Anxiety and the body

Counselling can help you to explore your anxiety by breaking it down into its component parts: the body, the mind and how this impacts our subsequent behaviour. Anxiety catches our attention because of how forcefully we can feel it in our bodies, our beating hearts, sweating palms, feeling sick to the stomach – that has to mean something! And our brain is more than ready to explain where it’s coming from. There has to be an explanation because of how real our physical response is.

The Brain is wired to respond to threat

Our brains are alert to threat and the amygdala scans the environment for anything that feels unsafe. If it spots something, our fight, flight, freeze system would be triggered to prepare you to survive the identified threat way before your thinking brain has a chance to intercept and interpret the situation and whether any response is necessary or helpful.

In the past, this response would be perfect, if we just happened to come across a tiger – we might freeze, go still and silent until the threat has passed, or we may go into flight mode, the release of adrenaline would help us to outrun threat or fight (but I still wouldn’t fancy my chances against a tiger).  Our bodies would utilise the adrenaline and return to a more relaxed, or parasympathetic state. Given that the threats we face are different and don’t go away but stay for a prolonged period of time means that worry and anxiety leave us in a heightened sympathetic state.

A classic example of how the amygdala might issue a response out of proportion would be if walking through the jungle and it sees a snake, immediately, your pupils would dilate and your heart would beat faster as the body readies itself for action. Once you look again and see actually it’s a stick not a snake your threat survival system will stand down, but in this way the amygdala is satisfied that it’s performed its job well, it doesn’t matter that there was never a threat in the first place because if that was a snake, there would have been no time to waste, the amygdala’s motto is: better safe than sorry.

Our day-to-day challenges

Often, our anxiety centres around the busyness of our lives, social interactions, whether we will get everything required of us done. We are overwhelmed by to do lists, constant phone notifications, juggling relationships and work pressures – but none of this is life threatening. Although the conditions we live in have changed massively throughout the development of humans, the functionality of our brains hasn’t developed in the same way and it hasn’t conveniently adapted to optimising to our lifestyles.

The impact

While the amygdala's "better safe than sorry" approach served us well in the jungle, it often misfires in our modern lives. It's not just the thought of a threat that triggers anxiety; it's the physical manifestation of that threat response within our bodies.

Imagine that "snake" scenario. Even before you consciously register fear, your heart might begin to race, your breathing becomes shallow and rapid. Your muscles tense, preparing for potential action. Your palms might sweat, and your stomach might churn. These are not just mental constructs; they are real, tangible sensations.

Learning that these physical symptoms are the body's way of translating the amygdala's alarm into action, it's a cascade of physiological changes designed to maximize survival. Knowing this can help to understand how to cope when it is activated, finding ways to manage and cope with the physiological activation helps to ensure that it becomes less distressing and debilitating.

The mind is a meaning making machine

Here's where the mind steps in, attempting to make sense of these physical sensations. And often, it gets it wrong. The mind, searching for a narrative to explain the racing heart and churning stomach, might jump to catastrophic conclusions. "My heart is racing; I must be having a heart attack!", "My stomach is churning; I'm going to embarrass myself!" or “I feel a sense of dread; I am going to fail my driving test!”.

This interpretation, fuelled by cognitive distortions like catastrophizing and mind-reading, amplifies the anxiety. The physical symptoms, initially triggered by the amygdala, now become evidence for the mind's catastrophic narrative, creating a vicious cycle.

Counselling can help you understand this mind-body connection. Taking the time to process that the physical sensations we feel are not inherently dangerous - they are simply the body's response to perceived threat. Work can then be done to challenge the catastrophic interpretations their minds create.

Navigating Anxiety

Counselling can help you to increase your awareness of your individual somatic response, potential situational or thought triggers and understanding how the physical sensations you experience relate to anxiety. This allows room to explore whether the response generated is appropriate or necessary for your current situation and develop understanding that experiencing these sensations is not a sign of impending doom, simply your brain’s automatic reaction to perceived threat.

It is helpful to learn techniques like grounding exercises, mindfulness, and deep breathing because it can regulate your physiological response. You can interrupt the escalation of anxiety by bringing your attention to the present moment and focusing on your immediate environment which can help to regain a sense of control.

Furthermore, in counselling you can learn to identify distorted thought patterns that fuel anxiety and learn to reframe or unhook from unhelpful thoughts and instead focus on the present moment and how to move forward in a way that is in alignment with your values and goals.

Practical Strategies for Regulation:

• Grounding: Connect to the current moment by planting your feet in the ground and engaging your senses, the 5-4-3-2-1 technique is helpful where you name 5 things you can see, 4 you can hear, 3 you can touch, 2 you can smell and 1 you can taste.

• Mindfulness Meditation: practicing non-judgmental awareness of thoughts and feelings helps you to develop a practical skill that you can utilise when anxiety strikes.

• Deep Breathing Exercises: Focus on a longer exhalation to slow your breathing down, this is especially beneficial because it activates the parasympathetic nervous system.

• Cognitive Restructuring: Identify and challenge negative thought patterns, make room to acknowledge your unhelpful automatic thoughts and develop techniques to change your focus.

Our Behaviour

Without putting on the breaks to understand what is going on in our body when we experience anxiety, and how your thoughts work to understand that reaction and make meaning from it we would most likely avoid situations that create the conditions that trigger our bodies fight, flight, freeze response. If we avoid situations that give us anxiety, then our world and what we feel capable of doing shrinks until it can get quite small. Learning what anxiety really is and strengthen our ability to self-regulate at times when we do become triggered helps us to continue to live the life we want, knowing that if we do become anxious, we can cope and trust that will be OK. Anxiety can become more problematic when you use avoidance because you start to buy into the story that your mind makes to explain your somatic reaction which increases the likelihood that when reactions occur you will give their significance a much higher importance than it warrants. In this way, anxiety becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy.

Creating a Safe Space

We've seen how that "better safe than sorry" wiring, while brilliant for tigers, can leave us tangled in knots over deadlines and social engagements. Your worry, racing heart, and feeling sick in your stomach—isn’t a personal failing, it's your ancient, fight, flight, freeze alarm system, acting like an overly helpful friend responding in an overly sensitive way in its new surroundings. By understanding this, by recognizing the physical sensations as simply that—sensations—we start to reclaim control. It's about learning to say, "Thanks, amygdala, but I’m going to do what I want to anyway," and then grounding ourselves back in the present. So, next time that worry kicks in, remember you're not broken, you're just wired for survival. And with a few grounding breaths and some mindful awareness, you can navigate the modern jungle with a little more peace.

Counselling can help you because it will develop your understanding of the interplay between the body and the mind, what that looks like for you and what techniques will help you. You can discover and learn practical tools that will empower you to navigate anxiety while also supporting you to explore and discovering where these thoughts originated and experimenting with new behaviours.