Categories: Athlete Mental Health

The Truth About Mindfulness Exercises for Anxiety Relief

Anxiety is a foe of mine, and mindfulness has become a trusted ally in my battles. It’s an important piece of my toolkit, but it’s also something that I have to work for and train to improve upon. It’s not a simple or quick solution because it does take effort, but at least for me and many others, it can be incredibly effective in long-term success in managing anxiety.

When I coach pro athletes and teens around anxiety, I am doing so from personal experience with anxiety, but I also draw upon my experience with tools like mindfulness. Everyone’s needs and therefore their coping toolkit is unique, however, there is tremendous benefit in learning to understand yourself at a deeper level. In doing so, you can identify less with the emotions and thoughts that cause suffering, and focus more on training your brain and your body to coexist in a safe space.

The key is that you have to be willing to forgo the habits that make you “comfortably uncomfortable” as I like to call it. In other words, no one likes the anxiety that they feel, but you have to be willing to explore if whether or not the habits that you think are keeping you safe or providing you relief, are actually causing you to feel unsafe and therefore deeper suffering.

For example, if you don’t like the feeling of being worried and the stress it causes, but you also feel like overanalyzing or ruminating gives you a sense of control, you have to examine that. And that takes effort, dedication, time, patience, and self-compassion. It’s not a linear process, and it is something that is certainly more of a journey than a destination.

“You have to be willing to explore if whether or not the habits that you think are keeping you safe or providing you relief, are actually causing you to feel unsafe and therefore deeper suffering.”

What is Mindfulness?

Mindfulness is more than just being present, breathing, and meditation. Jon Kabat-Zin credited as the founder of Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) defines mindfulness as, “Mindfulness is awareness that arises through paying attention, on purpose, in the present moment, non-judgmentally.” He sometimes adds, “…in the service of self-understanding and wisdom” to the definition.

The practice has been shown to be beneficial in every area of life from work to competition to parenting to mental health, and so on. In my experience, those who reap the greatest benefits are the ones who adopt it as a lifestyle, much like any health and wellness routine.

Study Reveals Benefits of Mindfulness vs. Meds in Treating Anxiety

As far as medicinal treatments are concerned, Escitalopram is widely used to treat the symptoms of anxiety. You might have heard of it more commonly called a brand name like Lexapro. I’ve used it myself during a particularly trying period of my life. The problem was that when I stopped taking the drug, my anxiety and panic attacks continued to exist.

I began a search for a long-term solution. Mental health was the main motivation that led me to explore mindfulness and other practices many years ago. And as it turns out, I’m not the only one looking for such solutions in using mindfulness exercises for anxiety relief.

In 2022, the JAMA Network released its findings on a study called, “Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction vs Escitalopram for the Treatment of Adults With Anxiety Disorders.”

Before I share the results of this study, it should be noted that I’m not a licensed medical or mental health professional. Secondly, my experience with anxiety reduction is totally personal to me and so what works for me, may not work for someone else. Mental health is truly a unique journey and I encourage you to keep an open mind in exploring what ultimately works best for you. All that to say, by sharing this study, I am not endorsing one specific method over another.

The study found that the treatments of MBSR and Escitalopram produced similar outcomes.

In this trial, an MBSR was shown to be a well-tolerated treatment option with comparable effectiveness to a first-line medication for patients with anxiety disorders. Problematic habitual thought patterns characterize anxiety disorders, and mindfulness training specifically focuses the mind on the present moment; thus, individuals practice seeing thoughts and sensations as merely transient mental phenomena and not necessarily accurate reflections of reality. This reappraisal process improves emotion regulation, and individuals become less reactive to thoughts and sensations. In addition, mindfulness is practiced with a nonjudgmental, accepting attitude, which over time appears to increase self-acceptance and self-compassion.

Of note, MBSR in this trial was delivered in person, with trained meditation teachers available weekly to answer questions and guide practices, limiting any extrapolation in support of mindfulness apps or programs that are delivered over the internet.

Overcoming Worry with Mindfulness

As stated in the study, a mindfulness practice over time can help the practitioner learn acceptance and self-compassion. But the root of anxiety is quite often a desire to feel safe through attempting to elicit control, which is often accompanied by overthinking.

“It can give people a sense of control even though they don’t have any more control than if they didn’t worry,” said Jud Brewer, director of research and innovation at Brown University’s Mindfulness Center and chief medical officer at Sharecare. (Mindfulness exercises can be as effective as anxiety drugs, study shows, The Washington Post)

He goes on to note that, “Trying to stop worrying using willpower doesn’t work because it doesn’t change the way your brain works. But mindfulness can help train your brain to have new habits because it helps you to recognize that worrying is not rewarding and provides an alternative sense of control that feels better than worrying.”

3 Mindfulness Exercises for Anxiety Relief

The tips I’m sharing below go beyond the “be present” and “just breathe” mindfulness concepts that most people are aware of. Of course, there are many mindfulness exercises, however, what’s here is a foundation that I hope will provide deeper context into understanding and applying the practice.

**Note** Do not try these exercises if you’re dealing with trauma, extreme stress, or a major mental health issue unless you are under the supervision of a medical or mental health professional. Never try to process difficult emotions on your own without the appropriate support.

1. Understand the impact of your reactions to your thoughts and feelings. There are two sayings that I find particularly helpful. The first is, what you resist persists. And the second is, that whatever you give your attention to, grows. What this means is that if you try to ignore the anxiety, it’ll just continue to exist. Secondly, if you give it too much attention, it’ll grow. The sweet spot is in the middle where you recognize when you’re feeling anxiety, and you allow it to be.

Exercise 1: Spend some time reflecting on this. Think about yourself or someone you know who tries to compartmentalize their feelings. Then, think about yourself or someone you know who allows their emotions to dictate their actions. What kind of outcomes do these two experiences usually manifest?

2. Learn to witness. Everything that arises will eventually fade away. Along those lines, there’s another saying that I love: Right now, everything is okay, and if it’s not okay you’re in the past or the future. I find this to be true in 99% of situations in my life. We are often so caught up in thoughts about the past or the future, we lose focus on the fact that in the moment we’re in, everything is okay.

What we can do it learn to become a witness of what we are experiencing, rather than automatically reacting to it. A key in mindfulness is to learn to create a space between stimulus and response. In other words, learn to pause before reacting so that you choose your response instead of choosing to react impulsively. Another reason this is so beneficial is because if you think about it, impulsivity is giving up your self-control, while reacting with clarity is exerting control.

Furthermore, as far as internal dialogue goes, you can think of this as a way of learning how to listen more and talk less.

Exercise 2: Next time you find yourself feeling anxious, allow yourself to sit with your feelings instead of trying to push them away or allowing yourself to get carried away by them. Close your eyes, breathe, and see if you can allow what you’re feeling to exist while you observe it without judgment. A great place to start is to notice what you feel and where you feel it as we are often disconnected from our emotions and body. For example, if you’re feeling anxious, is there a place in your body where you feel tense?

The goal is to not identify with the feelings or sensation, but rather watch it just as you would watch something occur in nature. It’s something that’s happening in this moment. Rather than viewing it a positive or negative experience, see if you can be neutral by acknowledging its presence yet not becoming emotionally or cognitively attached to it.

In other words, acknowledge it, but don’t react to it.

“I notice that anxiety is here. I’m feeling uncomfortable. Let me sit with it and watch it.” You can also talk to yourself compassionately by acknowledging your experience. For example, “Emotions are normal because I’m human. It’s okay to feel them and let them go.”

As you focus on your breath and allow whatever you’re feeling to be, see if the discomfort begins to lessen. When it does and you feel your nervous system begin to relax, you may want to introduce self-compassion affirmations like, “I am safe. I am supported. I am loved.” However, be careful not to try to use affirmations to push your feelings away, otherwise, you’re back in resistance mode.

“My athlete clients often refer to this as ‘keeping your head on a swivel,’ which is a competitive skill, but for many, it’s also a life survival skill.”

3. Accept things as they are. When you try to control things outside of your control, it almost never ends well. I get it though. To avoid conflict and pain, I developed a habit of trying to anticipate everything that could go wrong and then coming up with a plan of action for any scenario that might develop. My athlete clients often refer to this as “keeping your head on a swivel,” which is a competitive skill, but for many, it’s also a life survival skill.

This often manifests into feelings of anxiety because you get accustomed to being in fight or flight mode as a way to protect yourself. Your brain and your body almost expect this as normal so when you try to relax and let go, they might fight you every step of the way as a way of “keeping you safe.”

The truth is that there is peace in acceptance. Life will be joyous, but it will also be challenging. The sun co-exists with the moon, joy co-exists with pain. Buddha describes such concepts as necessary opposites. I explore this in my book Athlete Branding Blueprint, in a chapter called “Making Fear and Negativity Work for You” under the idea that difficulties exist and are unavoidable so your best path to peace, is acceptance. This doesn’t mean non-action, it just means allowing.

Exercise 3: There is tremendous power in letting go of what we cannot control by accepting things as they are. In the book, The Power of Now, author Eckhart Tolle writes at length about accepting things as they are as the solution to suffering. In one example, he talks about how Buddha would speak of the concept of impermanence. Tolle writes, “…impermanence is a characteristic of every condition, every situation will encounter in your life. It will change, disappear, or no longer satisfy you.”

Think about how you can apply the concepts of accepting things as they are and impermanence to difficult moments with anxiety or other challenging thoughts and feelings. Try journaling about emotions and that they are changing, temporary, and therefore impermeant. How can you accept what you’re feeling, but not react to it knowing that it will pass if you allow it to be?