We all know that feeling when we’re anxious but unable to control our minds from racing and calming down. It can be due to uncertainty, disappointment, loss or a certain fear. No matter the reason, or lack of it, anxiety is uncomfortable. Thus, when feeling anxious, it’s important to proactively control your thoughts and mind to prevent the anxiety from escalating. Here are some simple ways you can reduce your anxiety instantly.
Table of Contents
8 ways you can reduce anxiety instantly
- Focus on your breath
- Guided meditation
- Eat the right food
- Take a walk to reduce anxiety
- Distract yourself with a screen
- Listen to soothing music
- Clean and declutter
- Practice gratitude
Focus on your breath
When anxious, your breathing rate shoots up and a quick way for anxiety relief is to control your breathing. Belly breathing is a great way to reduce anxiety. It activates your body’s natural relaxation response and helps you calm down. You end up staying in the moment, and pay attention to your breathing rather than the thoughts racing through your mind. Belly breathing and other breathing techniques are an easy way to reduce anxiety within minutes.
Guided meditation
With guided meditation, the pressure is taken off your mind and all you need to do is listen and allow yourself to feel better. Guided meditation to reduce anxiety involves staying in the moment, understanding your emotions and helps you relax. Just a 5 minute guided audio with Evolve can help you reduce anxiety. In the long run, guided meditation can help you find proper solutions for your anxiety and respond better to what makes you anxious.
Eat the right food
Grab a quick snack or food that comforts you or you enjoy. Eating food is a happy feeling and you have many happy memories associated with food. In case you’re not sure what to eat, snacking on some food that reduces anxiety is a good bet. Some of these include nuts, eggs or yoghurt. When you eat the snack, you can also practice mindful eating to take a break from your thoughts and recharge yourself to feel better. Listen to Evolve’s guided audio on mindful eating today!
Take a walk to reduce anxiety
A small walk when anxious can help you feel much better instantly. Exercise gets the blood flowing and releases endorphins which boost your mood. Pace up and down your room, or walk in your building’s compound. You get a change of scenery and focus on something else apart from your thoughts. You can also practice mindful walking as a way to cultivate mindfulness and reduce anxiety within minutes! Listen to Evolve’s guided audio on mindful walking today!
Distract yourself with a screen
Watching a funny video, a relaxing TV show or anything you enjoy can help ease your anxiety. You end up immersing yourself in a feel-good movie and spend some time in mindful movie watching. This gives your brain a break, allows it to relax and gives you great relief from anxiety. Try using the Evolve app to reduce anxiety, and make your screen time productive!
Listen to soothing music
Open up your phone and listen to a song you enjoy or one that makes you feel happy. you can even sing along or dance a little to take your mind off your thoughts and it’s a great way to beat anxiety in the moment. Listening to calming sounds such as waves against the shore, raindrops or the breeze in the air can also help soothe your anxiety. Moreover, music helps you cope emotionally, making it a great way to process sadness and anxiety.
Clean and declutter
When you’re anxious, there are a lot of thoughts and worries racing in your head. In order to declutter your mind, you can clean and declutter something around you. It’s a great way to be mindful at home too! Pick a surface, your desk or a table and start to rearrange whatever is on it and make it tidy. Slowly pay attention to what you’re moving, how you’re moving it. Look at the object and just observe it. Allow thoughts to come and go as you clean your table or desk. Decluttering your immediate surroundings can help declutter the mind as well. Try our mindful cleaning audio to feel better now! Or try out our declutter the mind audio for anxiety relief in minutes.
Practice gratitude
When anxious, positive thoughts can help. A simple way to do so is to practice gratitude meditation. In your mind, think about what you are grateful for or a person you appreciate and send them a compliment and a positive thought. It will help you see the positive side of things and provide some much needed positivity in the moment to help reduce anxiety.
Remember, you’re not alone. Anxiety is a common issue faced by many and what matters is doing something about it, however small. Reading about it, arming yourself with knowledge and knowing how to reduce anxiety is important, but taking action to reduce anxiety is the best way to feel better. Anxiety can be overcome by practicing these simple tasks whenever you feel overrun. In case you’re prone to anxiety, try and avoid sugar and caffeine rich food and drink. Practicing meditation for anxiety, reading quotes to help feel positive, sleeping better and practicing mindfulness can all help reduce anxiety.
Evolve has a range of guided audios designed to provide instant anxiety relief and help you find solutions to reduce anxiety and stay balanced. The Evolve app is now live globally on Android & Apple, click here to try for free!