5 Practical Tips to Reduce Anxiety Naturally, Right Now

Awareness is the first essential step.

Mental health awareness can help you address anxiety and kickstart your journey toward feeling better immediately. 

“The average delay between onset of mental illness symptoms and treatment is 11 years.” [1]

Anxiety comes in all shapes and sizes, from the Sunday scaries to more serious anxiety attacks. Calling it out and paying attention to it is the first and most important step.

We created the Shift to provide a practical breathing tool that can be an anchor in an anxious moment. 

And remember: you are not an anxious person, you are experiencing an anxious moment.

Awareness is the first essential step.

Mental health awareness can help you address anxiety and kickstart your journey toward feeling better immediately. 

“The average delay between onset of mental illness symptoms and treatment is 11 years.” [1]

Anxiety comes in all shapes and sizes, from the Sunday scaries to more serious anxiety attacks. Calling it out and paying attention to it is the first and most important step.

We created the Shift to provide a practical breathing tool that can be an anchor in an anxious moment. 

And remember: you are not an anxious person, you are experiencing an anxious moment.

Who do you know that needs a moment?

Is there someone in your life who needs a moment? Is there any better gift than a moment to reflect and connect with your family? Is there anything better than seeing the face of a loved one as they open a gift and know you see them, you’ve heard them, and you want to help them feel better? How can you inspire your friends and family to take a moment?

All it takes is one person. It could be you.

All you have to do is raise a hand. Say something like, I have an idea, what if we try this breathing tool or that thinking tool together? Even if all you do is share this gift guide and say, “what if…”

Think about the conversation you could have with your partner or parent or son or daughter. Even if you call them up and say, “hey, have you heard of this breathing tool?”

Think about the drop in stress they could experience just knowing there’s a potential solution out there. Even if you just say, “saw this and thought of you.” Imagine what that would feel like?

Why is the Shift a great gift?

The Shift is the simplest and most straightforward way to feel better now. No medication, no subscriptions, no instruction manual. Slow your exhale, turn off stress and anxiety, feel better.

• It slows your exhale to automatically turn off anxiety and stress.
• It is an easy-to-use, practical tool that helps you feel better.
• It is an offline reminder that helps you feel more present and connected.
• It takes the guesswork out of breathwork.

Knowing you are not alone is also an essential step.

One third of Americans now exhibit signs of anxiety according to the Census Bureau, which is a huge jump compared to pre-pandemic stats. [2]

Check out the infographic from NAMI, the National Alliance on Mental Illness, and the You are not alone campaign.

Understanding you are not alone, and beginning to make small, incremental, micro-adjustments to your routine can have a real, lasting impact on how you feel. Changing something as small as one breath today can help you think better and feel better.

Knowing you are not alone is also an essential step.

Through treatment and minor adjustments to your routine, you can reduce anxiety and begin to feel better. But, feeling better requires a change in how you do things.

According to the Anxiety and Depression Association of America, anxiety is “highly treatable, yet only 36.9% of those suffering receive treatment.” [3]

Whether you decide to seek professional help or try the five tips to reduce anxiety in this article, acknowledging the anxiety and taking that first step can have an immediate impact.

Try to give yourself a break too. COVID, right?

“1 in 5 U.S adults report that the pandemic had a significant negative impact on their mental health.” [4]

As we normalize the conversation around anxiety and mental health with the help of NAMI’s “You are not alone” infographic above, we can all take a collective moment to acknowledge what we’ve just been through due to COVID. 

Say these words with me: I survived a global pandemic. That’s serious, that’s tough, that’s a lot. Talking to a therapist, if only about your experience during COVID, would be more normal than not talking to a therapist.

Anxiety does not discriminate.

Anxiety affects everyone, kids and teens included. Roughly 32% of adolescents have an anxiety disorder. [5] This number doesn’t account for kids and teens that chalk their feelings up to their age or those who go untreated.

“Research shows that untreated children with anxiety disorders are at higher risk to perform poorly in school, miss out on important social experiences, and engage in substance abuse.” [1]

These five tips can be applied to any day, any situation, and any age. They can reduce anxiety in the moment, and can lessen the long-term impact of anxiety to help you become more resilient.

If you slow down just one exhale today, you will have turned the anxiety switch in your body off. 

Imagine your breath as a light switch. When you inhale, the light comes on. When you exhale, the light turns off. When we experience anxiety, we typically take short, shallow breaths. That’s the equivalent of quickly turning a light on and off and on and off and on and off, etc. 

If you slow down your breath (especially your exhale), you are turning off the anxiety response in your body for a longer period of time.

Now imagine how you’d feel if you focused on slow inhales and slow exhales for 1 minute straight. Imagine 5 minutes straight.

Thinking and breathing are inextricably intertwined. We take 23,000 breaths a day. 50,000 thoughts race through our minds every day. If we breathe better, we think better. If we think better we breathe better. And ultimately, we feel better.

One of the easiest ways to think better is to focus on awareness. When you start to feel anxiety creep in, focus on your thoughts, call them out, let yourself hear what you are saying. Would you say these things to a loved one?

According to our resident (and licensed) psychotherapist, Daniel, one of the most common ways our brains lead us to anxiety is called Catastrophic Thinking.

One quick way to beat catastrophic thinking is to say to yourself: “I’m catastrophizing.”

Breath awareness is the key. Focus all your attention on how you are breathing, and you will begin to feel more calm. But there are a few techniques you can use to target anxiety and stress, and turn your body’s state of being from fight-or-flight mode to rest-and-relax mode.

4-7-8 for immediate relief (and help falling asleep)

• Inhale for a count of 4
• Hold for a count of 7
• Exhale for a count of 8 
• Repeat for 5 minutes

3-6-5 (for anxiety maintenance all day)

• 3 times a day
• 6 breaths per minute (inhale for a count of 5, exhale for 5) 
• Repeat for 5 minutes

Box Breathing (image you are tracing the shape of a box if it helps)

• Inhale for a count of 5 
• Hold for a count of 5
• Exhale for a count of 5
• Hold for a count of 5
• Repeat for 5 minutes

Coherent Breathing (a simple technique with many health benefits)

• Inhale for a count of 6 
• Exhale for a count of 6
• Repeat for 5 minutes

This technique, when done routinely, has a cumulative effect. Coherent breathing not only helps you reduce anxiety. Breathing better can improve heart health, increase focus, improve sleep, and so much more.

Change is hard, no? When we start to consider all the change that needs to happen for us to lower our anxiety, the list gets pretty long. And really overwhelming. 

Our content lead was in the same place you are. Stressed out, overwhelmed and anxious, struggling to see a way through. Then he combined breathing and journaling, and began to find some more consistent peace of mind.

How did he do it? Micro-adjustments. One small change at a time, he built momentum and began to lower stress and anxiety while making progress.

Then he created Rotezen with our resident therapist, Daniel. 

What is Rotezen?

Rotezen is a guided journal, a 3-month planner, and a source of inspiration that delivers peace of mind and meaningful change through micro-adjustments to your routine.

Wondering why you even need help breathing? Komuso co-founders Todd and Vanessa felt the same way. They tried meditating

The Shift is the meditation cheat code. It helps you clear your mind and leave anxiety behind.

What’s the secret? 

The science behind the slow exhale for starters.

The science behind the breath’s ability to turn off your body’s stress response, yes. 

But really, the success of the Shift comes down to how it helps you focus, how it helps you clear your mind, and shrink your world and make a habit of breathing better.

But don’t just take our word for it: the proof is in our reviews.

Don't wait: you can feel better today. 

Try just one of these tips today, and we’re confident you can begin to breathe better, think better, and feel better.

Why the confidence? Because we’ve been where you are and we’ve tried these tips and hacks and techniques, and they have worked. 

And, we have more than 2,800 5-star reviews that demonstrate the impact of better breathing and the effectiveness of our breathing tool, which is a proven natural remedy for anxiety.

Anxiety is normal. Addressing it takes courage. 

You can’t replace therapy with a licensed, professional therapist who can help you determine the most effective treatment plan. However, contacting a therapist requires courage. This article provides tips and tools that can help you feel better now, and work up the courage to contact a therapist if needed.

Our brain is pretty good at playing tricks on us. Say these two words to reduce anxiety now and put your brain in check.

Try these recommended anxiety reducing tools. 

Try these recommended anxiety reducing tools. 

Try these recommended anxiety reducing tools.