Resources

Short exercises to quickly reduce anxiety:

One-third of all Americans exhibit anxiety-related symptoms (Anxiety and Depression Association of America, 2022). Yet, how we feel and what we present to the world may be different, extending the idea that a vast number of us feel more anxious than we indicate. If you have been feeling anxious, read below for techniques and resources that can help you to manage your feelings of anxiety.

  • Meredith has specialized training to treat anxiety. This information is just a tiny snippet of what you will learn when working together.

Recommended reading material:

Be Calm by Jill Weber, Ph. D

Don’t Feed the Monkey Mind by Shannon, Shannon & Tompkins

A Liberated Mind by Steven C. Hayes, Ph.D

Dialectical Behavior Therapy Workbook by David Lawson, Ph. D

Negative Self-Talk and How to Change It by Shad Helmstetter, Ph. D

Feeling Better: CBT Workbook for Teens by Rachel Hutt, Ph. D

Under Pressure: Confronting the Epidemic of Stress and
Anxiety in Girls by Lisa Damour, Ph. D

How to Be Yourself: Quiet Your Inner Critic and Rise Above Social Anxiety by Ellen Hendriksen

Retrain Your Brain: A Workbook for Managing Depression and Anxiety by Seth J. Gillihan, Ph. D

Anxiety: The Missing Stage of Grief by Claire Bidwell Smith

What to keep in mind when feeling anxious…

  • You are not alone. 

    According to the Anxiety and Depression Association of America, anxiety is “highly treatable, yet only 36.9% of those suffering receive treatment” (ADAA, 2022).

  • By slowing your breath, you are signaling to your body that you are not in danger. 

    Your autonomic nervous system has allowed you to outsmart sabertooth cats, but it cannot discriminate between inconveniences such as traffic versus activating you to recognize lethal threats. By slowing your breath, especially during exhalation, you are soothing your nervous system. When someone experience anxiety, they typically take short, shallow breaths. That is the equivalent of quickly turning a light switch on and off, on and off, on and off. 

  • Thinking and breathing are intricately intertwined; when one changes, so does the other.

    If you breathe better, you think better. If you think better, you breathe better, and ultimately, you feel better.

Try these exercises the next time you feel anxious:

You can try them when you are in traffic, at the grocery store, or during a meeting by counting in your mind. You will be amazed at how refreshed and less anxious you feel. When done routinely, slowing your breath will have a cumulative effect on your health. You will not only help reduce your anxiety, but you will also begin to breathe better, and in doing so, improve your heart health, focus, improve sleep, stamina, and other desirable effects.

Imagine your breath as a light switch. When you inhale, the light comes on. When you exhale, the lift turns off. 

Create awareness of your thoughts. One of the easiest ways to focus your awareness of the thoughts creating anxiety is to call them out.  Allow yourself to hear what you are saying. Would you say these things to a loved one? Evaluate the possibility of what you are saying as true. What evidence to have to believe what you are saying is true? Could something else be true?

Box breathing. Inhale for a count of f-o-u-r. Hold for a count of f-o-u-r. Exhale for a count of f-o-u-r. Hold for a count of f-o-u-r. As you are doing this, imagine you are tracing a box in mid-air with your finger. Repeat this exercise four times.

4-7-8 breath for immediate relief (and help falling asleep). Inhale for a count of four. Hold for a count of seven. Exhale for a count of eight. Repeat for five minutes or until you feel less anxious. It is not important how long you do the exercises; it is just important that you do them.

3-6-5 breath (for anxiety maintenance all day). Do this exercise three times a day. Inhale slowly for a count of five, and exhale slowly for a count of five. Repeat this exercise for five minutes.

Coherent breath. Inhale to the count of six. Exhale to the count of six. Repeat for five minutes.

Try journaling. The benefits of journaling are numerous, and combining them with breathing techniques can help reduce your anxiety. Not sure what to write? Try a brain dump. Simply sit down with a blank sheet of paper and a pen or pencil. Set a timer on your phone for five minutes. Open the valve in your mind and let all of your thoughts flow out of your hand and onto the piece of paper. Write all of the lists, words, emotions, and thoughts swirling in your head. Write until you feel like the pressure inside of you has lessened and that you can take a big breath. You can keep writing until your timer goes off.

Focusing on micro-adjustments. Change is hard. When we begin to consider all the change that needs to happen in order to lower our anxiety, the list becomes long and really overwhelming. How do you create lasting change to lower your anxiety? Micro-adjustments. One small change at a time, will help you build the momentum to lower stress and anxiety while making progress.