Anxiety is the body and mind’s threat-detection system going off.  It deserves credit for helping the human species survive.  Here’s one way anxiety has been helpful:  alerting us when the connection to a parent is in jeopardy.  Early baby humans who experienced and listened to this anxiety when their play carried them too far away from a parent, likely scampered back to that parent to feel safe and protected again.  This response to anxiety protected them from those unsavory predators who would dine on an unprotected small human with delight.

Anxiety is useful when it alerts us to a bad outcome that has a reasonable probability of happening.  It becomes a problem when it alerts us to a bad outcome that has a really low probability of happening.

From the earlier example, if that kid began to imagine a lot of other -low-probability – threats to the connection to his parent, then he would be full of anxiety nearly all the time.

What happens when we’re stuck in anxiety?

The experience of anxiety is actually tied to the nervous system that gets us ready to fight or flee in the face of threat.  Getting ready for the threat does this to the body:

• Increased heart rate
• Rapid breathing
• Increased saliva
• Muscle tension

These symptoms feel a lot like what happens in anxiety.

How to unhook the body from the anxiety spiral      

There are two ways to reduce anxiety: 1) adjust your perception of what constitutes a threat, and/or 2) interrupt your body’s fight-or-flight response.  You can download my free report for a simple but powerful way to help you adjust your perception of threats.  Here we will review a powerful breathing exercise that can interrupt the body’s anxiety response.

We have a nervous system that acts in opposition to the one – mentioned earlier – that gets activated during the fight-or-flight response.  The job of this nervous system is to calm us down.  This breathing exercise taps into this second nervous system and kicks off a cascade of relaxing experiences.

Benefits of this breathing exercise include:

• A deep sense of relaxation in your body
• Loosening of muscle tension
• Feeling more present in the moment

Empower your nervous system to relax with this breathing exercise

As this photo illustrates, Diaphragmatic Breathing entails expanding your stomach as you breathe in through your nose and exhaling gently through your mouth.  The key to ensuring that you are getting the desired benefit from this practice is to put one hand on your stomach and the other on your chest.  If you are doing this correctly, the hand on your stomach should be moving further away from you than the hand on your chest.

Try to do this exercise 3-4 times per day for 5 minutes.  It is something you can do while driving, riding public transportation, working at a desk, or while lying in bed.  If you can consistently do this in your life, your body will gain more familiarity with the feeling of relaxation and less likely to jump into fight-or-flight mode when you feel yourself getting anxious

Need some help getting a handle on your anxiety?

If so, contact Jay Reid for a FREE 15-minute phone consultation to discuss this issue and find out how I can help. Call me now at 415-944-3628 or Email me

Jay Reid is a Licensed Professional Clinical Counselor (LPCC).  He has several years of experience helping people develop more empowered relationships with themselves and others.