Mindfulness Exercises for Anxiety

Anxiety isn’t “bad” – it’s actually a perfectly normal response to our stressful lives (especially these days.) But sometimes it starts to feel like our anxiety is controlling us, and for those moments, we have these simple mindfulness exercises for anxiety that you can do anytime, anywhere.

Some quick practices for anxious moments

When I ask my meditation classes who has felt anxious that day, usually everyone raises their hands (including me.) ✋🏽 To me, the best question to ask about anxiety is not: “Why are we anxious?” (because, uhhhh duh) but: “How can we work with your anxiety?”

This is a big part of why I wrote the book EFF THIS! Meditation. I want it to be a handbook of practices that can be used to work with anxiety and other difficult emotions. The book has meditations, breathing practices, and many more hands-on ways to directly care for ourselves–and all of this is *without* blaming ourselves for feeling tough feelings.

Here are three practices from my book that are especially helpful for anxious moments:

5–7–8 BREATHS

•inhale to a count of 5
•hold to a count of 7
•exhale to a count of 8
•rest
•repeat five times

No one even has to know you’re doing it; you can do it in a meeting or in the car. If it feels good, you can let the counts become longer as you go. This practice reduces heart rate and helps ground us into our bodies. I do it a lot myself.

SEE-HEAR-FEEL

This is a quick trick to connect you to the present moment. Take a deep breath and just notice:

•Three things you see;
•Three things you hear;
•Three things you feel.

Feelings can be physical, emotional, or energetic. Take a deep breath and re-engage, more fully present.

EAR PULL

This grounding exercise can help you relax into your body quickly.

With your elbows pointed forward, put your thumbs inside the middle part of your ear, and place your four fingers behind the ear. Gently pull on your ear, in whichever direction and with whatever amount of pressure feels good to you. Do this for a full minute, then end with one slow, deep breath.

If you are a visual learner, feel free to watch the video below to see this short practice in action.

Remember: anxiety is not a character flaw. It means you’re reacting to the world around you. And let me be sure to say it: meditation is not a cure for anxiety, although can be truly helpful. So can other things like medication, talk therapy, etc–whatever truly helps and supports.

If you are interested in apps that can help with anxiety, check our blog post: 5 Apps For Anxiety. We also have a free Body Scan Meditation script you may find helpful.

xo,