During times of stress, we often sense our heart racing, jaw tightening or stomach churning — feelings that end up heightening our negative emotions. Soon, it becomes a vicious cycle where your body and your thoughts magnify each other.
The good news is that you don't have to let that happen. By tapping into your body's innate ability to calm itself, often within minutes, you can improve how you feel and get better at warding off stress symptoms before they strike.
As a clinical psychologist, I work with many patients who struggle with panic and other anxiety disorders. I teach them some of my favorite strategies for easing the physical signs of stress so they can face challenging situations more effectively. Here are five to try:
Relax your face with a half-smile
If stressful moments trigger tension in your face and jaw, you may be used to clenching your facial muscles when you feel stressed. Your facial expression can also influence your emotional experience. For instance, studies have shown that Botox injections, which erase stressed brow and forehead lines, ease tension headaches and help blunt negative emotions.
In lieu of Botox, try a technique known as half-smiling, often used in dialectical behavioral therapy, which improves people's ability to accept and cope with distress. Raise the upper corners of your lips slightly, which automatically releases tension in the brows.
Mindfully relaxing your face and adopting a serene expression brings on calm from the outside in, paving the way for accepting what you are facing.
Comfort yourself with touch
From the moment we are born, touch is a source of comfort, for instance, holding the hand of a loved one. You can replicate that ease by placing your right hand above your heart and your left hand on your belly, which reduces levels of cortisol, your body's main stress hormone.
In one study, participants who used the hand-on-heart technique after giving a short speech or counting backward from 2,043 in increments of 17, both stressful situations, showed a faster reduction in cortisol than those who didn't use the strategy. Psychologically, this subtle self-compassionate gesture is also a nice reminder to bring kindness to yourself in hard moments.
Expand your gaze
When the body's fight-or-flight response to stress kicks in, your pupils dilate, narrowing your field of vision and making it hard to find perspective, literally and figuratively. But if you can intentionally adopt a more panoramic view, for instance, by noticing three sights in the distance, it's easier to feel less sucked into what seems challenging.
Improving your point of view, among other reasons, may explain why brief walks in nature can boost your mood. Looking beyond your stress (or your phone) to find a broader view can also free you from ruminating on all that's wrong and even pave the way for more gratitude for what is in front of you and your senses. One study found that brief visual distractions such as looking at colorful slides can free people from getting stuck in distressing mental loops.
Breathe through your nose
Gently closing your lips to breathe through your nose has surprisingly rich physiological benefits. While stress is associated with high blood pressure, nasal breathing lowers blood pressure and improves heart rate variability.
When you breathe through your nose, your lungs extract oxygen more efficiently so you can take deeper breaths. Your nose is also a powerful filter, purifying the air you are ingesting, which can lead to better immunity. Breathing though your nose also improves sleep apnea and sleep quality, a boon since fatigue makes everything feel more stressful.
If you need extra help remembering to nose-breathe, James Nestor, author of "Breath: The New Science of a Lost Art," recommends applying a postage stamp-size square of surgical tape to the center of your lips as a reminder, whether at your desk by day or when going to bed at night.
Practice welcoming panic
Instead of succumbing to stress-fueled symptoms, you can prepare for challenging situations in advance and reduce stress.
Take a few minutes to brainstorm the most common sensations you feel when you are stressed — butterflies before a work presentation, breathlessness when you are flying or shakiness because you are overwhelmed. Then try some of these sensations when you are in a safe environment. For instance, you might bring on sensations of breathlessness and panic by slowly spinning in a circle for a minute, then intentionally hyperventilating, rapidly inhaling and exhaling for a minute. Let yourself feel the sensations for a few minutes, then repeat the next day for several days in a row.
By intentionally re-creating your body's usual stress response, you will come to see that even unpleasant sensations, while distressing, are temporary, which robs them of their power to rattle you. Then, when physical symptoms of stress show up in higher-stakes situations, you will find it easier to uncouple them from catastrophic interpretations.
This technique is formally known as interoceptive exposure, and if it feels daunting to create ways to reenact your panic, try working with an expert in cognitive behavioral therapy.
Many of my patients who have struggled with stressful sensations have found that, with the right strategies and some practice, they can approach their life with more courage than they imagined.
If you know how to lean on it, your body can be your best pharmacy.
