It happened. I had my first full blown anxiety attack. I am actually surprised that it didn’t happen sooner. There have certainly been many other times in my life where I’ve been overwhelmed and stressed out. And while I’ve felt anxious before, it never went to the extreme that it did last week.

What does an anxiety attack feel like? Your heart is pounding, your throat gets real tight, it’s hard to swallow let alone breathe. You start to panic, feeling out of control of your own body. You feel so restless that all you can do is pace. And sleep is out of the question.

It’s not a pleasant experience to say the least. And unfortunately for me, I experienced this off and on all week long. I am still not exactly sure what triggered it. I’ve been going through a lot of changes in my life lately, and nothing feels stable. I’m about as ungrounded as you can get, and my head has been filled with uncertainty and doubt.  Those two emotions alone are enough to send someone over the edge, and over the edge I went.

There have been lots of tears, many sleepless nights, and moments where I was ready to give it all up. And even though it has been an emotional roller-coaster, I am grateful to have gone through it because along the way I developed lots of tools to help deal with anxiety that I can now share with you here.

Here are 5 key steps to help you move through an anxiety attack.

1. Accept your Anxiety: The first step to moving past an anxiety attack is to be ok with it. I spent most of the week trying to push against my anxiety by distracting myself, or forcing myself to think happy thoughts. This doesn’t work. The reason being is that our brains don’t function like that. The more you try to not think of something the more your brain will focus on it. For example: Don’t think of the color blue. What did your brain immediately do? Thought of the color blue. The same holds true for your anxious thoughts. You can’t forcefully push them out of your mind. You have to sit with them. The good news is that the moment you decide to accept your anxiety it immediately starts to die down. This is a good time to explore your anxiety too. Ask yourself why are you feeling this way? And then notice the thoughts that come to you. Don’t necessarily believe those thoughts, just notice them.
2. Breathe: This one seems obvious, but we really do forget to breathe sometimes. In general our breath is short and shallow. But when you are in the midst of an anxiety attack long deep breathes are your best tool. Physiologically breathing deeply will lower your heart rate, and psychologically it will calm your mind.
3. Call a Friend: Be careful on this one. You want to call a friend who is going to listen to you, and hold space for you. You don’t want to call your know it all friend that is trying to give you advice and tell you what to do. When you are in the midst of an anxiety attack you are well aware that you are being irrational, and you don’t need someone else to point it out to you and make you feel more crazy. But calling a friend that accepts you and loves you even when you are talking crazy can be just what the doctor ordered. Feeling accepted, feeling heard, and feeling loved is sometimes all you need. Bonus points if you can find someone that will make you laugh too.
4. Get in your Body and out of your Head: Finding some sort of physical activity to do can help move you through an anxiety attack as well. During that past week some of my most calming moments was when I was running, lifting weights, and doing yoga. I even got together with a group of friends to go on a zip line, ropes course adventure. And let me tell you when you are 60 feet in the air swinging on ropes you are 100% in your body and out of your head. So next time you are feeling anxious try moving through it.
5. Try Acupuncture: I know I am biased, since I am an acupuncturist. But acupuncture can do wonders for anxiety. In just one treatment you will immediately feel calmer. Acupuncture not only soothes your nervous system, but also helps to release any pent up emotions. If the thought of needles makes you more anxious (even though it really doesn’t hurt) then try Reiki, or even massage. These therapies help to move energy throughout your body. Anxiety is trapped scattered energy. It needs to be calmed and released, and energy healing will help to do just that.

I have no doubt that anxiety will continue to creep into my day to day life. Because unless you live in a bubble, you are going to experience anxiety. But it doesn’t have to cripple you. I am still experiencing moments here and there, but I now have some tools in place to help me move through it.

Now I would love to hear from you. How do you handle anxiety? Do you have any tools or tricks to help you move through it? Feel free to share in the comments below.