16/04/2026
Anxiety
One of the hardest things about anxiety is that trying to get rid of it often makes it worse. Whether it's health worries, work stress, or a sense of angst that we can't quite pin down - our natural instinct to push it away, fix it, or think our way out of it rarely brings relief.
Mindfulness offers a different approach: not trying to eliminate anxiety, but learning to be with it differently. Today we're sharing three techniques for anxious moments, drawn from a special talk given to our community by mindfulness teacher and accredited psychotherapist, Julia Lofts.
Image item
Three techniques for when anxiety spikes
🔹 Breathe slowly - especially the out-breath
When anxiety takes hold, slowing your breathing is one of the fastest ways to begin settling the nervous system. A long, slow exhalation activates the body's calming response, signalling to the brain that you're safe. This doesn't need to be a formal or complex practice - just counting ten slow out-breaths will make a difference.
🔹 The breathing fingers technique
Skip to 40:14 in the talk recording (details below) to watch Julia demonstrate this technique.
This one is particularly useful when your mind is racing and you can't seem to slow your thoughts down. This technique pairs finger tapping with the breath but let's break them down separately first.
The fingertips
Starting with your little finger, tap each fingertip, one at a time, to your thumb. Then repeat this in the other direction - starting with your index finger, tap each fingertip, one at a time, to your thumb.
The breath
Breathe in, hold, breathe out, hold
The combination
Breathe in while you tap, starting with the little finger
Hold the breath while you tap, starting with the index finger
Breathe out while you tap, starting with the little finger
Hold the breath while you tap, starting with the index finger
(and repeat)
This rhythm gives the mind something very specific to focus on, gently interrupting the loop of anxious thinking. Julia notes that most people lose count or get confused partway through, and that's actually part of the practice - here the mind is disengaging from the worry to come back to the task at hand.
🔹 Movement
When anxiety feels heavy, stuck or hard to shift - movement can help to shake it loose in a way that breathing alone sometimes can't. Stretching, jiggling, jumping, dancing - whatever feels accessible. Julia is particularly fond of this one for those moments of overwhelm where the body feels frozen, and notes that if you can laugh at the same time, even better!
Watch the full session
If you'd like to watch Julia's full talk - which includes a guided practice and a closer look at how anxiety works in the brain on our online mindfulness platform, The Community of Practice. Breathworks
You will need to be logged in to your Community of Practice account to watch the talk. Not yet a member? Click here to create your free account.
This Breathworks Community of Practice is a space that welcomes everyone with a mindfulness practice, who has learned or taught mindfulness with Breathworks, or is simply wanting to find out more about the Breathworks approach. We want this community to help us sustain and enrich our mindfulness pra...
