The 7 Best Coping Skills For Anxiety

Anxiety affects a little over 18 percent of Americans every year. It is the most common mental health struggle and causes people to go to the doctor 3 to 5 times more often than those without it. To some extent, anxiety is normal. Our brains are built to use anxiety to protect us and prevent harm. However, left unaddressed and to become severe can have long lasting impacts. Therefore, it is important that we learn ways to cope with anxiety and prevent it from impairing our everyday lives.

Below are 7 of the best coping skills and techniques for anxiety. They are great to utilize in conjunction with mental health therapy. I recommend trying them all when anxiety is not at its highest so that you can set yourself up for success. Rate your levels of stress before and after the exercise. After that, you can identify which you liked best and were most effective for you. What works for one person may not work for another. In addition, it can take a wide range of time to get the results you want. Don’t give up if it takes longer than anticipated or feels awkward at first.

1. Deep Breathing

Many people who struggle with anxiety tend to hold their breaths. They may even feel tightness in the chest, which can make it hard to take deep breaths. Therefore, make sure to breathe into your belly and in a way that feels comfortable. Research has shown that our heart rates increase as we inhale and decrease as we exhale. Therefore, extending our exhale (at least for 7 seconds) will help our bodies relax and reduce anxiety.

2. Mindfulness Practice

Mindfulness is the practice of bringing your focused attention to the present moment without judgement. You can incorporate it into practically any activity throughout your day (e.g. eating, walking, and even cooking!). Simply notice the details of what is happening in the present moment. If your mind starts to think about anything that’s not in the present moment, redirect it back to what is happening in the here and now (stop the “monkey” mind). If you’d like some guided mindfulness exercises, look up Thich Nhat Hanh’s books, audio, or website at Plum Village.

3. Exercise

The benefits of exercise for mental health have been researched time and time again. Just 3 days of exercise a week for 45-60 minutes at a time can significantly reduce anxiety and depression. Furthermore, it has shown to reduce chronic pain, memory issues, and cognitive decline. In addition, any type of exercise is better than none. Start with walking or stretching if that is all you feel up for. Then gradually increase the intensity and frequency of the exercise until you have reached your goal. The CDC recommends 30 minutes of exercise 5 times a week, but you can work up to what you feel is achievable for your body (let’s be realistic).

4. Connect With Loved Ones

Unless you’re an alien reading this (if so, stop reading), you’re a social creature that needs human connection. Even introverts are affected by a lack of social connection at some point. In addition, when researchers like Brene Brown studied what makes people happy, they discovered that connection is the key (not that house or fancy car). What does connection look like? It can be talking about your day and laughing together, but more powerful ways to connect are by being vulnerable and having physical contact. For instance, share about your fears and anxieties with your loved ones. Hug them for longer than normal. It is proven to increase feel-good hormones in your brain (and they’re free!).

5. Utilize Your Creativity

Did you know that you can get a degree in art or music therapy? Cool, right? To be able to work through trauma and intense emotions without even having to talk about it is amazing. Not to mention, you can have fun with it! Ask any artist if creativity helps them deal with anxiety or other difficult feelings and they will say “definitely!”. That’s because It gives our feelings a physical form and a place to go outside of our minds. Moreover, creativity helps us turn our pains into something beautiful.

6. Practice Muscle Relaxation

You may have noticed that anxiety causes tension in the body. That’s because the mind is sending signals to the body that it needs to prepare for fighting, running (flight), or “playing dead” (freeze). Luckily, there are ways to relax our muscles and help our brain realize that there is no real threat and there’s nothing that needs to be done (except of course, live our life in peace). One way you can do this is by starting at the top of your head and going down every muscle to consciously relax it. Some people prefer to tense the muscle first, to help notice the difference to when it is relaxed, and some simply play close attention to softening each muscle. Regardless, find which body relaxation exercises work best for you.

7. Laugh

If you haven’t noticed, I TRY to use humor in my everyday life. It sounds so simple, yet when anxiety is high it can feel impossible or even irritating to laugh. Nevertheless, consciously choosing to incorporate humor is a fun and effective tool for reducing stress and anxiety. It activates a different part of the brain and helps to shut off the parts of the brain that have been activating the anxiety. So go ahead and listen to a comedy act, watch videos on tik tok, read jokes, or anything else that makes you laugh.

I hope this article has inspired you to try these tools out and challenge anxiety. Know that it can feel awkward at first, but gets easier to do these tools over time. In addition, I recommend finding which of these techniques works best for you and utilizing them every day. They keep anxiety away when it’s gone and reduce your stress levels when it’s there. Anxiety is a part of life, but we don’t have to let it get to extreme levels before taking action. And If you need help with implementing these tools or bringing anxiety down to manageable levels, I’d be happy to help. Psychotherapy gets down to the root of the problem in a way that coping skills do not.

Vanessa Palomera is a licensed mental health therapist who helps clients clear the root of their anxiety via video / telehealth visits. Her office is out of Flower Mound, Tx but she is licensed to see clients in California, Texas, and Florida.

If you have been struggling with anxiety and are ready to start feeling better via our effective treatment modalities, please contact us. We offer a free consultation to see if we are a good fit.