Anxiety is a typical human response to stress, but excessive anxiety can hinder leading a healthy and happy life. If you feel overwhelmed by your anxiety, you can try one or more of the following exercises anytime and anywhere to find relief.
By Maighread Ni Mhaonghail
The aim is to do a few exercises that can quickly help you relax.
Simple exercises can calm your body and mind by addressing the body’s natural stress responses, such as increased heart rate, rapid breathing, or tense muscles, and help replace them with feelings of relaxation.
Breathing exercises can be beneficial when experiencing anxiety. You may notice a faster heart rate, increased breathing rate, sweating, and feelings of dizziness or lightheadedness.
Focus on Your Breath
Sit in a quiet and comfortable place. Place one hand on your chest and the other on your stomach. You should feel your stomach move more than your chest when breathing deeply.
Take slow, deep, regular breaths through your nose, and observe and sense your hands as you inhale.
The hand on your chest should remain still, while the hand on your stomach should move slightly. Breathe out slowly through your mouth. Repeat this process at least ten times or until you feel a reduction in your anxiety.
Counting Your Breath
Counting is an effortless way to ease anxiety. When you begin to feel anxious, find a quiet place to sit, close your eyes, and slowly count to ten while breathing slowly in and out.
If necessary, repeat and count to twenty or more. Keep counting until you feel your anxiety subsiding. Sometimes, relief occurs quickly, but other times, it might take a while.
Stay calm and patient. Counting relaxes you because it gives you something to focus on besides your anxiety. It is a great tool in crowded or busy spaces like stores or trains.
Relax Your Muscles
When you’re anxious, you may feel muscle tension or strain. This can make your anxiety more challenging to manage. You can usually reduce anxiety by relieving the stress in your muscles.
To quickly alleviate your muscle tension during moments of anxiety, sit in a quiet place, close your eyes, and breathe slowly through your nose and out of your mouth.
Make a tight fist, hold it for a few seconds, and pay attention to the tension you feel in your hand. Then, slowly release your fingers and pay attention to how you feel.
You may notice a feeling of tension leaving your hand, and it feels lighter and more relaxed.
Continue tensing and releasing various muscle groups from your hands, legs, shoulders, or feet. Work up and down your body, tensing multiple muscle groups, but avoid tensing the muscles in any area that is injured or in pain.
Visualisation
Relax by visualising. Have you ever heard the expression “finding your happy place”? Visualising a place that relaxes you can calm your brain and body. When you feel anxious, sit in a quiet, comfortable place, and imagine your ideal place to relax.
It can be anywhere in the world, real or imaginary, if it is calming, peaceful, happy, and safe.
Picture all the small details you would find if you were there – the smells, the feelings, the sounds. Imagine yourself in that place, feeling relaxed and calm.
Once you have a good picture of your “happy place,” close your eyes, breathe slowly through your nose and out of your mouth, and focus on your imagined place until you feel your anxiety diminishing. Visit this place in your mind whenever you feel anxious.
PRACTICE
Relaxation is a skill you learn. Like physical exercise, it takes practice. Choose the exercise and try it until you feel less anxious. It’s not a one-size-fits-all, so if one exercise doesn’t work, try a different one.
