Learning self-soothing techniques to help with anxiety can help prevent feeling overwhelmed, simultaneously grounding you when you need a moment of calm. Anyone can use them! Struggling with anxiety and stress is never fun – however, it can be managed and you’re not alone in feeling this way. Many people have feelings of high anxiety, worry and stress at times.
You might be wondering what self-soothing is.
Self-soothing techniques are things that you can do to regulate your body and nervous system, almost like a reset! They can include breathing techniques, touch, sensory items that you can hold, movement and more.
You might want to try self-soothing techniques if you feel disconnected from yourself, have been feeling ‘out-of-touch’ or have some sense of not being ‘in the room’. This can happen after periods of prolonged stress, or high anxiety.
3 Self-soothing techniques you can try wherever you are:
- Deep breathing – deeply inhaling, slowly exhaling. Exhaling slower than you inhale can help you focus on the letdown of your breath. This gives you a sense of control as your body relaxes.
- Calming music – something that gives you comfort, and a sense of relaxation. There are many apps available with sleep sounds including rain soundscapes or white noise; you may have something that you find particularly soothing. You could search on Youtube for calming music too.
- Stretch and relax to soothe yourself. This can look like tensing your muscles and relaxing them from the top of your body through to your toes. Clenching your hands and then fully relaxing them. Noticing any tension in your jaw and letting it soften. You can also pay attention to the tension, noticing where it is also helps to increase your bodily awareness.
Self-soothing and self-awareness
If you feel as though you struggle to notice how you are feeling at all, or are feeling rather indifferent, confused or overwhelmed by the idea of trying all of this. Something that has helped my clients is to practice regularly tuning into their feelings. This is something that a counsellor can help you with, or you can begin at home on your own. If you’d like a little assistance with it, you might want to try one of the exercises found on the resources page here.