Softening Body Tension with Anxiety- Exercise

Therapy in a Nutshell

Therapy in a Nutshell -Emma McAdam

Mental Health, Education, Health & Fitness:mental Health, Self-improvement, Health & Fitness

4.8 • 658 Ratings

🗓️ 18 July 2025

⏱️ 9 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Anxiety can make you feel tense, tight, or have other bodily symptoms. In this exercise, learn to soften and relax that tension. Check out the FREE grounding Skills course Learn the skills to Regulate your Emotions, join the membership: https://courses.therapyinanutshell.com/membership Feeling overwhelmed by anxiety, body tension, or racing thoughts? This 3-minute mindfulness meditation is designed to gently calm your nervous system and release physical tension caused by stress and anxiety. When we’re anxious, we often hold tightness in our jaw, shoulders, chest, or stomach—without even realizing it. In this guided exercise, you’ll practice mindfulness by tuning into your body, softening tension, and using your breath to activate your parasympathetic nervous system. Even a few minutes of this calming meditation can lower cortisol levels, reduce your heart rate, and help your body feel safe again. Whether you're new to meditation for anxiety or just need a quick reset, this practice helps bring awareness and peace to your body and mind. Ease body tension and anxiety in just 3 minutes with this mindfulness meditation. Relax, breathe, and reset with simple movements and soothing awareness. #mindfulness #Meditation #AnxietyRelief #BodyTensionAnxiety #mindfulnessforanxiety Looking for affordable online counseling? My sponsor, BetterHelp, connects you to a licensed professional from the comfort of your own home. Try it now for 10% off your first month: https://betterhelp.com/therapyinanutshell Learn more in one of my in-depth mental health courses: https://courses.therapyinanutshell.com Support my mission on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/therapyinanutshell Sign up for my newsletter: https://www.therapyinanutshell.com Check out my favorite self-help books: https://kit.co/TherapyinaNutshell/best-self-help-books Therapy in a Nutshell and the information provided by Emma McAdam are solely intended for informational and entertainment purposes and are not a substitute for advice, diagnosis, or treatment regarding medical or mental health conditions. Although Emma McAdam is a licensed marriage and family therapist, the views expressed on this site or any related content should not be taken for medical or psychiatric advice. Always consult your physician before making any decisions related to your physical or mental health. In therapy I use a combination of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, Systems Theory, positive psychology, and a bio-psycho-social approach to treating mental illness and other challenges we all face in life. The ideas from my videos are frequently adapted from multiple sources. Many of them come from Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, especially the work of Steven Hayes, Jason Luoma, and Russ Harris. The sections on stress and the mind-body connection derive from the work of Stephen Porges (the Polyvagal theory), Peter Levine (Somatic Experiencing) Francine Shapiro (EMDR), and Bessel Van Der Kolk. I also rely heavily on the work of the Arbinger Institute for my overall understanding of our ability to choose our life's direction. And deeper than all of that, the Gospel of Jesus Christ orients my personal worldview and sense of security, peace, hope, and love https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/comeuntochrist/believe If you are in crisis, please contact the National Suicide Prevention Hotline at https://suicidepreventionlifeline.org or 1-800-273-TALK (8255) or your local emergency services. Copyright Therapy in a Nutshell, LLC

Transcript

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0:00.0	If you're here, it's because you're working to find skills to improve your mental health.
0:06.1	If you're sick of letting anxiety, depression, or stress take over your life, or you're tired of just coping with emotions, I want to tell you, there's something better for you.
0:16.1	When we understand what emotions are, why we feel them, and how to work through them in healthy ways,
0:22.2	we gain the ability to reduce stress, anxiety, and overwhelm.
0:25.8	In my How to Process Your Emotions course, we cover skills like willingness,
0:30.2	a tool from acceptance and commitment therapy.
0:33.1	Willingness helps you face uncomfortable emotions without being controlled by them.
0:42.3	Instead of avoiding what you feel, you can learn to accept and process your emotions. This is just one of the many life-changing skills that you can learn when you join the Therapy in a Nutshell membership.
0:49.3	Becoming a member gives you access to all of my courses, including grounding skills for stress, anxiety,
0:54.8	and PTSD, where you'll learn to regulate your nervous system, change your brain, where you'll learn
1:00.4	tiny changes that massively improve mental health, coping skills and self-care, which will
1:06.0	teach you how to get out of survival mode, how to process your emotions. This is an in-depth course with 30 video
1:12.1	lessons in a workbook to help you resolve emotions. And break the anxiety cycle in 30 days.
1:18.4	A five-point plan to end the cycle of anxiety. Each course comes with a workbook and I do
1:24.9	a live one-hour call with my members every month. Thousands of people
1:28.8	have joined and are seeing incredible results. I get messages every day about how people are feeling
1:34.3	happy again, singing again. They don't feel suicidal anymore. They're improving their relationships.
1:39.8	They're mastering their anxiety and ending panic attacks and they're overcoming depression and they're
1:44.4	just feeling like themselves again. So this is why I built these courses and I'd love for you
1:50.4	to benefit from them. So if you'd like to learn more, check out the link in the show notes to learn
1:55.2	how to sign up. Okay, thanks for listening and take care. The mind and body are in a feedback loop and we subconsciously tense up when we're stressed or anxious.
2:06.6	And in fact a lot of us spend so much time being tense that we're just used to it.
	...

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