A Trauma-Informed Psychologist Is Begging People With Anxiety To Try This 3-Minute Coping Strategy

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A Trauma-Informed Psychologist Is Begging People With Anxiety To Try This 3-Minute Coping Strategy

When anxiety hits, it’s easy to feel stuck in that wave of fear and uneasiness. However, 

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, trauma-informed psychologist and author of

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, wants anxious individuals to know about a three-minute coping strategy for anxiety that she swears by.

As someone who previously suffered from panic attacks for years, Dr. Cain is now passionate about sharing tips, tricks and education around healing trauma and retraining your stress response “by recalibrating your autonomic nervous system so that it is primed for calm, not panic,” as

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“I made some simple, but powerful adjustments and slowly began to get my life back,” Dr. Cains tells Parade about her journey. “I shifted my entire medical practice, and my patients were not only feeling better, they were actually healing anxiety. Meaning, when their symptoms spoke, they listened from a place of curiosity, personal power and love.”

With “strategic changes,” patients were seeing the same results related to lowering anxiety. And one of these strategic tactics for coping with anxious thoughts and feelings only takes three minutes.

Related: Quiet the Anxiety in Your Head—20 Best Ways To Stop Overthinking

The 3-Minute Coping Strategy for Anxiety, According to a Psychologist

According to Dr. Cain, “This activity can be done when you are feeling activated, or it can be done during a three-minute intentional mindfulness session where you have some quiet privacy.”

Step 1: Set your alarm for 60 seconds

“Get in a comfortable position, and bring your mindful awareness to your breath,” Dr. Cain explains. “Slow your breath down, by inhaling for four counts, hold at the top for four counts and then exhale for more than four counts. Once you’ve fully exhaled, hold at the bottom of the exhale for four counts.”

“Now, bring your mindful awareness to your body,” she continues. “Notice any areas of tension, worry or stress. You do not have to change them, just simply notice them.”

Step 2: Set your alarm for another 60 seconds

“Bring yourself back to your body, and notice again any area(s) of disturbance you feel,” Dr. Cain says about the second step. “For the next 60 seconds, imagine yourself going down a timeline towards your past. You are looking for the earliest time you remember feeling exactly the way you are feeling in your body right now.”

Step 3: Set your alarm for another 60 seconds

“During this last 60 seconds, hold on to the image, thought or memory that came up as you went down the timeline,” Dr. Cain explains. “Imagine your younger self at that time, what you were doing, how you were feeling and anything else that comes to mind. Then you are going to imagine speaking to that part.”

She recommends saying the following to that part of yourself:

“I hear you, thank you for sharing your experience with me today. I honor you, and I acknowledge you. And I want you to know that I’ve got you now. I am grown up now, I have everything you have given me, plus new resources and skills. It is __[insert current year]___ and we are no longer in the past. You never have to go back to that time and place ever again. You are with me, now, in __[_current__]___. I would like to ask you to set down your heavy burden of trying to take care of me, and allow me to take care of you.”

“After you have said this, say anything else you feel you need to tell [that part of yourself,]” Dr. Cain shares. “Imagine that part, setting down a backpack that represents the stress that part has been carrying for you. Take a breath, and let it out.”

Related: 8 Phrases To Repeat to Yourself When You’re Feeling Anxiety, According to a Therapist

Why It Works

“This exercise brings together skills of mindfulness, interoception and meta awareness,” Dr. Cain tells Parade. “It helps us to be present with our symptoms in the moment in a curious and compassionate way. It also helps us to disentangle our present adult selves from our past selves that may be still wearing their metaphorical winter coats. Practicing this can help develop this ‘skill’ so it’s available for us when we need it most, and it can be done almost anywhere, and only takes three minutes—win, win!

You can listen to this coping strategy from Dr. Cain for free on

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Up Next:

Related: 14 Habits of People Who Never (Or Rarely) Get Anxious, According to Therapists

Source

Nicole Cain, ND, MA, is a pioneer in integrative approaches for mental and emotional wellness. With a degree in clinical psychology, training in EMDR, and a license as a Naturopathic Physician in the state of Arizona, her approach to mental health is multidisciplinary: medical, psychological, and holistic.

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