How to Calm Down Anxiety

When you experience anxiety symptoms, it can feel as though nothing will help you calm down. But you can learn how to calm down when feeling anxious in many ways. You can apply these things to your life or help facilitate them in the life of a friend or family member when they need to calm down from anxiety.

Centric Behavioral Health offers top-rated addiction treatment centers across the U.S. Contact us today to learn more about how our dual diagnosis treatment can help.

How to Calm Anxiety Down

There are many ways you can learn how to calm down when feeling anxious, and trying them all in times of anxiousness can help you find which one works best for you. 

Use Meditation to Calm Down from Anxiety

Meditation is something that can be practiced in many forms. While it’s common to picture someone sitting with their legs crossed, meditation can be:

• Sitting meditation
• Walking meditation
• Eating meditation
• Driving meditation

Wherever you are, when the symptoms of anxiety emerge, you can find a few minutes to soften your gaze or close your eyes completely and let your attention turn inward. 

If you are feeling physically anxious, walking meditation can help you direct your focus away from a racing pulse or quickened breathing to the impact of your footfalls and a slow counting of “one, two” with each foot. 

If you are experiencing anxiety on your way to a meeting or doctor appointment, you can use driving meditation to focus your inhalations and exhalations on the cars (or their brake lights) in front of you. Driving meditation can look like returning your focus to your breathing and doing a body scan to relax any tension each time you see a stop sign, stop light, or a car passing you. 

Calm Down from Anxiety With Yoga

Yoga goes hand in hand with mindfulness and meditation. The practice of yoga involves assuming physical positions and stretches while focusing on your breathing. Yoga comes in many forms, and even basic yoga can help focus the attention and awareness inside the body on the present moment. 

Basic yoga practice can include chair yoga, where you do light stretching at an office desk chair, or standing yoga when you are waiting in line. These movements draw your attention to your breathing (one thing within your control) and away from anxious thoughts about the future or ruminations about the past. 

How to Calm Down Anxiety with Creative Outlets

For some people, they figure out how to calm down when feeling anxious with creative outlets like:

• Painting
• Clay
• Music
• Animals
• Cleaning
• Sewing

You can learn how to calm down anxiety symptoms with hands-on techniques that require tactile engagement but aren’t too challenging. Some people figure out how to calm down anxiety with the same type of physical activity that isn’t overly stimulating, like cleaning, listening to music, or petting an animal. 

Art

Simple things like painting with watercolors and an anti-anxiety adult water coloring book can give you a sense of control over your immediate environment, which can mitigate feelings of hopelessness or fear about the future. 

Animals

Animals like cats release compounds that actually reduce high blood pressure, which can be particularly effective if you are experiencing anxiety symptoms. 

Music

Listening to music or playing an instrument can change your perception of time, which can help you calm overly anxious feelings and return your breathing to a normal rate. Similarly, singing can increase your oxytocin and endorphin levels, naturally reducing anxiety.

Cleaning

Some people figure out how to calm down anxiety symptoms by cleaning. Things like washing dishes or sweeping have repetitive, calming movements that help lower blood pressure, focus attention on the present environment, and regulate breathing.

How to Calm Down When Feeling Anxious

You might benefit from learning many other techniques at a mental health facility. These facilities can teach you how to build upon meditative skills, yoga, or art therapy. The good news is you don’t have to possess any artistic ability or experience with these holistic treatments in order for them to help you reduce anxiety.

Centric Group can connect you to a facility that will help you figure out how to calm your anxiety. In some cases, your anxiety might be severe enough that it requires medication in addition to these techniques. 

Finding a nearby treatment center can give you options for medication management in addition to more specific forms of therapy to help you cope with anxiety. Centric Group can connect you to high-quality, immersive treatment for your anxiety. 

CTA:

Contact us today at (844) 233-8205 to learn more.