Top 5 Easy Anxiety Relaxation Techniques You Can Do Now

Are you feeling anxious right now? Do you need a quick and easy way to calm down? We have pulled together our top 5 easy relaxation techniques anxiety sufferers can use right away.

These anxiety relaxation techniques don't require any special training, equipment, or expertise. All you need to do is find five or ten minutes in a quiet area and follow the step-by-step instructions we have detailed below.

What Happens to Your Body When You Are Anxious?

When you get anxious, your body has entered a fight or flight state. You will notice an increase in your breathing and blood pressure, the speeding up of your heart rate, and an increase in muscle tension. This physical response to a high-stress situation is preparing you for either a confrontation or an escape - very helpful to our ancestors, but not particularly useful if we are sitting in a waiting room ahead of a big interview!

This is a natural reaction from your body to stressful situations and will usually become manageable as you become more confident or accustomed to your current surroundings and the situation you are facing.

However, if your anxiety becomes too overwhelming you may start to feel dizzy, nauseous, faint, and find it hard to regulate your breathing. At this point, you will need to use some anxiety relaxation techniques to help you with reducing stress and calming your body down.

How do Relaxation Techniques Work?

Learning some anxiety relaxation techniques you can use when you feel stressed and overwhelmed will help to reduce your blood pressure, relax your tense muscles and slow down your breathing. By using various mental distraction techniques you can take your mental focus away from your current external stressors, which will lead to an easing off of your fight or flight response.

Relaxation techniques can be very helpful in dealing with the heightened emotions associated with high-pressure situations such as overwork, job interviews, divorce, moving house, family arguments, and any other situation which you find extremely stressful.

The relaxation techniques anxiety sufferers find useful include the use of visual imagery, the 54321 technique, body scanning, and physical movement.

Top 5 Easy Anxiety Relaxation Techniques You Can Do Now

Below we have brought together a list of the most simple guides for How To use Relaxation Techniques in the moments when you feel stressed, anxious, and tense. These methods can help to distract you from your external stressors and will lead to an alleviation of your anxiety symptoms.

What is the 54321 Method?

This is one of the most popular relaxation techniques anxiety sufferers find useful. This technique helps you to focus on becoming grounded in the world around you and putting your current worries to the back of your mind. You don't have to move or have any expertise, just follow the simple steps below to get started:

Begin by Breathing Deeply.

Start off by taking some long, deep breaths. Try to extend your breaths so that you end up breathing in for a count of 5 and then breathing out for a count of five. Concentrating on this will help to begin the calming down process.

5 - What 5 Things Can You See?

Look around you and pick 5 things to concentrate on. Look at the desk in front of you, the curtains by the window, the clock on the wall, the shoes on your feet. Take your time concentrating on each object - notice its size, its color, its design, and its materials.

4 - What 4 Things Can You Touch?

Touch the material of the chair you are sitting on. Rub the materials on your shirt collar. What does the mouse mat feel like? How about a mug or a cup? Notice how each item feels, are they hot or cold, heavy or light? How do they feel against your skin?

3 - What 3 Things Can You Hear?

This could be the ticking of a clock, a bird outside your window, or even the humming of the air conditioner. Focus on the sounds that surround you and block out all the other information being fed to your consciousness. Take the item to identify each sound, recognize what is causing it and visualize how the sound is being created.

2 - What Two Things Can You Smell?

Whether it's the smell of your own perfume or cologne, the smell of your lunch, or the soap in the bathroom. You may have to walk around the building a little, but the hunt for two identifiable smells for you to concentrate on will help to distract you from your current external stressors.

1 - What One Thing Can You Taste?

This one may be a bit harder to find, but find something you can concentrate on tasting. Whether it is your cup of coffee, a bite of a cookie, or any other foodstuffs available. Rather than unthinkingly swallowing, take the time to truly notice the taste of your food or drink.

What is the temperature? The Consistency? How does it feel against your tongue? Does the food break down quickly in your mouth or do you have to check it over and over? Break the taste and sensation of taste down to its base elements. Doing this will help to increase your mental distance from whatever is causing your stress.

End with an Affirmation.

After you have followed all these steps you should find that you have become distracted from your current situation and your breathing, heart rate, and dizziness may have lowered a little. End the process by concentrating on one of your strengths. What is there that you can feel proud about at this moment? Are you a kind, nice person? Are you intelligent and capable? Are you a good friend? Do you treat your family well?

Rather than let it be just a passing thought, truly think about this positive aspect, past experiences when this attribute has been helpful and how it will help you to progress in your life in the future.

What is the 3 3 3 Method?

This is a quicker, more streamlined version of the 54321 method which you can quickly employ in a high-pressure situation.

What 3 Things Can You See?

Look around the room, pick a piece of furniture, a book on the shelf, or a lamp in the corner. Study each item and don't rush through recognizing each item.

What 3 Sounds Can You Hear?

Can you hear the buzz of a conversation in the apartment next door? What about the sound of the cars as they whiz by? You can even focus on the sound of your laptop as the cooling fan whirls. take the time to really listen and focus in on each sound to the exclusion of everything else in that moment.

Move Three Parts of Your Body.

Now pick three parts of your body to move. You can wiggle your fingers, lift your foot, and roll your neck, it doesn't have to be anything strenuous or athletic. take each movement slowly and make the time to truly feel and notice each aspect of the movement, visualize how your muscles are moving and how this part of the body relates to the rest. Take the time to appreciate, notice and recognize each element that goes into the movement.

Do A Body Scan & Relax Your Muscles

Close your eyes, sit back in your chair and do a mental scan of your body from your toes upwards. Slowly think about each section of your body starting with your foot - beginning with your toes, slowly move up to the arches of your feet, down to your heel, and then up to your ankle. Then head on up the body.

You don't have to move your body, just focus on each part slowly and with no judgement. Recognize how each part feels and whether there is any pain or tension. Finally visualize a soothing blue light that flows up through each part of the body you are concentrating on, this blue light signals that this part of your body is relaxing and tension can be released. Do not rush through or get frustrated if it doesn't work, just commit to the visualization and follow it through.

By the time you get to the top of your head, you will find that your breathing has slowed, you feel calmer and your body is more relaxed.

What is Visualization Meditation?

Close your eyes and visualize a relaxing and safe place, this could be a quiet, beautiful meadow from your childhood. A relaxing, quiet beach from your last vacation. A cozy, warm nook in your childhood bedroom. Anywhere where you felt truly safe and calm. Then mentally transport yourself so that you are in this space.

Concentrate upon the feeling this scene evokes, how warm, relaxed, safe, and secure you feel in that place. Block out everything else and truly commit to putting yourself in this safe mental space. The more your practice this technique, the more effective it will become.

Stand Up and Move Around

If you don't feel that you can attempt these mental exercises at the moment, then get up and move. Physical exercise and movement can help to release tension and stress building up in your body. You can take a walk around the block, the room, or even jog on the spot.

Wherever you are, there is bound to be some space where you can move around a little.

Remember not to engage in any aggressive behavior when moving, it might feel good at the moment to punch a pillow or cushion, but research has shown this is likely to only increase the emotional stress you feel rather than quiet it.

Practice these Anxiety Relaxation Techniques Even When You Are Calm

To derive the best benefits from these anxiety relaxation techniques and manage stressful situations, you should take the time to practice these techniques even when you don't feel stressed.

Regular practice means that when the next anxiety attack hits, both your mood and body will be accustomed to the process, and the calming down process will go that much smoother and your relaxation response will be quicker. The next time you feel stress hit, you can use one of these easy and simple anxiety relaxation techniques to calm down quickly and effectively.