How to Fight Your Stress and Squash Anxiety

Meditate

When your mind is causing you to stress out and get anxious, try controlling and quieting it. Meditation is one of the best ways to put a stop to that dangerous mind-churning. “We live in a culture where maybe we think the more we’re thinking about stuff, the more that we’re doing stuff, the more productive we’re going to be, but it doesn’t actually always work like that,” says Andy Puddicombe, co-founder of Headspace, the popular guided meditation app. “Meditation offers us the ability to step out from that thinking mind and to see it in a different way so that we’re not so easily overwhelmed.”

Touch Your Toes

Call it yoga, call it stretching. Call it getting a quick rush of blood to your head. In any case, this is an age-old yoga pose that can be used at anytime—no mat required. Do it at the office, at home or anywhere (and anytime) you feel anxiety creeping up. It releases tension and gives you energy. All you need to do is stand with your feet shoulder-width apart, raise your arms and then think of your waist like a hinge as you bend at the waist, bringing your head toward your toes. Feel the heaviness release from tension hot-spots like your shoulders, upper back and neck. Hold for as long as you like and then slowly raise your head back up.