Mindfulness Practices to Alleviate Daily Anxiety

There are a few things that I do well in my work. One of the biggest ones is working with women with anxiety. 

Anxiety SUCKS. It’s so hard to live with anxiety because it seems we are always trying to get rid of it. Here’s a novel idea…. 

How about you learn to live WITH IT?

It can be done. I’ve seen it happen a lot and I always welcome the day I get fired by a client because they feel like they learned the tools they need and don’t need me anymore.  They learn to appreciate their anxiety (wait, what?) and live with it instead of trying to figure out how to make it go away (spoiler alert: it doesn’t!).

So let me share some of the most helpful tools I share with my clients. 

#1 Box breathing. If you feel you the anxiety is accelerating, you might just need to take a breath. There’s no way to calm yourself faster than to do some box breathing. This is what it looks like…. Inhale in for 4 seconds, pause and hold your breath for 2 seconds, exhale for 4 seconds, pause for 2 seconds, and start the whole process over. You might like to have a couple extra seconds to exhale or inhale. Play with it and see what works for you. Repeat it at least 5-10 times. See how you feel. If you’re still accelerated, do it again or use the next tool called 5,4, 3, 2, 1.

5, 4, 3, 2, 1 is a tool that my clients really like. It’s like an “i-spy” for people with anxiety. This is how it goes:

5- Find 5 things you see in the room. The painting on the wall, the shoes you have on, the desk you’re sitting at, you get the idea.

4- Find 4 things you feel The pressure of your chair on your back. The way one hand touches the other, The upset in your stomach, keep going until you get to 4 things you feel.

3- Find 3 things you hear. The dripping of the coffee pot, the people talking on the radio or next to you, the beating of your heart, the music in the background.

2- Find 2 things you smell. The smell of air freshener, someone’s bad breath, the smell of pine sol on the floor. 

1- Find one thing you like about yourself. Extra points if it’s the purpose of your anxiety without judgement of yourself for having it. Example: I am really worried about this presentation because I care for this work and I want to do a good job. Worried about having a difficult conversation with my partner because I really care about them and want to figure this out together. Stress at work: I want to do the best I can and sometimes that makes me nervous. 

There you go, 2 tools I use that my clients love. They often come to me and tell me how the tool worked for them. And they often report that they keep using it. 

I hope it helps you, too, because helping you is very important to me!