job of holding us back (by making it difficult or impossible to get adequate rest).

When we’ve noticed that anxiety is holding us back, what are the things we can do to help?

“…take your dog on a walk through nature. While walking be sure to practice deep breathing techniques. And during your walk find a nice spot to do some journaling while you cuddle your dog. When you get home, take a shower and another deep breath for good measure.”

1. Practice deep breathing techniques

   This one just works. Our “fight or flight system” is a label we’ve given to the sympathetic nervous system. The opposing force, also known as the “rest and digest system” is called the parasympathetic nervous system. It acts as a parachute for our anxiety response. We can convince our body we are safe and guide ourselves into the parasympathetic response by shifting our breathing.

   I consistently meet individuals who were improperly trained to breath through anxiety. I’ve seen them try to utilize their breathing for stress reduction and accidentally push themselves into higher levels of anxiety. If you are going to utilize deep breathing, learn to do it effectively!

   Here is a list of good breathing exercises. I specifically recommend “4-6” breathing, otherwise known as paced breathing, as a place to begin.

2. Take a shower

   Anxiety can stack on top of itself. Sometimes we get anxious about being anxious. Immediate “physical state changes” can be helpful to distract our body and mind from the physical sensations of anxiety—allowing us space to practice other coping skills.

   Showers are my favorite recommendations. They relax the muscles, promote blood flow to our extremities (which become limited during anxiety), and just feel good. Experiment with combining a shower (or bath) with deep breathing techniques. Remember, if you are feeling lightheaded make sure to be safe in the shower.

3. Cuddle with a pet

   There is a reason we have trained dogs to be of service to individuals for panic disorder or PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder). Companionship, with animals or humans, releases a feel-good chemical known as oxytocin. The reason it feels good is to remind us how important these supports and companions are to our survival and wellbeing. Lean on them (sometimes literally) when we notice our anxiety is going haywire.

4. Write through it

   Journaling, brainstorming, list-making can be a helpful tool to reduce anxiety. Much of our anxiety can be attributed to the flying spaghetti monster of thoughts and fears in our head. They are all floating and coexisting in doomsday harmony. Sometimes putting them to words can give our mind permission to allow them to pass. We have proven to our anxiety that we took “action” to batten down those hatches.

   Our brain is not particularly good at holding multiple things in our awareness at once, and even when we do we somehow feel as if they all need to happen at once.

   Another upside to writing things out is that it becomes easier to practice our cognitive skills from CBT. It becomes much easier to notice and challenge distorted thinking when we put it down on paper.

5. Be in nature

   Spending time in nature has been shown to reduce anxiety. Find ways to be in nature when you are struggling with anxiety. Changing our scenery can also be a helpful way to trigger a physical state change.

Take your dog on a walk through nature. While walking be sure to practice deep breathing techniques. And during your walk find a nice spot to do some journaling while you cuddle your dog. When you get home, take a shower and another deep breath for good measure. I wonder how your anxiety might feel after that?

Have any questions, comment, or other tip for reducing anxiety? Leave them in the comments below.