Anxiety can sometimes be a disabling condition that makes daily tasks difficult. However, feelings of unease, worry and fear, whether mild or intense, can be managed. For moments of crisis or feelings of restlessness, there are methods to regain control and achieve a more serene state. Psychologist Christian Jarrett, through scientific studies, presented eight proven strategies for mitigating anxiety, applicable both in specific situations and for long-term management.
Quick tools to reduce anxiety
Anxiety attacks often begin with catastrophic thoughts linked to a future event.
Vivid images emerge, such as the idea of making faux pas on a first date, stuttering in a job interview, or visualizing mechanical failures on an airplane.
One way to reduce anxiety is to calm this flood of thoughts. Trying to force them to be suppressed or to expel them from your mind rarely works and can even have the opposite effect.
It is more effective to seek distance from thoughts, recognizing that they may be mistaken and are not premonitory.
One technique is to say to yourself, “I’m having the thought that… I’m going to embarrass myself on this first date” (replace with your own anxious thought).
Once you’ve created that distance, calmly evaluate the evidence that justifies your fear and then devote equal effort to listing the reasons why it might not happen. Also remember previous times when you handled similar situations well.
Grounding Exercises to Control the Mind
When the mind is invaded by catastrophic thoughts about the future, the body reacts in a similar way: the sympathetic nervous system goes into action, preparing it for a threat. This speeds up breathing, makes it shallow and releases adrenaline in the muscles, causing tremors and a feeling of fainting.
An excellent way to mitigate this reaction is to practice exercises that activate the parasympathetic nervous system. This system has opposing effects on the body, such as reducing heart rate and blood pressure, as well as slowing breathing.
One of the exercises is “grounding”, which helps you connect with the present moment and the environment around you, preventing future fears from consuming you.
A popular way to practice it includes pausing and naming five things you can see, four things you can feel, three things you can hear, two things you can smell, and one thing you can taste.
Another technique that activates the parasympathetic and calming nervous system is to stand with your feet comfortably apart and lean forward, as if you were going to touch your toes. It doesn’t matter how far you can go; just stay in this position for about a minute (you can also do this sitting down, leaning over and letting your head hang between your legs).
The purpose of this exercise is to send a clear signal to the body that everything is safe, allowing relaxation.
How regulating your breathing can help
Another approach to calming the body, stimulating the activity of the parasympathetic nervous system, and breaking the cycle of anxiety where the body’s fearful reaction to thoughts further intensifies distress is to practice controlled breathing exercises.
There are several exercises, but one of the simplest and most effective is known as “box breathing”. The name comes from the fact that you inhale, hold the air and exhale, each step for the same period of time.
To do it, sit in a comfortable place and focus on your breathing.
- Inhale for four seconds
- Pause for four seconds
- Exhale for four seconds.
Try repeating this pattern for at least 30 seconds and continue for as long as you feel comfortable or necessary.
The objective is to help normalize the rhythm and depth of breathing, an effective method to calm the body completely.
Scheduling a specific time to worry
When worries persist, even after the body and mind are calmer, the feeling of being stuck in a cycle can be quite disturbing.
Dysfunctional beliefs may arise, such as the idea that it is necessary to worry to “solve” a problem or prevent something bad from happening. These are called “meta-cognitions”, which are your beliefs about your own thoughts.
However, unless one is devising genuine solutions or constructive plans, endlessly dwelling on the same concerns is futile, like a car wheel spinning in mud. Trying to simply banish these thoughts from your mind usually doesn’t work.
A more effective approach is to plan a “worry window”: a fixed period of about half an hour (preferably not too close to bedtime) during which you allow your mind to express all its worries.
The rest of the time, whenever distressing thoughts arise, you can remind yourself that you will deal with them later in the designated period.
This method can be effective in breaking a cycle of continuous worry and allowing you to get on with your daily activities.
Facing your fears to overcome them
It is understandable to want to avoid situations that provoke anxiety, but, in the long term, this attitude tends to intensify the problem even more.
By avoiding anxiety-provoking situations, you not only risk missing opportunities in life, but you also prevent yourself from “reality checking” your biggest fears, like going on a date without it being a disaster or flying on a plane and finding it stays in the air.
Unfaced fears can develop and worsen, taking on a disproportionate aura of fatality.
In contrast, when you confront your fears and realize that the worst doesn’t happen, psychologists call this a “violation of expectation.” It’s like bursting the balloon of anguish.
By undermining these negative expectations, you gradually teach your brain to feel less anxiety. The technical term for facing fears and anxieties is “exposure.”
It is recommended to start gradually. Choose a situation or challenge that provokes only mild anxiety and try to cope with it, using emergency tools before, during and after if necessary.
If exposure in real life is too intimidating, you can even practice mentally, in your imagination.
The importance of regular physical activity
Incorporating exercise opportunities into your routine not only benefits your body, but also your mind.
Studies indicate that exercising can improve mood and prevent depression. More physically active individuals tend to exhibit improvements in personality traits over the years, controlling, for example, neuroticism.
Other research shows that constant physical activity can reduce the risk of developing anxiety disorders.
There are many reasons for these benefits of exercise, such as distraction, a sense of companionship and improvements in physical health, which can break the link between poor health and anxiety.
Another reason physical exercise, especially vigorous exercise, is a powerful tool against anxiety is that it allows you to get used to the physical sensations that fuel anxiety, such as rapid heartbeat and shortness of breath.
If you’re already used to these sensations during your weekly run or boxing class, they won’t be as disturbing the next time you need to give a speech or participate in a job interview.
The impact of caffeine on anxiety
Present in morning espresso coffee or in energy drinks consumed at the gym, caffeine can be such an essential part of the routine that many do not realize that it is, in fact, a psychostimulant, a substance that acts directly on the brain.
In specific terms, caffeine works by blocking adenosine, a brain chemical that normally has the function of physiologically calming the body, lowering blood pressure and slowing breathing.
This neural action is beneficial for increasing alertness and energy, but it is completely undesirable for those who are already predisposed to anxiety.
Therefore, a modest lifestyle change to be adopted in the long term to reduce anxiety levels is to reduce caffeine consumption, remembering that it is also present in foods such as chocolate and tea.
In fact, for anxious people who consume excess caffeine, it is possible that the substance contributes significantly to their problems. Psychiatry even recognizes “caffeine-induced anxiety disorder” as a subtype of the formal diagnosis of “substance- or medication-induced anxiety disorder.”
Reflecting on your long-lasting relationship with anxiety
If you come to believe that anxiety is a fundamental and permanent part of your identity, you will tend to succumb to discomfort and quickly withdraw when faced with situations that generate discomfort or fear.
On the other hand, if you can see anxiety as a temporary and passing state, an inherent human condition that can affect anyone at any time, you will be more likely to find motivation to endure the discomfort and look for more constructive ways to face it.
Psychologists call this perspective the “growth mindset,” as opposed to the “fixed mindset.”
While these terms are often associated with intelligence and learning, recent research indicates that the distinction also applies to how we perceive our experiences with anxiety. Therefore, it is worth reflecting on this perspective.
