Anxiety is your body's alarm. Your heart beats faster, your breathing gets shallow, and your thoughts go looking for the danger. When the danger is real, the alarm helps. When it goes off with nothing dangerous happening, or never switches off, it becomes anxiety.
Two findings offer hope for everyday life. A review of nearly a hundred research syntheses, covering more than 128,000 participants, found that physical activity reduced anxiety, low mood and stress, and the more intense the activity, the bigger the effect. And in a randomized trial, people who were given a fixed half hour a day for their worries worried less, and slept better, after two weeks.
Choose your approach based on how your anxiety shows up:
- Movement if the worry sits in your body.
- A fixed worry time if the worry keeps coming back all day.
- Your body in the moment when the alarm goes off.
- Approach what you avoid in small steps, if you want to go further.
A first step today: take a brisk 20-minute walk, at a pace that leaves you a little out of breath.
If anxiety is taking over your daily life, or you have panic attacks, talk to a doctor or other health professional. There is treatment that helps. If you're having thoughts of not wanting to live, call your local emergency number.
Almost everyone feels anxiety at some point. It's your body's alarm: your heart beats faster, your breathing gets shallow, your stomach tightens and your thoughts search for the danger. When the danger is real, the alarm helps you. When it goes off with nothing dangerous happening, or when it never quite switches off, it becomes a burden. This article explains what anxiety is, what research says about two things that help in everyday life, and four ways to get started. It's no substitute for professional care. If anxiety has taken over your life, there is treatment that helps, and it's worth seeking out.
The alarm without a fire
Stress and anxiety are connected, but they aren't the same thing. Stress is a response to demands that exist here and now: a deadline, a sick child, too much at once. Anxiety can linger after the demands are gone, and it's often about something that might happen. A lot of stress over a long period can make the alarm more sensitive, so it goes off more easily.
What keeps anxiety going is often the very thing we do to escape it. We avoid what scares us, seek reassurance, check one more time. That brings relief in the moment, but it also teaches the body that the danger was real, and the next time the alarm gets louder. That's why much of what helps is about teaching the alarm that it can switch itself off.
- The alarm Something feels dangerous, and your body sounds the alarm.
- The avoidance You avoid, seek reassurance or check one more time.
- The relief It brings relief in the moment.
- The lesson Your body learns that the danger was real. The next alarm gets louder.
What helps teaches the alarm that it can switch itself off.
Movement reduces anxiety
In 2023, Singh and colleagues reviewed 97 syntheses of randomized trials, more than 1,000 studies in total with over 128,000 adults: healthy people, people with mental health conditions and people with chronic illnesses. Physical activity reduced anxiety, low mood and stress compared with usual care, with moderately large effects. The more intense the activity, the greater the improvement. Shorter programs produced more benefit than long ones, perhaps because they're easier to stick with.
Many of the syntheses had weaknesses, so the numbers are uncertain. But the direction was consistent, and it matches what many people feel: a body that gets to wear itself out is calmer afterward. How to get started is covered in the guide to starting exercise.
Give your worry a fixed time
Worry, those recurring "what if" thoughts, is the thinking side of anxiety. In 2013, McGowan and Behar randomized 53 people who worried a lot. One group was given a fixed half hour a day, in a set place, when they would deliberately worry, and was told to postpone worries to that time when they came up at other times. The other group was advised not to avoid their worries when they came.
After two weeks, those with a fixed worry time worried less, were less anxious and slept better than the other group. The study was small and the researchers call it preliminary, but the technique is easy to try. More about the difference between rumination and thinking is in the guide to stopping rumination.
Four ways to handle anxiety in everyday life
There's no single approach that works for everyone. Choose based on how anxiety shows up for you.
Movement. For you if your worry sits in your body: restlessness, tension, a racing heart. Move enough to get a little out of breath, several times a week. A brisk walk, a run or a strength workout all count. First step: take a brisk 20-minute walk today.
A fixed worry time. For you if your worry keeps coming back all day. Pick a half hour and a place, not your bed. When worries come up at other times, write them down and tell yourself they'll have to wait. When the time comes, go through the list. Some of them will already have lost their grip. First step: decide on the time and place for tomorrow's worry time right now.
Your body in the moment. For you if your alarm goes off suddenly. Breathe calmly, with a longer exhale than inhale, and name what you see, hear and feel around you, five things of each. Remind yourself that the alarm passes on its own, even if it feels like it never will. First step: practice the breathing for five minutes today, while you're calm, so you know it when you need it. How to do it is explained in symptoms of stress.
Approach what you avoid. For you if you want to go further, and this is the most demanding path. Make a list of situations you avoid because they make you anxious, from easiest to hardest. Start with the easiest and stay in it until the anxiety begins to drop, again and again, before moving on to the next one. This is the foundation of several of the treatments health professionals offer. If your anxiety is severe, do this together with a health professional rather than on your own. First step: write the list today, and pick the easiest situation to try this week.
When anxiety takes over
Anxiety that persists, that makes you avoid more and more things, that disrupts your sleep, work or relationships, or that comes as panic attacks, is something a doctor or other health professional can help with. There is treatment that works for many people, and it's not something you have to solve alone.
A panic attack can feel like a heart attack, with chest pain, shortness of breath and a feeling that you're dying. The first time, or if you're unsure, get medical help right away. If you're having thoughts of harming yourself or of not wanting to live, contact a health professional the same day or call your local emergency number.
A first step today: take a brisk 20-minute walk, then write down a number from one to ten for how your worry feels.
If worry is affecting how you see yourself, the next part of the series is about how to build better self-esteem.
This is the understanding and a first step. Atlas is where it becomes a habit. Under Inner State you'll find Calm breathing for the moments when your body revs up, Inner weather, where you can see which times and days tend to be hardest, and What do I need?, which helps you answer that question in the moment. Try Atlas free for 7 days, and cancel whenever you like.