What happens in your body and mind when anxiety strikes? How can you transform those uncomfortable feelings into something more manageable?
In Think Faster, Talk Smarter, Matt Abrahams explores three different types of anxiety symptoms and provides practical strategies to handle them. His approach breaks down anxiety into physical, emotional, and mental components, offering specific techniques to address each one.
Keep reading to discover proven methods that can help you stay calm and focused when anxiety threatens to take over.
Types of Anxiety Symptoms
When you face a spontaneous situation that demands you perform, anxiety can cause you to spiral into panic and lose your train of thought. In these moments, it’s important to manage the emotions that threaten to derail you. We’ll discuss three different types of anxiety symptoms (physical, emotional, and mental) and share Abrahams’s tips for overcoming this anxiety.
Physical Symptoms of Anxiety
According to Abrahams, anxiety can cause your breathing to quicken and increase your body temperature, making you feel increasingly panicked.
Overcome Anxious Behaviors
To alleviate these physical symptoms of anxiety, try two strategies Abrahams recommends:
- Slow your breathing. Focus on making your exhalations twice as long as your inhalations. Abrahams explains that when you take long exhales, you reduce the carbon dioxide in your body, which has been shown to calm your nervous system.
- Cool your body by holding something cold in your hands. Your hands help regulate your body temperature, so this will prevent excessive sweating and redness.
| What Happens When You Fear Your Fear Response? When you view the physical symptoms of your threat response (such as fast-paced breathing) as a threat, you can enter a spiral of panic, otherwise known as a panic attack. This response is even more likely when the symptoms of your threat response come on unexpectedly and without an obvious cause. When this happens, the physical effects of your threat response may cause you to think something bad is happening to your body and lead you to worry for your safety. = Although panic attacks aren’t dangerous, they’re uncomfortable and can prevent you from performing aspects of your daily routine or attending important events that you think might cause a panic attack. When panic attacks become recurring, it’s called panic disorder. One treatment for panic disorder is cognitive behavioral therapy, which can help you adjust your threat response appropriately for nonthreatening triggers. Slowing your breath can alleviate symptoms of anxiety, but it’s important not to overdo it. In The Oxygen Advantage, Patrick McKeown explains that excessive exhalation can reduce the carbon dioxide in your body too much. Your body needs carbon dioxide to transfer oxygen from your blood to your muscles and organs. Without sufficient carbon dioxide, and therefore sufficient oxygen, your muscles will become exhausted. McKeown recommends breathing through your nose to avoid heavy breathing and better regulate the amount of carbon dioxide you exhale. Cooling your body with cold water or ice is another intervention that relieves the physical symptoms of anxiety. Aside from helping regulate your body temperature, as Abrahams mentions, coldness can also distract you from the anxiety you’re experiencing, helping you calm down. |
Emotional Symptoms of Anxiety
Facing anxiety without a strategy for handling it can exacerbate your fears and create a spiral of increasingly debilitating anxiety. When this happens, you can lose your confidence and your train of thought. Abrahams explains that while you can’t eradicate your anxiety, you can manage it.
Overcome Anxious Emotions
To prevent your anxiety from sending you into a negative spiral of fear, try these two tips Abrahams offers:
1) Practice mindfulness. Recognize that anxiety is something you’re experiencing, not something you are. By observing your anxiety with intentionality and objectivity, you’ll separate yourself from your symptoms, which can help you stay calm. (Shortform note: Research shows that mindfulness can also increase your brain’s gray matter, which is associated with improved memory, learning, and empathy.)
2) Reframe anxiety as excitement. By doing so, you’ll give yourself a sense of control over the situation, which can help ease the overwhelming feeling of anxiety. When you’re anxious, try repeating a mantra to yourself, such as “This is exciting.”
| Change Your Mindset on Stress In The Upside of Stress, Kelly McGonigal explains that the most important determinant of your response to stress is your mindset about your ability to handle a situation. A mindset is a set of beliefs that influences your perception of reality. If you don’t believe you have the resources necessary to handle a situation, you’ll induce a threat response. McGonigal provides two strategies that help you cultivate confidence in your ability to handle stress well. Like Abrahams, McGonigal encourages reframing stress to help you cope with and overcome difficult situations. She references a study showing that reframing your stress response as something helpful and empowering enables you to perform better than if you have no stress response. McGonigal explains that a positive mindset shift triggers a beneficial type of stress response called a challenge response. This response activates when you feel called to perform but you don’t perceive that your life is at risk. So, instead of feeling afraid, you feel confident. To adapt Abrahams’s mantra strategy during such situations, you could repeat a mantra that reframes stress to invoke a challenge response. For example, when you’re stressed, say to yourself “This is empowering.” |
Mental Symptoms of Anxiety
Abrahams says that anxiety can steer your thoughts in a negative direction, escalating your anxiety. For example, imagine you become nervous when asked about yourself at a dinner with your partner’s family. As you struggle to gather your thoughts, you might become self-conscious about how long you’re taking, and you may begin to tell yourself that everyone at the table thinks you’re awkward or weird.
Overcome Anxious Thoughts
To keep anxious thoughts at bay in your day-to-day life, consider following these two tips from Abrahams.
1) Repeat a positive, self-affirming mantra. This can combat the negative self-talk that takes over in moments of doubt. For example, you might repeat to yourself the reason behind whatever you’re doing.
(Shortform note: Kelly McGonigal suggests keeping your highest values present in your thoughts to drown out your fearful thoughts and help put your stress into perspective. To do this, consider her suggestion to place a reminder of your values on a bracelet or key chain, or try writing about those values. For example, if your highest value is your family, consider making a bracelet that lists your family members’ names or putting a picture of them on your phone’s lock screen.)
2) Normalize anxiety. Realizing how normal anxiety is can prevent it from overwhelming you. Remind yourself that most people would also feel anxious in the situation you’re in. (Shortform note: Another way to help normalize stress is to increase your awareness of other people’s struggles. McGonigal suggests practicing this by regularly recognizing that the people you’re interacting with have their own private fears and concerns. Next, realize there are many people in the world who feel just like you do. Embrace this invisible community.)
