Physical techniques to reduce anxiety

introduction

1. breathing exercises (for anxiety states, especially those accompanied by anger or fear)

   Breathing exercises help calm emotions through controlling the body's sympathetic system: pulse and breathing are affected and also affect adrenaline and therefore also feelings of anxiety, anger and even depression. The purpose of the exercises is to slow down the heart rate by slowing down the breathing rate, and here are two example exercises:

1. The snake exercise:
   Get as much air into the lungs as possible (you should put your hand on the stomach to make sure it fills up, then release it slowly with a slow whistle-whisper like a snake. The longer you manage to pull the release, the more the pulse will drop.
2. The 5X5X5 exercise:
   An exercise that consists of five cycles in which we inhale air and fill our lungs for 5 seconds, then hold it for 5 seconds, then release it for 5 seconds (as mentioned, the exercise should be repeated 5 times). The exercise may sometimes cause euphoria or vertigo.

2. ,leg exercises (for anxiety states, especially those accompanied by a feeling of dizziness or disorientation)

   Standing affects our emotions in many ways: standing upright transmits strength both outwardly and inward (and a posture whose strength transmits fatigue and weakness, in both directions). Even more than that, an unstable posture radiates instability, outwardly and inwardly.

• Familiarization practice with resistance types
  This is a one-time exercise that aims to familiarize us with the types of posture and the feeling they produce, and it is recommended to do it in front of a mirror. The first step is to cross our legs and see how we feel (crowded, reduced). After that, we'll tie them across the waist, this is the military 'comfortable posture' and as its name suggests, it helps us feel and look comfortable. After that, we will put our feet together, like religious people in the Eighteenth Prayer, and here we should feel an instability that will cause us to start swaying pretty quickly. In the last step, we will spread our legs wider, beyond the width of the waist, and we will notice that this is a very stable stance - in fact, too stable - and makes us project more confidence (which will sometimes appear 'military'). Now we are ready for the technique for anxiety situations.
• Technique for standing positions: bend knees 
  In situations of anxiety, especially those in which we feel instability (or dizziness, or vertigo), it is possible to achieve the same effect of widening without the 'military' side effects.
  The technique is to stand upright as usual, feet hip-width apart and then release the knee lock. The result is a tiny bend of the knee that lowers us by a few millimeters, but causes our body weight to fall on the leg muscles instead of the femur. The feeling is that we are significantly heavier, and therefore also stable. It is very difficult to feel dizzy or disoriented like this.
  Although the technique is too tiring to use all the time, it helps in emergency situations.
• Technique for sitting positions: press on the floor
  Here the idea is to press hard with your feet on the floor, and transfer the feeling of pressure to your legs. The advantage of the technique is that it makes us look great (upright, strong, etc.) and at the same time takes the pressure off our emotions to a very specific place: the feet.

1. Hand and arm techniques  (To improve speech: monotony, soft voice and especially such fast speech that causes anxiety or stuttering)

   Our arms affect how we sound. When the arm moves the shoulder joint, all the organs in the chest will move - lungs, diaphragm, trachea, etc. - and the immediate result is a change in air flow that causes a change in the sound we produce, almost always for the better. Also movements of the arm affect our emotions, where sharp movements will make us feel strong and energetic, while circular movements will make us feel calm and relaxed.

1. Hit the table (in a weak voice)
   Knocking on the table is indeed the mother-of-all-clichés movement. And yet this technique works effectively not only on our audience but also on ourselves. In public speaking courses we help those who find it difficult to raise their voice or bring their presence forward. This is a technique that is only suitable for unique situations, so I recommend practicing it in protected places (for example in our strengthening sessions) to get used to it. After some 5-10 practices she improves the performance regularly.
   For those who do not have access to such a protected place, there is a nice substitute of three strong taps on the table at the beginning of the speech. It's pretending like we're trying to get the audience's attention when in fact we're practicing sharp and powerful movement.
2. Arm rotation and tai-chi
   Fast talking negatively affects many components of crowd fear. Fortunately it is almost impossible to speak when moving the arm slowly.  
   Therefore, the exercise is to take an opportunity where we speak quickly (preferably those where no one is watching us, for example a phone call) and turn the arm slowly while speaking. The immediate result is a dramatic slowing down of the rate of speech (and also at the end of the breath, because speech is a type of breathing) and a decrease in anxiety.
3. Increasing arm movements
   Burning adrenaline through big movements.
2. change of place
   Adrenaline makes our body want to move. When we move, adrenaline is consumed and its concentration in the blood decreases. That's why we should move while talking.

• Looking sideways with the whole body
• Tango presentations

1. Cavity
2. Stretching and stress release