#🧰 # body tools to overcome anxiety ![[calendar-plus.svg]] <small>Mar 10, 2023</small> | ![[calendar-clock.svg]] <small>Mar 18, 2023</small> 🏷️[[anxiety]], [[self-care]] Ten body-oriented tools to overcome anxiety. These are useful when your [[take your emotional temperature|emotional temperature]] is at a 6 or higher to calm the physiological response to the point where you can use a more [[mind tools to overcome anxiety|cognitive approach]]. With all of these tools you are using your body to shift your physiology by down-regulating your nervous system. ### 1. Exercise Cortisol and adrenaline are released when we're feeling stressed. In a real threat situation, those chemicals would be used up as we ran away or fought the threat. When the threat is imagined and we're not actually running away or fighting, those chemicals have no where to go. The best way to deal with them is to 'sweat them out.' - HIIT - Bodyweight exercises - Yoga - Walking ### 2. Self-soothing through touch Use our largest sense-organ, skin, to tell the body we are safe. Break up tension in the muscles to create a relaxation response throughout the body. - Massage - Hugs - Cuddling - Petting an animal ### 3. [[Self-havening]] Psycho-sensory therapy that can help create a sense of calm in the body. Using touch to separate negative emotion from an experience or memory. Petting yourself in a particular way creates a soothing sensation that translates into a delta brain wave frequency. You can pair self-touch with a brain-tricking activity. - Stroking arms down from shoulder to elbow - Stroking hands from wrist to fingertips - Stroking forehead from center to temples ### 4. [[Butterfly Taps]] Cross your arms and alternate tapping your hands on your shoulders or over your chest. ### 5. EFT - Tapping Set of exercises where you tap points in a particular order while repeating affirmations. ### 6. Forward folds Folding your body forward activates your [[vagus nerve]] and brings more of your body lower than your heart, so your heart doesn't have to work as hard to pump blood. Stimulates the [[parasympathetic response]] in the body. ### 7. Singing, chanting, or humming You can stimulate the vagus nerve by creating sound that reverberates in your throat through singing or chanting. ### 8. Water therapy Can use sound of water, scents of bath oils, and warmth of water to create a calming response in the body. ### 9. [[Pranayama (breathing exercises)]] Every inhale stimulates your [[sympathetic nervous system]] and every exhale stimulates the [[parasympathetic nervous system]]. To calm yourself, focus on the exhale and make it longer than your inhale. ### 10. Soft belly Combine visualization and affirmation with breathing. Put your hands on your belly and try to send your breath into your belly. --- ## Sources [[20 Tools to Tame Anxiety - Good Life Project]]