Exercises To Calm Your Anxious Thoughts

5 strategies to regain your calm

Deep breathing - sit in a comfortable position and place your hand on your stomach. While you breathe in slowly through your nose, feel your stomach expand. Your shoulders shouldn’t rise, the air needs to go all the way into your diaphragm. Now exhale slowly through your mouth, while counting to 3. Repeat 3-5 times until you feel calm.

5-4-3-2-1 - A great technique to bring you out of your head and back to the present moment! Take some deep breaths and look around the room while you name 5 things you see, 4 things you feel (your feet on the floor, the chair, your clothing, etc), 3 things you can hear (the air conditioning, etc.). Then take 2 deep breaths and state 1 calming thought (I’m safe, I’m calm, It’ll be ok, etc.)

Progressive muscle relaxation - start at your feet, tensing and relaxing the muscles in your feet while you breathe in and out. Breathe in - tense - hold for 3 seconds - breathe out - relax. Progressively move up to your legs, stomach, hands, arms, and shoulders, tensing and relaxing each muscle group one at a time while you follow the sequence above. Notice the difference when you’re tense versus relaxed. When we're anxious we tend to hold tension in our muscles. With practice, you’ll notice this tension more and can learn to relax your whole body using this technique.

Worry time - if you find yourself spending much of the day worrying, try setting aside a specific time during each day to worry. That is when you worry about it, not any other time! Anytime your mind wanders to the worry, remind yourself to wait until your designated time. Set aside no more than 5-10 minutes a day, and avoid late evening or bedtime. Challenge yourself to stretch it out to every other day, then once a week if you can!

Distraction - this one is great when all else fails. Simply recognize that you are worrying and that it is not productive, so move on to an activity you deem safe and engaging to switch your focus.