This post is all about finding the right exercise for an anxiety attack.
The moment you get stuck in an anxiety attack, you feel lost and out of control. Your anxiety makes your mind go a million miles a second and your body feels like it’s killing you.
It sucks and there’s no way to change that, but we can try to get our minds off of the anxiety and onto a completely different activity. While it can take practice, it’s also really worth it to find exercises that shift our energy from anxiety to being present again.
Take a look at this list to find the right exercise for an anxiety attack to get you feeling your best again and hopefully find the one that works best for you.
Keep in mind, no matter how painful it is in the moment, you’re not a failure if you struggle to refocus your mind in the middle of anxiety attack.
This post is all about finding the perfect exercise for an anxiety attack.
CALMING EXERCISES:
1. Diaphragmatic breathing
Breathing allows you to focus on regulating the physiological symptoms of anxiety in your body, which benefits your mind and body. You can practice diaphragmatic breathing by breathing deeply through your nose until your abdomen expands.
Then, release through your nose. You can pair this with a visualization exercise, in which imagine the stress leaving your body.
However you approach this deep breathing exercise, put all of your attention on completing filling your abdomen with air in through your nose and exhaling through your mouth. To slow your body down further, hold the exhale longer than the inhale.
2. Progressive muscle relaxation
This exercise works best when you are sitting or laying down so that can fully allow your body to relax without fear of falling or losing your balance. You’ll start with one part of your body, possibly your feet, and squeeze the muscles in that part of your body.
Once they are tense and tight, release. Continue this by moving to other parts of the body (gradually move up the body if you started with your toes).
3. Visualization
The key to visualization is knowing what scene gives you peace. You may already have an image that brings you peace or you may want to find it by playing some calming music, closing your eyes, and seeing where your mind takes you in this exercise for anxiety attack.
Once you know the place you find most calming or peace, go there. Close your eyes and sit up straight. Imagine that place and forget about your surroundings.
4. Mindfulness meditation
Start off small with your meditation. Find a place where you can sit uninterrupted for five minutes. This can be on your bed (make sure you’re sitting up against the wall or headboard), couch, or floor.
Meditation is a skill that takes practice because, with all of the stimulation we get on a daily basis, we’re not used to focusing on ourselves and staying in our own heads without thinking.
You are not your thoughts, which means that, to reconnect with the real you, you need to work on letting thoughts pass through you without claiming them or interfering with the real you. This is why meditation is great tool to as an exercise for anxiety attacks.
5. Body scan meditation
Now that you’ve introduced yourself to meditation, you can combine your meditation practice with body awareness. Body scan meditation aligns your mind and body by noticing how your body reacts to the world around you.
Notice where your body tenses and where you’re experiencing pain. All you have to do is notice it; you don’t have to try and fix it or resent it. Instead, you’re allowing yourself to scan your body for its sensations to get to know your body better.
You can release tension, massage yourself, roll out your joints, but do it from a place of love for your body—because your body deserves it.
6. Yoga
The beauty of yoga is that you can modify it to fit your fitness level and yoga experience. You can use yoga as a gentle stretch to show your body some love or use it as a weight-training activity where you test your body’s limits.
No matter how you approach yoga (and there are tons of videos to watch for guided yoga classes), you always focus on your breathing. Breathing is crucial to any type of exercise you do because you’re literally giving life to your body as you expend it.
7. Tai chi
For those of us who need low-impact exercises to take it easy on our joints while getting the same workout as others, tai chi is a great option.
As with many other exercises for anxiety attacks, we can focus on how our body moves and refocus our energy from our spiraling thoughts to mastering the movements and controlling our breathing.
8. Walking or jogging
Sometimes, when you’re spiraling and your anxiety is getting the best of you, all you have to do is get your mind and body into a different place. This means changing up your surroundings and focusing on where you’re going.
This also means getting your heartrate up. Go for a walk or jog around the neighborhood to reset yourself to change up your environment. Plus, you can release all of that pent-up energy from dealing with anxiety all of the time.
9. Dancing
Turn on the music and get it up high so that you can feel it in your bones. Find that playlist that gets you moving and feeling good. No matter what kind of music you like, this is a chance to dance out the stress and release every part of your body.
Dancing is the one activity we can do that brings us pure joy because we’re appreciating music and it also gets us moving. Remember: 1) exercise is a great way to get ahold of your anxiety and 2) exercise that you enjoy is still exercise because exercise doesn’t need to hurt to be valid.
10. Journaling
Get your thoughts on paper. When you keep anxiety and thoughts swimming around in your head, it can feel like writing them down will only keep you thinking about them more.
But, something happens when you write your thoughts down: you surprise yourself. You get the thoughts out and you learn things about them. You find new connections and you come to new conclusions
11. Gratitude practice
Find three things to be grateful for everyday. Get your phone out or grab a notebook and keep a list. You can even say it out loud, but make sure you make it concrete by saying more than just inside your head.
Try to find unique, small things that happen. For instance, say something like “I’m grateful that my partner brought me coffee today” rather than “I’m grateful for my partner.”
This challenges you a little more when everything in the world gives you lots of reasons to be terrified of the negative stuff happening around you.
12. Creative expression
Define creative however you want. Dancing is creative, drawing is creative, singing is creative, writing is creative—you get the point. You can do lots of things that tap into your creativity, but the trick is to find what works for you.
You can do an activity you like to do or try something new. If you enjoy an activity, go for it because you never have to do it again if it doesn’t make you feel better. Give yourself permission to enjoy trying and possibly failing (because you probably won’t!).
13. Repeating positive affirmations
Positive affirmations can be tailored to your limiting beliefs or they can be general. You can use affirmations like “I can do hard things” or “I’m strong.”
You can also write down a couple of your limiting beliefs. Limiting beliefs are anything that you believe about yourself that keep you from achieving the things that help you grow.
For instance, you could write down “I’m not smart enough,” “My anxiety is stronger than me,” or anything that gets at the root of your fears. From there, you write down statements that directly contradict those and repeat those to yourself daily until you believe them.
14. Visualization with grounding objects
Grab an object near you or one that comforts you and use it o guide your visualization. This combines grounding techniques with visualization to get your mind off the stress of your anxiety attack.
Instead, you can focus on how the objects feels in your hands and focus on that to take your mind elsewhere and away from the spiraling thoughts.
15. Listen to calming music
While you can use this as an opportunity to listen to any music you like, try to find music that has a slow beat or calm lyrics. In a way, you can use this music to meditate and focus on the sounds you’re hearing.
As always, the key to a good exercise for an anxiety attack is to get your mind out of the spiral that goes nowhere. Calming music does just that by giving you something else to focus on and enjoy.
16. Self-massage
Knead your muscles either with your hands or a tool. You can massage your legs and arms with your hands and roll out your back with a tool. Massages work best when you restrict blood flow to a part of your body then release and allow blood flow back.
Work out knots in the areas of your body that can reach and maybe ask a loved one to massage your back and get out the knots you can’t reach.
17. Take a warm bath
Relax your body into warm water, preferably in a tub so that you can submerge and release the tension in your body. Warm water slows you down and penetrates every muscle to release tension in a way that other methods can achieve to the same extent.
You can also find a hot tub to fully submerge yourself and achieve a warmer temperature. Be careful to monitor the length of time you stay in the hot tub, but enjoy the feeling.
18. Connect with nature
Go for a walk in the park, sit on a bench outside, or sit on your front porch. No matter how you get out, do it because we need to interact with nature. Feel the sun on your skin or lay down on some vegetation to relax and enjoy the free therapy that nature can give you.
