This worksheet (PDF above) walks you through a short body check-in for anxiety. You ground through your feet, take three full breaths, scan the body for where anxiety is felt, and rate each sensation from 1 to 10. You then notice how much space it takes up and its shape, color and texture, and breathe into the strongest sensation to see whether anything shifts. Reflection questions at the end ask how the practice felt and whether the sensations changed.
Learn to Sense, Rate, and Understand Your Anxiety
Do you ever experience feelings of anxiety? If you do, you’re not alone. Anxiety is a common human experience, and for some people the feelings are ongoing.
When these sensations show up, we often try to analyze the feeling in a logical way. We ask ourselves questions about it, and may become worried if we can’t easily explain it. That habit can keep us in our heads, which isn’t always helpful in a moment of intense anxiety.
Understanding how anxiety feels in your body
Rather than analyzing, this mindfulness exercise invites you to “drop into your body” and get to know your anxiety as physical sensation. Instead of waiting until anxiety is severe, when it is harder to work with, you can check in early, as soon as you start to feel anxious or unsettled.
The worksheet suggests finding a safe, comfortable place to practice if you can, and simplifying the exercise if you can’t step away. Grounding through the feet and a few full breaths (more on breathing techniques) can help you get in touch with how your body is feeling and where the anxiety is located.
Rating anxiety and working with it through mindfulness
It’s easy to get wrapped up in the experience of anxiety itself and lose sight of ourselves. With this mindfulness exercise for anxiety, you can check in with your body and perhaps come to a clearer sense of how you’re feeling. Turning attention to what is happening in the body, rather than to the story about it, may help you feel more grounded as anxiety rises and settles.
This practice complements, and does not replace, support from a doctor or therapist. If anxiety is frequent or hard to manage, consider talking with a healthcare professional.
