Tools to fight anxiety
#Here and now reflections
From stage fright to panic attacks or fear for the future
Anxiety, at its core, is a fear of the future. It's when an event hasn't happened, but you're already worrying about how it'll be afterwards, what they’re going to say, or what the outcome will be.
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Anxiety can manifest as simply as a need to control and foresee future events, or have everything organised and planned. In other words, it is often an instinctive tendency to reduce uncertainty. In more urgent forms, anxiety shows as trouble falling asleep, overthinking, a sense of impending danger for no reason, constant thinking of a subject with decreased ability to concentrate, and other forms. In the most acute version, it's a panic or anxiety attack.

To feel better, it's helpful to get back to "here and now". Depending on the person, context, and situation, some methods would work better than others. Here is a toolbox for different types of anxiety. Hopefully, you'll find some of these techniques helpful!
Three parts
Body
Body-oriented techniques for situational anxiety
Mind
Cognitive tools for future-related anxiety
Panic attacks
Tools for acute anxiety
Disclamer
Anxiety can be part of a bigger picture. Always talk to your health provider if you have serious concerns.
Part one: your body
It is impossible to be thinking about the future while focusing on bodily sensations. It is one of the reasons yoga and other forms of movement bring peace. Such techniques are particularly useful when one needs to calm down fast. Think job interviews, first dates, or before going on stage. Here is what you can do:
Body-oriented techniques
If you are in touch with your body, these may be the most beneficial.
  • Breathing exercises
    You can do "Breathing in squares". Or instead, breathe as if through a straw: breathe in through your nose, slowly breathe out through your mouth. Or just observe how you're breathing: how deep, how fast, from your belly or upper chest.
  • Tighthen up as a coil
    Contract all your muscles and lean very heavily against a chair, wall, or floor for a few seconds. Then breathe out and relax as much and as quickly as you can. Repeat 2-3 times. This technique is sometimes used by professional athletes before important shots.
  • Active movement
    Jump, shake-dance, or run! Energise intensely for a couple of minutes. Let it all out!

    For some, dancing, yoga, or stretching would feel better.

  • Walk extra slowly
    For a few moments, move your feet veeeeery slowly and notice every part of each move. Focus on the ground under your feet. By the way, pacing is an often subconscious form of this, in a way.
  • Image you're a tree
    Stand up, think about how your feet are on the ground, and imagine yourself as a tree. Breathe slowly, think about what tree you are, where you are, what your roots are, etc.
  • Something else
    Getting back to your body, in any form, grounds you. Perhaps you have your own way to shake some tension off.

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Part two: your mind
Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) has many "if I think X, I should do Y" tools. Such techniques are helpful when anxiety is distracting but not existential. For example, when the uncertainty of an outcome or the anticipation of an event bothers and distracts you.

Important to understand: behind anxiety, there is always fear.
First, a reminder: "nothing has happened yet" might help you mentally get back to the here-and-now.

Second, you may want to honestly evaluate what exactly you're afraid will happen and why it would be a big problem if it did. Here, talking to someone you trust might help. Or you may find it calming to create a plan for one or two scenarios that you're afraid of. Such thinking can easily bring a sense that the fear is valid, but the situation you're imagining is less likely than it seems.

Next, it often helps to find what you can control and where you have a choice in a given situation. This has to do with the nature of anxiety, which tends to go away when you are in control.

Lastly, for some of us, meditations and mindfulness practices work, especially when it is difficult to fall asleep. For example, you can do a body scan.
Disclamer
This article is intended only to provide practical tools for non-clinical conditions.
Part three: panic attacks
Panic attack is the most acute form of existential fear. Inside a severe panic attack, the person feels as if they are dying at that very moment. As inconvinient and scary as it sounds, panic attacks are not life-treatening. A ligher form is an anxiety attack, which can last for anything from a few minutes to a whole day. Panic and anxiety attacks need tools that give quick relief.

  1. Breathing in squares and any other breathing exercises
  2. Call out objects of one colour around you: green plant, green sweater...
  3. Call out what you're sensing at that moment: I smell garlic, I touch the dog, I see your eyes, I taste my tea, I hear car noises...
Remember, a panic attach is not as dengiorous. Approach it as something to ride on, like a surf or a horse. Also, it helps to decrease tension if not try to stop the attack, but wait for it to pass. If you managed to get through one before, you'll manage this one too.

If you are someone next to a person who is having a panic attack, help them to apply these techniques and please do not just ask to calm down.
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This article is written entirely by a human summarises my expertise as a Gestalt practitioner, my personal experience, and my education. I don't claim every tool would work for everyone. And it is indeed not the full list of what can help with anxiety. I hope to provide new ways of thinking and new entries for a toolbox of what can be done. Nevertheless, I encourage the reader to think responsibly. Anxiety can have many reasons, and sometimes it needs medical attention, medication and specific interventions. In other cases, going to therapy helps the most.

Yulia Belozerova
Gestalt Counsellor
November, 20 / 2025
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