How to Calm Anxiety in One Minute

I have anxiety and its exhausting living with it every single day. Here, I share a technique that helps me immensely when I feel anxiety is taking over me. It’s a hack for how to calm anxiety in one minute. I hope it helps you!  

Quick Techniques for Coping with Anxiety 

Anxiety sufferers know that their anxiety doesn’t just crop up before something major like a presentation at school/work or an important test. It can happen anytime and anywhere, whether you’re alone at home cooking dinner or you’re outside surrounded by people. 

No matter what kind of anxiety you have, you need quick techniques for coping because you need to calm down before you have a full-blown anxiety attack. 

There are many ways to help calm anxiety including talking with your therapist or going for meditation classes but sometimes you want to get rid of anxiety at that very moment. 

Maybe you’re at school or work and you took a bathroom break to calm yourself down in the few minutes you have left before returning to your desk! 

What can you do? Don’t worry. There is a way to calm anxiety in one minute. It’s called belly breathing. 

How to Calm Anxiety in One Minute – Belly Breathing

When we are breathing normally, we tend to take shallow breaths. But when we have anxiety, we take even shallower and quicker breaths that are not enough. With anxiety, it’s important to breathe fully and deeply to avoid spiraling into an anxiety episode that will be harder to overcome.

If you ask almost anyone with anxiety, the first thing that helps them get rid of their anxiety is their BREATHING. Anxiety increases your heart rate and makes you not able to breathe well. Getting your breathing under control is the first and most important step to calming anxiety. 

One of the breathing techniques that calms anxiety is called belly breathing. Basically, it means taking deep full breaths that fill your belly/abdomen with air, then releasing it slowly. 

Belly breathing is also called diaphragm breathing. It helps slow an erratic and overthinking mind by putting the focus on replenishing your lungs with the oxygen it is lacking because of anxiety. 

How to Do Belly Breathing – it’s Easy 

Basically, all I’m telling you to do is just stay still and breathe deeper into your abdomen for at least 3 cycles until your breathing gets even and your heart rate slows down. 

Here are steps that explain how to do one cycle of belly breathing:

1. Sit or stand still in a comfortable position. Lean against a wall or sink into a chair for support. 

• Next, release your shoulders and relax your jaw. 

• Place one hand on your chest and the other on your stomach. 

• Now breathe in through your nose for three seconds. If you can’t breathe through your nose, it’s okay – use your mouth. 

• Feel the air pushing your stomach outwards. Your stomach should be expanding and filling with air. 

• Now press lightly on your stomach and breathe out for six seconds.

Congratulations, you have completed one cycle of belly breathing! You can do this technique 3 or more times to feel better.

How to Calm Anxiety in One Minute – Other Ways

• Look at a positive photo – something that makes you feel better whether it’s a picture of your dog, a motivational quote you love or a selfie of looking good or you having fun.
• Remember a positive experience – it can be a compliment from someone you admire or a nice trip you took.

I hope you learned how to calm anxiety in one minute with this easy yet effective trick! Share your thoughts in the comments below!