Hi everyone! I want to end my blog for the semester by providing calming techniques that help me to relax when I feel anxious. I stumbled upon a great article by Healthline that provides some other techniques as well.
- Breathing
If you can, lie down with one hand on your chest and one on your stomach. Feel your breathing and become aware of it. If you are unable to lie down, just focus on that one task: breathing. Much of the time when I start to have an oncoming panic attack, I realize that I am holding my breath but that only worsens the situation.
- Visualizing
We’ve all heard people say, “go to your happy place.” Well, this is true. Close your eyes and visualize a place that you feel safe and happy. When faced with stress, visualize this place and all its details.
- Muscle Tension
Just like with holding our breath, sometimes we tense our muscles as a response to anxiety. To calm your muscles, sit and begin by clenching your hands to make a fist. Release your fist slowly and feel your muscles relaxing. You can continue this exercise with any muscle, but I have found that tensing up calf muscles work great too.
One of the hardest things to do in an anxious situation is to be aware enough to think of doing these exercises and then perform them. It definitely takes practice and mental strength.
Find an exercise that works best of you. It may be a combination of these or just one may do the trick! For additional exercises, please refer to the article below.
https://www.healthline.com/health/anxiety-exercises#thought-cycle
Let’s work to calm our anxiety to keep it from consuming any more of our valuable time.
Understanding Anxiety Disorders 