8 Tips to help manage your anxiety
In order to manage our anxiety, we need to understand the connection between our mind and body and the physiological response that anxiety elicits.
Many times we cannot think our way out of an anxious state because of the mind body connection. This is why top-down approaches such as CBT have their limits with certain kinds of anxiety disorders. Instead, many anxiety disorders require a bottom-up approach that includes as awareness of one’s physiological state and felt experience that anxiety activates in the body. So if you are trying to talk yourself out of a panic attack, you’re probably not going to get much relief and you actually might start to spiral and feel worse.
So what’s the connection between anxiety and our mind and body?
Anxiety occurs when our nervous system perceives a threat in our environment, which activates our sympathetic nervous system (fight, flight or freeze), the bodies alarm system. This reaction is communicated to our brain, which will then create meaning out of the moment that tend to be focused on the future (anticipatory anxiety) or past (rumination) and can be characteristic by being catastrophic, black & white and internalizing.
Anxiety is a symptom that every human experiences to some degree and at its core, it is an emotion that is here to protect us – remember, it’s like our bodies alarm system. It asks us to pay attention, assess the situation and make the appropriate decision to help keep us safe.
However, sometimes anxiety is so strong that it bumps us out of the driver seat, takes over and leaves us feeling crippled by it or completely shut down. If we’re stuck in an anxious state, it can mean we’ve moved into a hyper-vigilance state where we are constantly accessing for threats (consciously and subconsciously). This is not a state where we do well in if we are in for too long; it can look like chronic fatigue, burn out, lack of caring/motivation, feeling reactionary, irritable, etc.
Our nervous system’s job is to keep us safe so that we can continue to live. It does this by constantly accessing our environments and interactions with others to see if we are safe or threatened and then communicates this assessment to our brain. All of this happens in less than a second after we’re exposed to a situation and our brains don’t make meaning until about 1/2 second after the NS reaction.
The thing is, our nervous systems have not caught up to most real-time threats; the nervous system still reads a most daily threats as if a lion is in the room with us and is ready to pounce and kill. So sometimes we are experiencing that high level of anxiety when in fact we are not in this level of a threatening situation.
This is why we can’t think our way out of all of our anxiety; we can’t just change our thoughts (top-down approach) and expect to not experience visceral anxiety. We must work with our bodies (bottom-up approaches) to help create in internal shift by intentionally bringing the nervous system to a parasympathetic response (a place of internal safety that provides the opportunity for rest and digest.)
When we change our nervous system’s response, we directly affect the quality of our thoughts. Therefore, a healthy mindset with less worries and anxieties requires a healthy nervous system.
8 mind body tips to help decrease your anxiety quickly:
Notice the quality of your breath. Try to extend your exhale by inviting it to be longer and slower than your inhale. If it helps, you can count with both your inhale and exhale to bring more focus to your breath; then try to add 1-2 counts to the exhale inviting it to become longer and slower than your inhale.
Slowly rotate your neck and head around in a circle helping to release tension from your neck and tone your vagus nerve. As you rotate your head, take a look around your environment and name a few neutral objects to yourself (e.g. tree, window, picture, light, chair, etc.)
Relax your jaw – gently massage your jaw right below your ear lobes and open your mouth while you massage for a few breaths. After a few moments of massaging your jaw, fake a yawn (which, for me, always turns into a real yawn). Keep your jaw unclenched and allow your tongue to rest behind your lower teeth palate.
Inhale through your nose and look up as you tilt your head back as if you’re looking up at a tall tree allowing the front of your throat to stretch out. As you exhale, gently bring your head and eye gaze back to neutral. Try this breath and movement a few times. This specific exercise helps reduce anxiety by toning your vagus nerve, moving the body into rest and digest mode.
Notice textures you feel against your skin, temperature around your body and sounds you’re aware of in this moment without any strain.
Scan your body and notice all of the parts of you that are being physically supported (feet on the ground, sit bones against your chair, parts of the body touching furniture, etc.) Allow these parts of your body to settle a little more into the support beneath you.
After engaging in any of these 6 exercises, ask yourself, “In this exact moment, what feels like a threat to me?” Get curious and remind yourself that you are physically safe in this exact moment. Although your body might be activated, you know logically that there is not a lion in the space ready to pounce on you. You are safe, you are secure. Repeat this mantra a few times to yourself.
Reach out to someone safe. We are wired for connection and we co-regulate when we are around safe people. You are not a burden. You deserve support.
Anxiety is not your fault. That doesn’t mean you have to live with it controlling your life.
Remember to be compassionate with yourself. These are tools to incorporate into your life and healing journey to help manage your anxiety and reset your nervous system back to its window of tolerance when you are truly in a safe place. Before we can truly address our anxiety, we need to be aware of how our environments and the systems (family, political, community, oppression, etc.) are affecting our day-to-day lives.
Our bodies should not tolerate abuse of any kind and our goals should not be to learn to tolerate unsafe and abusive situations. If you are unsafe, your body will not be able to resource out of a vigilant state due to pure survival. There is nothing wrong with you if this is your experience – it is a physiological response and I encourage you to listen to it and get the help that you deserve. I can’t reinforce this enough, anxiety is here to protect us. If you continue struggle with your anxiety or it becomes worse, I encourage you to make an appointment with a medical and/or a mental health professional.
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