10 EXERCISES FOR ANXIETY IN CHILDREN AND ADULTS - ARTE - 2025

Some of the best exercises for anxiety are relaxation techniques, meditation, diaphragmatic breathing, mindfulness, sports, thought stopping and others that I will explain in detail in this article.

You may be a person who is overwhelmed by anxiety, you find that it dominates your life or that it makes you unable to be yourself because it takes over you. Although sometimes you notice that it is out of your control, you can make use of some techniques or exercises that will help you cope with it and that will allow you to find peace of mind.

Anxiety is a response that the body has to a stressful stimulus and that produces a reaction in the body by activating the nervous system, so that the person through fight or flight tries to cope in order to survive.

Thus, we must distinguish between normal (and adaptive) anxiety and pathological anxiety. Anxiety is an adaptive body reaction that helps us survive.

What we generally call anxiety (when people say "I have anxiety", "is a person who tends to anxiety"), refers to more chronic stress. We thus find anxiety disorders, where we can highlight generalized anxiety, social phobia or specific phobia.

Normal anxiety is adaptive and allows us to cope optimally with dangerous stimuli. However, the pathological condition exceeds the ability of the body to adapt and a maladaptive response occurs.

Normal anxiety is characterized by appearing when the stimulus is real (it is not an imaginary stimulus) and also its reaction is qualitatively and quantitatively proportional.

10 recommended exercises to reduce anxiety

Below I will show you 10 exercises or tips that you can put into practice to manage your anxiety, either in the short term or in the long term.

It is important that you know that managing anxiety requires energy, so if you see that you need help, it is advisable to go to a psychologist to deal with the problem in a professional way.

1- Diaphragmatic breathing

Diaphragmatic breathing can be a very useful exercise in dealing with anxiety. To practice diaphragmatic breathing you must be constant and do it several times a day. You should find a quiet moment, close your eyes, and if possible, find a comfortable seat.

To do this, put one of your hands on your stomach and the other on your chest, so that you can realize that you are breathing deeply.

Many of us breathe shallowly. To know that you are breathing deeply, you must make sure that the hand on your stomach is the one that swells. In this way, you will be breathing with your lungs.

When you have one hand on your chest and one on your stomach, close your eyes and begin to breathe in deeply, so that you notice how the stomach swells while the chest remains intact.

When you have inspired, hold the air for a few seconds and slowly release it, so that the chest continues without moving and the stomach gradually deflates.

When you have learned to breathe deeply, it is a matter of practice to perfect it. In addition, each time you must do it more slowly and carefully, inhaling slowly and counting at the same time 5 seconds.

You put your hands, and you breathe in counting 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5. Once you have done the inspiration, hold the air for about three seconds and you release it, slowly, counting again 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5.

It is a good technique because it will help you provoke a state of relaxation, but it is important that you know that as a good technique, it requires practice. Also, you should start doing it at times when you feel calm.

It is best to breathe in through your nose (not through your mouth), although if you feel more comfortable in the other way, do it as you prefer. You should practice several times a day, between 2 and 3 times and around 10 minutes in several sequences.

Once you feel that you master it, you can practice it at different times and situations and in different positions and you can stop counting from 1 to 5 because you will already master it.

You can make a record of your breathing where you indicate the time of day you do it, your previous anxiety level, if it has been easy for you to breathe and relaxation at the end.

2- Jacobson's relaxation technique

To reduce anxiety you can also use relaxation techniques, which, in the same way as diaphragmatic breathing, help you control it. One of the most used relaxation techniques is that of muscle tension and relaxation, for example, the Jacobson relaxation technique.

The progressive Jacobson relaxation helps the person relax deeply and helps to achieve a state of mental fullness reducing anxiety, since it allows greater self-control.

The first phase consists of, by muscle groups, tensing the different parts of the body for a few seconds (approximately 7 seconds) and then each muscle group relaxes for approximately 21 seconds.

In this way, the person begins to discern the feelings of tension from those of relaxation and generalizes it. Little by little, the muscle groups can be grouped together.

When the person already masters it, he has to do it mentally. You can end up imagining something relaxing (a positive scene or image) or a word that transmits calm to you such as "calm", for example.

It is important that you repeat it several times a day.

3- Practice mindfulness

Mindfulness or mindfulness can help you manage anxiety and feel more relaxed and calm. When we speak of being and being mindfulness, we refer to the ability to live in the present. It is about perceiving and being aware of what is happening the moment it happens.

To do this, you can do several things. Start by choosing several activities throughout the day that you are going to do in a Mindfulness way: for example, the shower and breakfast.

So what you should do while you shower is pay attention to that, to the shower. With all the senses you can, pay attention to the activity you are doing and do not let the mind go elsewhere.

Your mind will tend to think and think and you will go away from what you are doing at all times. However, in a gentle way, take your mind and bring it back to what you are doing in the moment.

In addition to choosing these activities, another thing you can do is choose several short moments a day to start with and put your mind in Mindfulness mode.

Take a comfortable seat, sit down and close your eyes and pay attention to your breathing. Notice how the breath enters your nose and how it leaves Let it serve as an anchor. And if the mind goes away, gently refocus it on the breath.

It's about finding these moments of relaxation several times a day. First, in situations where you are calm and, little by little, you can generalize it to moments where you are anxious.

4- Pleasant activities that make you enjoy

Sometimes, we feel very anxious because our schedule is full of obligations and we do not find moments to distract ourselves and enjoy ourselves. It is important that you try to structure the day, so that you dedicate an exclusive time to do some pleasant activity for yourself.

The more enjoyable activities you introduce into your day to day, the stronger your mood. The mood depends on the quantity and quality of the enjoyable activities you do.

Some examples of pleasant activities that you can do can be: watch a television series, go for a walk, eat a piece of chocolate, have dinner with your partner, go for a walk, lie down in the field, take a bath…

5- Use distraction

For example, techniques that we would consider within distraction would be talking to other people, reading or singing, listening to music to stop thinking about it, etc.

It is important that you keep in mind that it is not a technique that will solve your problem. It is a technique that will relieve your anxiety in the short term but will continue to maintain the problem in the long term.

With this in mind, it won't solve your anxiety problem, you may find momentary relief while you wait to seek long-term professional help.

The most appropriate thing would be to consult with a psychology professional specialized in emotional disorders to find the cause of the anxiety problem and solve the problem definitively.

6- Plan

Today we have multiple activities and tasks to juggle. Sometimes this excess of responsibilities causes high levels of stress.

Sometimes this high activation is caused because we are unable to organize ourselves properly. In fact, for some people, lack of organization leads to procrastination.

One of the strategies that we can carry out is to try to plan the day in advance trying to give time to everything we have to do.

You can use the agenda, mobile applications such as Google Calendar, etc., where your day will be structured and you will not have to be thinking about what to do next, thus leaving your mind to take care of other responsibilities.

7- Create a relaxing image

You can also use images that relax you. They can be images that you have lived and that transmit calm to you (for example, the memory of a beach that was pleasant to you, a walk with your family…) or a neutral image that gives you pleasure.

First of all, the image is made in a situation where you are calm. Try to bring to mind a situation that transmits calm to you and try to do it with all sensory modalities.

Try to see what it smells like, what the color of things is… creating the maximum level of detail in the scene will help you experience it more realistically. Later, you can use this image in times of difficulty where you feel anxious.

Don't worry if the image is not the same as the one you created in the quiet moment. Just let yourself be carried away in that moment by mental elaboration.

8- You can use the self-instructions

Self-instructions can also help you cope with anxiety. It is a technique that will not help you to solve the problem in a definitive way, but it can help you to face anxiety at specific moments.

You can choose a phrase that you often say to yourself to calm yourself down. Some examples might be: “Calm down. Everything passes. ”,“ Relax, everything will be fine ”,“ Relax and breathe ”.

The moment you feel bad and anxious, accompany him with deep breaths and say the self-instructions that you have chosen for yourself.

It is important that you personalize them and that you choose those that transmit calm and tranquility to you. These phrases are different for each of us.

In the moment when you are anxious, do not fight or confront your negative thoughts. Just close your eyes and let them pass while you give yourself positive self-instructions.

9- Do physical exercise

Physical activity is a good ally against high levels of stress and also helps to cope with depression. There are studies that show that the practice of physical exercise reduces the levels of anxiety and depression.

Try to enroll in a sport that you like and introduce it into your routine. It is important that it be moderate exercise, preferably aerobic, such as swimming, running, walking at a fast pace, etc.

In addition, it will be much better if you do it accompanied, since you will benefit from sharing the sport with other people and your motivation will be increased.

You should exercise at least 3-4 times a week, although ideally you should exercise 5 days a week for about 45-60 minutes.

Remember not to do it in the hours close to sleep since physical exercise activates, so it is better to do it in the morning or throughout the afternoon.

10- stopping of thought

Another technique you can use to cope with anxiety is what we call thought stopping. It is a technique that focuses on controlling those thoughts that are making you suffer and are creating anxiety.

To do this, when the thoughts that cause you uneasiness appear and you start to get upset and nervous, what you should do is look at them and observe which of them are negative.

Once you have identified them, you must say loudly "ENOUGH!" or "STOP!" or "STOP!" If you are alone at home, for example, you can say it out loud and you can even give a pat.

If you are in public it is better that you say it with all your might but inside. Immediately replace it with a more positive thought.

It is important that you learn beforehand to identify the thoughts that are unpleasant and cause you anxiety. If you are not able to do it yet, you can use a thought self-record earlier (a couple of weeks before).

To do this, take a sheet of paper and horizontally make columns: in one of them put the situation, in another column put “Thought”, in another put “Anxiety (0-10)”.

So, when you notice that you feel bad and that you have anxiety, write down on the sheet the level of anxiety, what situation you are in and what you have thought. Learn how to identify thoughts.

It takes practice to do this, so it is recommended that you spend at least a week or two working on identifying thoughts and then putting thought stopping into practice.

References

1. Bakeola. Self-control: techniques for managing anxiety and anger. Center for conflict mediation and regulation.
2. Gracia, FJ, Díaz del Campo, P. (2006). Clinical Practice Guide in the Management of Patients with Anxiety Disorders in Primary Care. Laín Entralgo Agency, Ministry of Health and Consumption.
3. Roca, E. Techniques to manage anxiety and panic.
4. Mindfulness and Health website
5. Self-applied program to control test anxiety. Jacobson's progressive relaxation. University of Almería.