Have you ever woken up with your heart already racing, your mind spinning through tomorrow’s to-dos before your feet even touch the floor? Or found yourself mid-panic attack, desperately Googling “how can I calm down right now?” while your breath comes in short, shallow gasps?
You’re not alone. Anxiety doesn’t announce itself politely or wait for a convenient time. It crashes into your morning, interrupts your workday, and keeps you awake at night. And when it hits, you need solutions that actually work—not just generic advice to “relax” or “think positive.”
The truth is, stopping anxiety and lowering anxiety in the moment requires understanding what your body is actually trying to tell you. Because anxiety isn’t just happening to you—it’s happening through you, showing up in specific places in your body for specific reasons.
In this guide, we’ll explore practical, evidence-based techniques for discovering your anxiety, understanding where it lives in your body, and most importantly—how to ground yourself when your thoughts are racing and you need relief right now.
Before we dive into the different types of anxiety and where they show up, let’s start with the most powerful tool you have available at any moment: your breath.
Notice your breath right now. Are you holding it? Is it shallow, caught high in your chest? This is incredibly common when feeling anxious. Your nervous system has shifted into a state of threat, and shallow breathing is both a symptom and a perpetuator of that state.
The good news? Changing your breath can change your state.
One of the most effective breathing techniques for anxiety is Three-Part Yogic Breathing, also called Full Yogic Breath. This practice systematically engages your entire respiratory system, sending powerful signals of safety to your nervous system.
Here’s how it works:
Part 1: Abdominal Breathing Inhale slowly through your nose, allowing your belly to rise and expand fully as your diaphragm engages. This deep belly breath is crucial—it activates your parasympathetic nervous system, literally signaling to your brain that you’re safe. When you’re anxious, you tend to breathe shallowly from your chest. Returning to belly breathing reverses this pattern.
Part 2: Thoracic (Ribcage) Breathing Continue inhaling, guiding the breath into your ribcage. Feel your ribs expand outward, creating space and softness through your torso. This middle phase of the breath helps release tension you might be holding in your mid-body.
Part 3: Clavicular Breathing Finish the inhale by gently filling the upper lungs, allowing a subtle lift through the chest, shoulders, and collarbones—without creating tension. This completes the full breath cycle.
Then exhale slowly, reversing the process: releasing from the upper chest, then the ribcage, then the belly.
Practice this for just 5-10 cycles, and you’ll notice a shift. Your heart rate will slow. Your thoughts will become less frantic. Your body will begin to settle.
The key is consistency. Start checking in with your breath throughout the day—not just when you’re anxious. Every time you notice shallow breathing, gently return to deeper belly breaths. This creates a new baseline for your nervous system.
Let’s be honest: when a panic attack is coming on, reading about breathing techniques can feel completely inadequate. Your heart is pounding, your chest is tight, you might feel dizzy or detached from reality, and your mind is screaming that something is terribly wrong.
First, know this: what you’re experiencing is your nervous system’s alarm bells going off. It’s uncomfortable, it’s scary, but it’s not dangerous. No one has ever died from a panic attack, though it certainly can feel that way.
Here’s what to do in the moment:
1. Acknowledge What’s Happening Instead of fighting it or telling yourself you “shouldn’t” be feeling this way, simply acknowledge: “I’m having a panic attack. This is anxiety. It will pass.” This simple act of naming it can create a tiny bit of distance between you and the experience.
2. Return to Your Breath Even if it feels impossible, focus on extending your exhale. Breathe in for a count of 4, hold for 1, then exhale for a count of 6-8. The extended exhale is key—it activates your vagus nerve and helps shut down the panic response.
3. Ground Yourself Through Your Senses When your thoughts are racing and you feel disconnected from reality, the 5-4-3-2-1 technique can anchor you back into the present moment:
This technique works because it forces your brain to engage with sensory information, pulling you out of the anxious thought spiral and back into your body.
4. Move Your Body If you’re experiencing that restless, trapped feeling, gentle movement can help discharge the anxious energy. Walk, stretch, shake out your arms and legs, or do some gentle swaying. Movement signals to your nervous system that you’re taking action, which can interrupt the freeze response.
Here’s something most anxiety advice misses: not all anxiety is the same. Understanding where you feel anxiety in your body can help you understand what it’s trying to tell you—and more importantly, how to address it.
Anxiety often shows up because something hasn’t been said, acknowledged, or expressed yet. It’s “something in the hiding,” and often it’s a combination of different types, making it difficult to pinpoint exactly what’s pushing you over the edge.
Once you’ve discovered the source of your anxiety and where it lives in your body, it becomes much easier to ground yourself. You can direct your breath and attention to those specific areas, working with your body instead of against it.
Do you feel a pit in your stomach? Nausea? A churning, unsettled feeling in your belly?
This type of anxiety is future-oriented. You’re anxious about what might happen—tomorrow, next week, next month. Your mind is projecting into scenarios that haven’t occurred yet, and your solar plexus (the area around your stomach and upper abdomen) is responding to these unreal but consuming fears.
This type of anxiety can escalate into full-blown panic attacks, hyperventilation, or a complete sense of falling apart.
How to ground yourself: The antidote to future anxiety is presence. Come back to this moment—right now, in this exact second, what’s actually happening? Usually, in the present moment, you’re okay. You might be uncomfortable, but you’re not in immediate danger.
When practicing your breathing exercises, focus on breathing deeply into your belly. Feel your abdomen expand fully with each inhale. Imagine breathing space, calm, and steadiness into that churning center.
If you’re familiar with yoga or energy work, practices that open and balance your solar plexus (yellow chakra) can be particularly helpful—gentle twists, core work done mindfully, and poses like Warrior III that build confidence and groundedness.
Throughout the day, keep asking yourself: “Am I here, or am I in the future?” Every time you catch yourself projecting, come back. Feel your feet on the ground. Notice what you’re doing right now. Focus on who you are in this moment, not who you might be or what might happen later.
If your anxiety lives in your head—racing thoughts, constant mental chatter, endless self-criticism—or if you feel it stuck in your throat, unable to speak or express yourself, you’re experiencing pressure-based anxiety.
This type often involves going through your day with relentless self-judgment. You replay conversations, second-guess decisions, worry about what others think, and feel paralyzed by insecurity. You might become very quiet, losing your ability to express yourself authentically. This is completely paralyzing and can keep you stuck or push you toward depression.
How to ground yourself: This anxiety is asking you to release pressure and judgment. It needs expression.
When breathing, focus on your throat and crown areas. Breathe into the tightness, imagining your breath creating space where there’s constriction. On the exhale, visualize releasing all that judgment and pressure.
Practices that open the throat and crown chakras (purple/violet energy centers) can help—gentle neck rolls, shoulder releases, lion’s breath (sticking out your tongue and releasing sound), and any practice that involves vocal expression or creative release.
Journaling can be incredibly powerful for this type of anxiety. Get those racing thoughts out of your head and onto paper. You don’t have to solve anything—just express it.
Does your chest feel tight? Does your heart race without clear cause? Do you feel haunted by past experiences, carrying a fear that “it will happen again”?
This is trauma-based anxiety. Something from your past is still living in your present, and your nervous system is on high alert, scanning for danger. This type is usually felt in your chest and heart area, and it often arises because you’re unconsciously putting yourself in similar or triggering situations—not to retraumatize yourself, but so you can learn and heal from it.
How to ground yourself: This anxiety needs safety and gentleness. Forcing yourself to “get over it” won’t work.
Focus your breath on your heart center. Place your hand on your heart and breathe into it, slow and steady. As you breathe, silently reassure yourself: “I am safe right now. That was then, this is now.”
Heart-opening practices—gentle backbends, chest stretches, and poses that open the front body—can help release stored trauma. But go slowly. If you feel overwhelmed, back off and return to grounding.
Consider working with a trauma-informed therapist or somatic practitioner if this is your primary anxiety pattern. Past trauma often needs professional support to fully process.
Do you feel it deep in your gut—a pulling sensation, like you’re being torn in two directions?
This duality-based anxiety arises when your body wants one thing and your mind insists on another. Part of you knows what you really want to do, what feels authentic and right, but another part is bound by responsibility, obligation, or “shoulds.”
This internal conflict is exhausting. It can leave you feeling completely drained, unable to move forward in any direction.
How to ground yourself: This anxiety needs integration and honest decision-making. You can’t keep living in the split.
Breathe into your sacral area (lower belly, below your navel). As you breathe, get curious: What does my body actually want? What am I afraid will happen if I listen to it?
Sometimes the answer isn’t to completely abandon responsibility, but to find creative solutions that honor both your authentic desires and your commitments. Other times, you realize you’ve been living by someone else’s “shoulds” for too long.
The key is stopping the internal war. Make a decision, even if it’s just for today, and notice how that brings relief.
Do you feel jittery, fidgety, unable to sit still? Is the anxiety more like restlessness that lives in your arms and legs?
This is the least intense form of anxiety, but it’s still uncomfortable. It’s your body’s way of saying: “Move me! I need to discharge this energy!”
This typically arises from too much sitting—hours at your computer, binge-watching TV, or other static activities. Movement is life, and when we’re sedentary too long, anxious energy builds up with nowhere to go.
How to ground yourself: The solution is simple: move. Go for a walk, dance, do jumping jacks, shake it out. Your body will tell you what it needs.
This type of anxiety doesn’t require deep psychological processing—it just needs physical release.
Now that you understand the different types of anxiety and where they show up, you can create a morning routine that sets a calm, grounded tone for your entire day.
Morning anxiety is incredibly common. You wake up, and immediately your mind starts spinning—all the things you have to do, all the things you didn’t do yesterday, all the ways you might fail today. Your nervous system is already dysregulated before you’ve even gotten out of bed.
A gentle, embodied morning practice can interrupt this pattern and help you start from a place of regulation instead of reactivity.
Combine the Three-Part Yogic Breathing we discussed earlier with free, intuitive movement. This means moving in whatever way feels supportive, safe, and natural for your body.
As you maintain the breathing pattern—belly, ribs, upper chest—allow your body to move. Stretch, sway, roll your shoulders, twist gently, or simply pause and feel. There is no right or wrong way to move.
The key is listening. What does your body need this morning? Where are you holding tension? Where do you feel that anxiety gathering?
If you’ve identified that your anxiety tends to live in your stomach, spend more time breathing into that area. If it’s in your throat and head, incorporate movements that open those spaces.
This practice is especially helpful if you’re experiencing:
The beauty of this routine is that it’s flexible. Some mornings you might move more vigorously, shaking out that restless energy. Other mornings you might barely move at all, staying in gentle stretches while you breathe deeply into areas of tightness.
Come back to this practice whenever you need grounding, calm, and connection—whether in the morning or anytime anxiety arises throughout your day.
Creating a morning routine is powerful, but lowering anxiety long-term requires building awareness throughout your entire day.
Remember: notice your breath. Are you holding it? Is it shallow? It tends to be when feeling anxious.
Make it a practice to check in with your breath regularly. Set reminders on your phone if needed. Every time you transition between activities—closing your laptop, getting up from your desk, getting in your car—take three deep belly breaths.
As you build this awareness, you’ll start catching anxiety earlier, before it builds into a full-blown attack. You’ll notice: “Oh, I’m breathing shallowly. I’m tensing my shoulders. I’m clenching my jaw.” These are your early warning signs.
When you catch them early, you can intervene early—returning to your breath, moving your body, or addressing whatever that anxiety is trying to tell you.
Here’s what I need you to understand: you can’t stop anxiety from ever arising. That’s not how nervous systems work. Anxiety is information. It’s your body and mind trying to tell you something—something needs to be said, something needs to be released, something needs to change.
The goal isn’t to eliminate anxiety entirely. The goal is to develop a different relationship with it.
Instead of being terrified when anxiety shows up, you learn to recognize it: “Ah, there you are. What are you trying to tell me today? Where are you living in my body? What do you need from me?”
When you approach anxiety with curiosity instead of judgment, everything shifts. You stop fighting against yourself. You stop feeling like you’re failing because you’re anxious. You start working with your body instead of against it.
Discovering your anxiety—understanding its source, where it lives, what it’s asking for—is the first step toward genuine calm. The breathing techniques, the grounding exercises, the morning routines—they all work better when you’re not just trying to suppress anxiety, but actually listening to it.
Move gently. Breathe deeply. Trust your body.
These aren’t just comforting words—they’re the actual practice. Your body holds incredible wisdom. When you slow down enough to listen, when you breathe into the places that hurt, when you move in ways that feel good—your nervous system begins to settle.
You don’t need to figure it all out today. You don’t need to “fix” your anxiety or never feel anxious again. You just need to practice coming back—to your breath, to your body, to this moment.
That’s how you ground yourself when your thoughts are racing. That’s how you calm down right now. Not by forcing yourself to relax, but by meeting yourself exactly where you are with gentleness and breath.
The next time anxiety shows up, remember: it’s not your enemy. It’s information. Listen to it, breathe into it, and trust that your body knows how to find its way back to calm.
You’ve got this.
