Let’s Talk About Anxiety, the Other Great Pandemic

7 Ways to Manage Anxiety in Highly Anxious Times

What is anxiety?

Although anxiety looks different for everyone, I like to define anxiety as an inner state of total unsettledness, where you thoughts are living in the past or future instead of the present moment, and your body feels either overwhelmed or underwhelmed. Now of course, we all have different flavors of anxiety, and anxiety can look very different on different days, so the best thing to do before trying to tame it is really reflect on how anxiety shows up for you. How do you actually know you’re anxious? What do you feel in your body when it shows up?

I think we spend a lot of time trying to get rid of anxiety, because in general, anxiety doesn’t feel good. But i’d like to bring a new approach to anxiety; one where anxiety is welcomed and listened to instead of avoided and instantly diagnosed as a problem. I think anxiety has a lot to teach us, about what our deeper fears are, what our needs are, and what in our world might need some extra attention or shifting.

With this in mind, I’d love to share a few tricks on ways to calm your nerves, manage anxious times and possibly even help someone else with anxiety, instead of just getting rid of it. I think learning how to listen, tolerate and manage anxiety can create space for more acceptance, more compassion and a whole lotta learning about ourselves.

1. What are you putting in your body?

Although this isn’t a quick trick, it’s probably the most effective when it comes to anxiety management techniques.

Alcohol, caffeine, nicotine, highly processed foods/sugars, low water intake and low exercise all have dramatic impacts on anxiety (and depression and other mood concerns).

Although a much more complicated topic in general, it’s always wise to first bring awareness to these things and see where you can make some shifts when anxiety is peaking, or appears constant. Anxiety lives inside the body, so when we don’t create the most optimum home for peace, anxiety can stay for much longer than we would like.

When anxiety begins to rear its ugly head, take stock of what can be adjusted in your routine and create a plan. My personal plan always includes upping my water intake, cutting alcohol and sugar, decreasing my caffeine, and attempting to move my body for at least an hour that day, in whatever way feels right. Some days that might be punching a pillow, others days it might be a dance party with my son. No judgement.

Here are some simple questions to reflect on to see where you can make some small shifts to get things moving: What are you eating and why are you eating it? What food make you feel your best and what foods slow you down? How late are you having caffeine in your day and how do you think this is impacting your sleep routine? How often are you moving your body? How often are you creating stillness? How much screen time do you have in your day and can you decrease this for a bit? How much news are you taking in?

Making small changes like moving your body, drinking some water and toning down the coffee can create major shifts in our bodies natural ability to manage anxiety, and it doesn’t cost a dime!

2. The Five Senses

One of my favorite tricks to help calm nerves and ride the anxiety wave is to bring awareness to all five of my senses. When we are lost on the hamster wheel of overthinking, we can feel totally disconnected from the present moment, our bodies and our environment. So bringing awareness to all five of your senses can create space in between each racing thought, drop you back into the present moment, and give yourself a chance to ground.

Start with what you can see; look up, look around, look behind you. Notice colors, notice textures, take it all in deeply.

Then notice what you can feel. Can you feel your feet on the ground in your shoes? Can you touch a nearby plant or your clothes? Notice shapes, softness, roughness.

Now move into what you can hear. Can you separate the sounds? Your children in the other room maybe? The sound of the birds? Your breath? Can you make your breath louder than the rest of the sounds perhaps?

Then onto what you can smell. Smell has a dramatic impact on bringing us into the present moment. It’s partly why smells often trigger old memories. Smell as many things as you can sniff out.

Then finish with what you can taste. This might not be many things, but spend time here for a moment. If you happen to be eating, slow down the process and taste each distinct flavor.

Once you do this, you can rinse and repeat a few times until you feel yourself back into your body and back in the moment, with a little more space to breathe.

3. Weight

Weight is one of the most comforting things we can bring into your anxiety relief action plan. Part of the reason a hug can feel so comforting is because of the physical weight of it. This is also why people love being in the water, like the ocean, because of the sheer weight and pressure of the sea.

So when anxiety comes knocking, find something heavy to put on your lap or eyes. I love a weighted blanket or weighted eye mask for this, but heavy books can do the trick too. Also, any kind of water is a great tool for this, since water is both a way to feel weightless and experience weight on you. Get into a pool or a bath, and zone in on the feeling of weight. Let the weight be heavier than your anxiety. This gives your nervous system the signal that it’s safe enough to slow down the internal engine and bring you back into cruise mode.

4. Breathe

You’d be hard pressed to find a list on how to manage anxiety without reading about the power of your breath, because it’s just that good. When you can make you breath louder than your thoughts, you can truly begin to take back the control. Breath is the ultimate key to slowing down the nervous system, and can get us out of that panic pattern we feel so helpless in.

So breathe, long, slow and loud.

My favorite breath trick is the oldest in the breath book, called 4–7–8 breath. Yogis and healers alike have been using this for generations, and it has science now to back it up.

Simply inhale deeply, through your nose for 4 seconds. While doing this, place the tip of your tongue gently on the roof of your mouth.

Hold here for 7 full seconds.

The release through your mouth like your blowing out hot soup for 8 full seconds, and don’t be afraid of looking silly or making a noise here.

If you can, choose one word that represents what you want to create more of in this moment, that you will say to yourself while you inhale, and one word for exhaling that you want to rid yourself of. For example, inhale “calm” and exhale “fear”.

Repeat until you feel your body come back down earth.

For those of us who need help learning to breathe through the anxiety, I highly recommend using a technique called cold plunging. Since most of us don’t live near ice ponds, a cold shower or bathtub filled with some ice-cubes will do the trick here.

Immersing your body in cold water will light up your anxious thoughts and reve the panic engine at first, so in order to stay in the water, you have to force your body to take in long, slow, deep, breaths, while talking yourself down and breathing through the discomfort. This is an excellent chance to practice staying with the panic, reminding yourself that you're safe, and taking back control of your breath, even when it feels hard. Start with 3 minutes and work your way up to however long you can.

You also get a huge rush of neurotransmitters that gives you a boost for your mood and immune system, along with a whole other laundry list of health benefits, so this is a two for one deal.

5. Set a timer for worrying

Ok, one of the more unorthodox techniques but I love this one for all of us planners out there. If you notice you are at the mercy of your worrying mind, and the thoughts appear to be filling up your entire day, set a time and plan to worry.

Literally, set aside some time and worry to your heart’s desire in your allotted worry session. I usually like to start with about 15 minutes, and during this time, I force myself to get really clear on everything I need to worry about for that day. Run through all the hypotheticals, fantasize about everything that could go wrong, really get into it. I suggest writing along side of this as well, so you can track what you are feeling and thinking. When the timer goes off, your worry time is done.

Now it’s time for action. Once you have finished your time, choose one action item that you can do in that exact moment to move you through whatever you were worrying about.

Throughout your day, if you find yourself getting back into the worry spiral, remind yourself that you can save that for your worry session, and attend to it when the time and space has been created for it.

6. Laugh

Laughter is the great equalizer, and we forget about this trick constantly. Laughing is a fantastic way to shift the energy up a bit, and bring in a moment of perspective and ease. When I notice I haven’t laughed in a while is usually when i’m in the middle of a major anxiety spiral.

Find a stand up comedy show, watch that stupid movie you love, Google “cat jumping in and out of box”. Whatever gets you giggling. It’s so simple, and so effective. And remember, this isn’t about distracting us from anxiety, we are allowed to feel two things at once. We can have our anxiety present and still have a moment to smile. Just because we laugh doesn’t mean our worries are invalidated, there is just some space between that and our joy.

Our brains actually can’t tell the difference between contrived happiness and actual happiness. So when you smile and laugh, your brain thinks “happy time” and triggers all those great happy hormones we are needing a dose of. I like to think that this is where the phrase “fake it till you make it” comes from.

7. Earthing

Look, we wake up in air conditioned homes, surrounded by dry-wall, put on our microchemical clothing and rubber shoes, drive to work, sit in office buildings, stare at screens and then come home to do it all over again. We spend so much of our time with zero actual engagement with nature. We might see the office plant on the corner of our desk, but how often are we getting up close and personal with nature outside of our amazing summer vacations?

The concept of earthing is the reason that sand between our toes feels so good. Earthing is the reason we can fully relax when sitting in ocean water. Earthing is why those in nursing homes tend to have longer lifespans when surrounded by trees. Earthing is connecting us back with what is right here, right now.

So take off your shoes and walk outside. Lay down, look up. It sounds silly, but hug that damn tree. Earth is energy, just like we are, and we soak it up when we walk through it. Get as big ass dose of it.

Anxiety is telling you to live in the past or in the future, and earth is telling you that right now, right here, is the best place you can possibly be. Trust that.