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Somatic Anxiety--Calming The Body

There are two aspects to our anxiety. There's cognitive anxiety and somatic anxiety. Cognitive is the mental part of anxiety; our thoughts, nervousness, dread, apprehension, worry etc. Somatic deals with the physical side of anxiety. This is the increased breathing, muscle tension, sweating that comes along with anxiety.


Yesterday I went over some breathing exercises to help calm the mind and calm the body. Another great technique to use is called progressive relaxation. This involves tensing and then relaxing parts of your body, progressing through the whole body.


You can start by lying down flat on the floor (or couch or bed) and tensing your legs as hard as you can for 5 seconds. After 5 seconds, relax. Feeling the tension leave your legs as you breathe calmly. You can repeat thos a seconf time if you wish.


Next, tense your stomach for 5 seconds...then relax, feeling the tension leave. Repeat for all areas of your body; your arms, face, hands. Just tense up--hold--release.


While theis will leave your body feeling relaxed, it will also help calm your mind. When you feel calm then you shift your energy. Instead of feeling out of control, your energy shifts to to a more empowering mindset.


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