8 Simple Ways to Ease Anxiety + Stress
Being too much in our head and not present enough is often the reason why we fall into a stressful, anxious state. We’re worrying about the world, our work, finances and so on, triggering our fight or flight response. But that response was intended to protect us from a tiger, giving us the energy and mental sharpness to save our life. What it was not intended for was for us to worrying about a tiger attacking us tomorrow, or even an hour from now. So what we need to do in these anxious moments is shift our body back to the present, where we are in fact safe. This brings us into our calm, parasympathetic state and allows us to let go of the anxiety. Here are 8 practices that I do to help me get there.
1. Breathwork - The Double Inhale, Slow Exhale
This is probably the least sexy of the anxiety tools — we tend to under appreciate what is free and so available to us, but it really is so powerful. It’s essentially impossible to be stressed while doing breath work, and just a few rounds shifts our body into a calm and restful state.
While there are many different forms of breath work, I like to simplify it. Honestly, breathing in, holding and exhaling for a certain amount of seconds stresses me out a little, go figure. So you can just simplify it by inhaling through your nose into your belly (not chest), and then taking another little inhale, and then slowly exhaling through the mouth making a whooshing sound which allows you to slow the exhale without effort.
The exhale should be slower than the inhale, because this is the part that stimulates a calm state - it’s probably not a coincidence that we sigh out of our mouths when were stressed, huh?
2. EFT Tapping
EFT (emotional freedom technique) tapping is a bit like if you combined guided meditation, talk therapy and acupressure into it’s own little healing modality.
It involves tapping on meridian points on the body, while identifying your emotions, understanding them, accepting yourself and releasing the emotions. It’s different than meditation because instead of trying to find stillness, you’re actively working through the emotions so you can release them.
I use an app called the Tapping Solution which makes it so accessible. Sessions are typically 7-12 minutes.
3. Yoga Nidra Meditation
Yoga Nidra is a type of meditation that has been shown to lower our stress hormones more dramatically than traditional forms of meditation. What’s so different about yoga nidra than other forms of meditation is that you do it laying down, preferably with a pillow under your knees, a light blanket over your body, and a soft silk over your eyes (or eye mask). This allows you to fully relax and be guided into slower, more restorative brain waves.
During the meditation you are shifted down through the different brain waves, eventually reaching delta. Delta is a deeply restorative state that is incredibly healing for the body and mind, and one we spend far too little in, if any at all.
With practice you can be guided to an even deeper state where you fully surrender, essentially loosing consciousness in a waking state. It’s often only seen in glimpses, but those moments cultivate absolute bliss and peace.
Here are two guided yoga meditations I enjoy:
4. Have a Mini Phone Detox
I know, this is a hard one, but so much of our anxiety comes from our phones — from the notifications (which actually trigger the stress response) to being constantly accessible, and the complicated relationship with have with social media. Taking a little break can really help us ground and feel calm. I’ll practice this by turning my phone on airplane for several hours, or deleting my social media apps for the day (or weekend). The first time I did this I honestly did a little happy dance as the relief washed over me.
5. Ground Through your Senses
Feel your feet on the earth, the air on your skin.. what do you smell? Hear? See? Bring yourself back to where your body is, right here, not in the future or the past that your mind is worrying about. You’re safe right here. If you need a little help grounding, use an essential oil to stimulate smell, or hold a cup of hot tea or run your hands under warm water to ground through touch.
6. Take a Walk
Moving your body is like a physical and emotional therapy session. It boosts endorphins, blood flow, oxygen levels, lowers cortisol and stimulates the brain in a new way but calming way. Combine this with #6 and really be present and observant of what you hear, feel, see and smell. It also makes use of number #7 >>
7. Soften your Gaze
One of the reasons that being in nature is so soothing is because it shifts us to a panoramic view, where our eyes are soft, and not focused on one thing in particular. You may recall being told to soften your gaze in a yoga class, and this is the same thing. It stimulates our calm (parasympathetic) state.
A focused view however, triggers our stress response system. Think of it as a lion, watching their pray — their stress response system is high so they can have a boost of energy, move with accuracy, and ultimately catch their dinner. It’s the fight side of the fight or flight response. It’s rooted in our biology. The problem is we evolved to predominantly live in a panoramic view, but what are we doing all day? Looking at screens, and little text on screens, turning this big beautiful world into the size of a quarter. Subtly triggering that stress response all day long.
So what can you do? Soften your gaze. It doesn’t have to be in nature, just look up right now, around the room, softly taking it in without focusing on anything. If this is difficult indoors, step outside and try it.
8. Music + Movement
Combining music and movement, both therapeutic on their own, do a wonderful job of lowering our cortisol (stress response) and boosting happy chemicals in the brain that allow us to snap out of anxiety. It also naturally gets breath involved which is also soothing and detoxifying for our bodies.
Depending on how you feel in the moment, this may look like swaying to a song you love, doing a few sun salutations or cat cows, or really getting down with a high vibe song.