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A short-term science-backed tool to lessen your anxiety. Ground yourself. Research shows practicing exercises that activate the parasympathetic nervous system will have helped. One popular way to do this involves pausing and naming five things you can see, four things you can feel, three things you can hear, two things you can smell, and one thing you can taste. Regulate your breathing. Many people think taking deep, sharp inhales will crush feelings of panic, but the exact opposite is true. Over breathing can activate your body's stress response. To truly lower your heart rate and calm yourself, you often need to
breathe less for a time. Try this for just half a minute. Inhale for 4 seconds. Pause for 4 seconds. Exhale for 4 seconds and repeat. Plan a worry window. Banishing worry from your mind is impossible, but you can help break a loop of anxiety by planning a worry window. This is a set time about half an hour long where you can vent your biggest worries on paper. This not only helps you process your emotions, but has a great bonus effect. Whenever your worrisome thoughts surface, you can let them go, reminding yourself that you'll be turning your full attention to them later.
