Exercises To Calm Your Anxious Thoughts
Breathing… it’s so underrated.
When we experience a threatening or stressful situation our body get’s to work. Our heart pounds, adrenaline rushes in, we begin to take shallow breaths. That’s all helpful when there’s a bear in the woods…not so much when you are worried about something that well just isn’t there. You want your body and mind thto calm and the road to get there is breathing. Breathing triggers our parasympathetic nervous system - the director of calm in our bodies. And it will take a few minutes, so no thinking it doesn’t work at 20 seconds (it’s funny time feels sooooo long when we are anxious).
Here are a few ways to breath:
Try breathing while making the motion of a square on your leg. Breathe in for a slow count of 4, hold for 4, breathe out for 4, hold for 4 and repeat.
My personal favorite is breathing in deep for a slow count of 4 then breathing out for a slow count of 8. For some reason letting out all the air for me feels like allowing stress to be let out.
Which one works best for you?
Thought Stopping… (I call it weed pulling.)
Not always, but most of the time we are anxious because we are pondering a threat. It could be feeling afraid of going into work/school, thinking we have a disease or scared of taking a flight. It’s important that we recognize these not as productive, helpful thoughts, but anxious ones. Naming it is a first step to stopping it, “This is not me, it’s a random anxious thought. This is an anxious thought and I don’t like having it.”
Secondly, use imagery to shift your mind. Maybe you picture a stop sign or you send the thought into the trash like a burnt bag of popcorn.
Thought Replacing… (Planting the flower.)
Just stopping or distracting from anxious thoughts doesn’t typically do the trick. They are pretty powerful until your system has learned to calm down more quickly. So we need to replace it — especially for any deep thinking, curious, imaginative souls. You all need something for your brain to chew on! You get to be creative here. Remind your mind that you get to be the author of your imagination. You may not be able to control what intrusive anxious thoughts pop into your head, but you can ask them to leave and invite another guest over instead. Try out some different things — do you want to plan a vacation in your head, go to an imaginary safe place, go back to a positive memory in your mind? You could write a (positive) story, list everything that you are grateful about no matter how small, or make plans for a home project in your head.