The Anxiety Reset: Your Emergency Calm Kit.
Below are 11 Simple Somatic Techniques to Stop Anxiety in Its Tracks
If your anxiety levels have reached new heights, or you simply are tired of feeling overwhelmed and overstimulated, these 11 simple somatic hacks work well for both kids and adults.
Hint: want a good night’s sleep? Try a few of these 30 min before bedtime!
Breathe Through Your Feet - Place your bare feet on the ground and imagine the soles of your feet breathing in fresh air from the earth. When you direct attention to your feet, you're moving activation away from the hyperactive prefrontal cortex and into sensory-motor areas. This alone interrupts the anxiety loop.
Legs up the Wall - This isn't just a relaxation technique - it's creating measurable changes in blood pressure, heart rate variability, and stress hormone levels within minutes. You're using position and gravity to directly influence your autonomic nervous system for deep relaxation.
Weighted Sensation - Deep pressure provides strong, clear proprioceptive input, which is inherently organizing and calming to the nervous system. When your brain receives clear information about your body's boundaries and position, it can relax its vigilance.
Upward gaze is linked to improved memory retrieval, particularly positive memories, and reduces the negative bias often found in sadness or depression.
Bilateral stimulation - Alternate tapping your knees, shoulders, or doing butterfly taps on your chest. The cross-body movement engages both hemispheres and can interrupt the anxiety response within minutes.
Voo breath - Take a deep breath and exhale while making a "voo" sound, feeling the vibration in your chest and belly. This activates the vagus nerve and signals safety to your nervous system.
Cold water on the face - Splash cold water on your face or hold an ice cube. This triggers the dive reflex, which immediately slows heart rate and shifts you out of sympathetic activation.
Orienting - Slowly turn your head side to side, pausing to notice 5 things you can see in different parts of the room. This brings you into present-moment awareness and out of the anxiety loop in your mind.
Push against a wall - Press your hands firmly into a wall and push with your legs engaged for 30 seconds. This completes the body's fight response cycle and discharges activation.
Humming or sighing - Long exhales with sound activate your parasympathetic nervous system. The vibration of humming is especially calming to the vagus nerve.
Shake it out - Literally shake your hands, arms, then whole body for 30-60 seconds. Animals do this naturally after threat - it releases held tension and completes the stress cycle