Taking care of yourself when anxiety hits
3 grounding techniques that will help you step out of the anxious spiral or whenever you’re feeling overwhelmed.
If you are someone who experiences anxiety you’re probably familiar with the overwhelming sense of your mind becoming foggy and your thoughts confused, struggling to make even seemingly simple decisions, tunnel vision and logical reasoning just not being possible. You might often get sweaty palms, your breath gets fast and shallow or you feel like you can’t move from the spot. At times, this might be accompanied by dizziness and nausea and maybe a tingling sensation in your hands or feet.
Your body is in the stress response, or what’s also known as the fight-flight-freeze response. It’s been triggered by something that your brain has perceived as a threat. More often than not, there is no actual risk to your safety, but something about your past experiences has led your brain to assess certain situations as threats. Of course, looking for what’s causing your anxiety while you're in the midst of it is impossible. For those times, it’ll be much more helpful to have tools and strategies that support you in regulating your nervous system and help you feel safe again. Knowing you have some internal resources to reach for in case anxiety hits out of the blue can prevent it from escalating. Having these strategies in your toolbox can help you feel less anxious about getting anxious because you know what to do if it happens. The more you experience being able to access your own internal support, the more empowered you’ll feel and your anxiety will become more manageable.
Come back to the present moment
Our anxiety is often related to our fear of what might happen in the future or as a consequence of something happening right now. Because we are programmed for survival, our brain is constantly on the lookout for anything it recognises as danger and by activating our stress response (fight-flight-freeze), it’s trying to keep us safe. However, sometimes this response gets triggered even in situations where we are actually safe. It could be that something about what’s happening right now, is a reminder of a time or place where we faced an actual threat to our physical, emotional or psychological safety. We may also hold beliefs that certain things are unsafe based on what we’ve been taught in life by people or circumstances. In such cases we’re experiencing a response to either something from our past or an imaginary, and potentially unrealistically catastrophic, scenario. While this is going on, our whole body is reacting as if the risk to our safety was real. What we are struggling to stay in touch with is the present moment, where we are actually safe. Coming back to the here and now can therefore provide the necessary grounding that helps us regulate our nervous system and stop our anxiety from escalating.
3 grounding techniques:
1. Use all your senses
Engaging your sense of touch, smell, sight, hearing and taste is a useful technique to help yourself come back to your body and the present moment. Grab hold of an object (a pendant, ring, pen, water bottle, cup, anything available) and really feel its surface, shape, temperature, texture and name these in your mind. Another way to engage touch is by feeling the texture of the clothes you’re wearing or the material of anything around you (sofa, cushion, table). Look around and name 5 things you can see and describe them in your mind - “I see a tall brown lamp, a colourful painting”. Or look for a specific colour, such as 3 blue objects I can see right now and again name them in your mind. Focus your attention on any sounds you are noticing. Can you hear the traffic? Are there birds singing outside? Is it raining? What smells are you noticing and is there a taste in your mouth perhaps after having a coffee earlier? By using your senses to notice details about the present moment, you’re connecting to what’s happening right here, right now and becoming more grounded. This calms your nervous system. Logical thinking, self-reflection and decision making gradually become more available and you can take the appropriate action. This may be removing yourself from a situation that feels unsafe or recognising that you are, in fact, safe.
2. Abdominal breathing
Deep abdominal breathing is something you can practise regularly as a way of preventing a build-up of stress in your body, but it can also be a really useful strategy for times when your anxiety is escalating and you might be starting to feel panicky. Symptoms such as dizziness, tingly hands and feeling disoriented are often linked to shallow breathing that many people experience when feeling anxious. Breathing deeply into your belly for a few minutes will help your body distribute oxygen more evenly, it will connect you to your body and stimulate your nervous system in a calming way by triggering the relaxation response. To practise abdominal breathing, put one hand on your belly and relax your abdominal muscles - let the belly flop. Take a deep breath through your nose and focus on directing it into the lower part of your lungs (as low as you can) as if you were breathing all the way down into your belly. Count to 4 (if possible) while taking this deep breath and feel your belly go up as it’s filling with air. As you breathe out through your mouth count to 4 again and feel the belly go down. While breathing out, you can imagine letting all of your muscles relax and flop. You might find counting to 4 too hard at the beginning, so do what’s physically comfortable and notice how your breath progressively slows down. Do at least 5 breaths or continue for as long as is comfortable.
3. Move your body
Another simple way of providing regulation for your nervous system, that is always available wherever you are, is by engaging in gentle rhythmic movement. This can be either from side to side such as rocking from one foot to the other rocking back and forth while sitting down. Walking can also have the same effect and if it’s possible to do your walk outdoors in nature you’re receiving another added layer of support. As you’re moving from side to side, back and forth or walking, focus simply on each movement at the time. For example if you are walking, keep your attention only on putting one foot in front of the other. This will provide a sense of control over your body, while the rhythmic movement is helping your nervous system settle into a tolerable level of arousal. Focusing on your movement will also help you move away from any unhelpful catastrophic thoughts or self-judgement that can be contributing to your anxiety. By gently moving your body, you’re once again connecting more to what’s happening in the present moment, your breathing is likely to slow down and deepen and it will become easier to step out of the anxious spiral.
Anxiety “management”
The above mentioned techniques are not only useful when you’re being swept off your feet by anxiety, but also as a way of preventing the symptoms from getting worse in the long run. Finding ways of regularly taking care of your overloaded nervous system is an important part of the “management plan” for anxiety. There are other long-term self-care strategies that benefit people who suffer from anxiety (I will explore some of them further in future blogs). These include regular dynamic physical exercise, yoga, mindfulness practices, creative and expressive activities, ensuring regular down-time, as well as time for play, active relaxation and of course healthy sleep and eating habits.
Understanding your anxiety, knowing how to support yourself when it strikes and how to take care of yourself long-term are important steps towards a fulfilling life. Self-care is not a luxury, but a necessity, especially if your life is impacted by anxiety.
Download the free Guide for Processing Emotions to help you get started on learning how to process emotions in a healthy way. This will support you in preventing a build up of emotions as well as using coping strategies that can be unhelpful in the long run.
