Anxiety Exercises and Info

02 Mar 2026 - Brent Jacobs

Draft

When I was in my 20s, I started having panic attacks. At the time, I had no idea why. It seemed to come out of the blue.

Looking back, it was because I was stuck in a job I didn’t enjoy, and had a particularly mean boss that had her sights on me because of lack of performance. I’d never encountered a person so mean, and didn’t have the skills to cope with the situation. I quite rapidly developed anxiety and panic attacks.

Anxiety and panic attacks are a terrible thing to go through. You never know when the feelings might strike. You might be at work, on public transport, driving a car, or sitting with your friends and loved ones. I had a persistant feeling that something was stuck in my throat. I would get a sudden rush of dread. I would feel like I couldn’t breath properly, and sometimes like I couldn’t get enough oxygen. I would often feel pins and needles in my hands and legs and up my arms. You feel your world shrinking and closing in around you. It’s terrifying and you’re scared that no one is able to help you. At nightm right as I was about to drift to sleep, I would get a wave of anxiety and suddenly feel like I’m gasping for breath. This happend so frequently, I was afraid to go to sleep. Its all a viscious feedback loop. It feels humiliating to go through. Why is this happening to me? I feel like I’m suffocating. I feel like I’m going to die.

Dear reader, please let me reassure you that if you feel this way, you are not alone. These things you are feeling are a natural process that has escalated well beyond their intended purpose. You will get through it and things will return to normal.

My feelings of anxiety and all the rest went on for months, until I finally sought help. My journey included seeing a general practitioner, a psychologist, and a cognitive behavioural therapist. There were various experts I encountered on my journey to recovery. Each giving drops of wisdom that helped my understand my situation.

Dear reader, if you are going through a similar situation please also seek the help of a trained professional.

The biggest take away is that anyone can gain the skills to stop anxiety and panic attacks. There are early warning signs you can learn to identify, and strategies to adresss them directly. They require practice. Their efficacy will improve over time as you get more skilled.

I found there to be two main phases to recovery. I found that during this time of my life, I didn’t have the emotional capacity to look beyond the terrible feelings I was experiencing. Those feeling were my world. I poured all the energy I could into learning to identify the early warning signs, and executing the strategies to adresss them directly. This is a skill and takes time. Once I was able to have some control over these feelings, I was able to start reclaiming my life. I was able to move away from the situation that put me there, and move towards all the things that brought me fulfilment. The path back to good mental health isn’t always straight, but the skills stay with you forever.

Thankyou for taking the time to read this. I sincerely hope these skills help you as much as they helped me.

Breathing

Much of the feeling of anxiety comes from over oxygenation of the blood. Here are some breathing exercises that may assist with this.

Some signs of this that I experienced are:

Breath into a paper bag

I found this to be one of the most effective methods of relieving the above symptoms.

Lightly place a paper bag over your mouth and breathe in and out normally.

The paper bag shouldn’t be tight around your lips, but just gentle enough against your skin so the bag slightly inflates and deflates as you breathe in and out.

Deep breathing

Hold breath

Fight or flight

Anxiety is actually a natural process that our body goes through. Our body will naturally release chemicals into our bodies in times of danger or when it senses we need to be alert. It heightens our senses, increases our mental processes, and boosts our energy and strength. The idea is to give us maximum use of our body for a short period of time to allow us to handle the situation.

The problem is that the challenges we face today are different from the past. In the past, the action of fight or flight would use up all these chemicals and expend all the energy. Then after a decent sleep, everything would be back to normal.

Now that we don’t experience extreme dangers anymore we don’t use up these chemicals. These chemicals actually take a long time to dissipate from our systems (I think I remeber a doctor saying 24+ hours). Instead, these chemicals build up in our system; one anxiety attack builds on another. Further because our system is working overtime for long periods of time these episodes are really exhausting.

Expend energy

The moment you have feelings of anxiety (even just a little) go and expend some energy. Raise your heartbeat and keep it there for about a few minutes.

Here are some ideas:

One of the benefits of this technique is that you start to train yourself to notice when you are having feelings of anxiety. The sooner the chemicals in your body are used up the less anxiety symptoms you will experience.

Understanding the chemicals in your body

My nature is very scientific and methodical. Understanding the resasons behind all the sensation I was feeling was a big step on my road to removery. It’s all driven by chemicals coursing through our veins.

That sudden rush you feel is adrenalin. Its the start of the fight or flight process. In the past, our ancestors would have quickly used up this chemical. But nowadays, we have nothing to fight, and nowhere to go. This chemical just sits there. Cortisol is also released which is designed to allow the body to expend a rediculous amount of enrgy in a short period of time. Your perception and reflexes are heightened. Its extremely tiring for your body. If you don’t use that chemical, it hangs around for a while. If you get more shots of adrenalin, all those feelings compund and your body becomes exhausted. This is why expending energy when you feel that rush works so effectively. You are doing what that chemical is intending you to do. Its also important to follow this up with some rest and recovery.

It was also important understanding the role of Endorphins, Dopamine, Serotonin, Oxytocin, and how to invoke them in beneficial ways. I encourage you to read EDSO in Action by Benno Bos. It’s a quick and concise visual guide to the four happiness neurochemicals (Endorphins, Dopamine, Serotonin, Oxytocin) and Cortisol.

Distraction

Another great way to beat feelings of anxiety is with distraction. Especially lying in bed at night.

This next exercise works by utilising all of your senses: Sight, Sound, Smell, Touch, Taste.

Go through each sense and use it. The first sense you do 5 things, the second sense do 4 things. Each thing that you sense, have a think about it, contemplate it for a while.

For example, if you pick sight as your first sense, look at things around the room. You might look at the curtains — notice how they drape and flow, notice the colours and patterns. Next you might look at your arm. Again notice different things about your arm and contemplate it for a while.

After doing this for 5 things, move onto the next sense. You may pick, for example, sound. Listen out for sounds, think about the sound that you notice for a while before moving onto the next. Do this 4 times.

The next sense do the same but you only need to pick out three things. The 4th sense, pick out 2 things. The last sense, pick out one thing.

I rarely get to the end, and feelings of anxiety have been forgotten or I have fallen asleep.

Mindfulness

All your thoughts and feelings are just that — thoughts and feelings.

For each thought that goes through your mind, acknowledge it, and then say “It’s just a thought” — then let it go and clear your mind.

For each feeling that you feel, acknowledge it, and then say “It’s just a feeling” — then let it go and clear your mind.

That’s it, nice and simple. Just acknowledge and let it go.

Some nights I found I would just be repeating “It’s just a thought” over and over and over. And thats fine. You are actually training yourself to control your thoughts and only let them interrupt you when you want them to.

Eventually, I got to the point where my head would hit the pillow and I would drift right to sleep. That was bliss! Which reminds that I really need to foster this skill again!

Cognitive Behavioural Therapy

TODO: introduce tapping therapy

TODO: insert an appropriate image or quote as a book end for this article.