3 Somatic Practices to Help High-Achieving Women Soften Anxiety Symptoms
3 Somatic Practices to Help High-Achieving Women Soften Anxiety Symptoms
TLDR: If you've tried meditation, journaling, and mindset work but still struggle with anxiety, you're not alone. Anxiety doesn't just live in your thoughts - it also lives in your nervous system. In this article, I share three simple somatic practices that can help high-achieving women regulate their nervous systems, soften anxiety symptoms, and feel more at ease.
A lot of my anxiety therapy clients come to me after struggling with their anxiety for a long time. Many of the women I work with have already tried traditional approaches and are looking for a more somatic approach to anxiety therapy. Often they’ve gotten to the root of their anxiety and have pretty good insight into where it stems from and why it shows up.
What gets tricky is that they’re still struggling with anxiety symptoms that really impact their day to day lives – trouble sleeping, constant overwhelm, and overthinking things like responses to text messages and how to have that conversation with their colleague.
If this sounds familiar, you’ve probably already tried practices like meditation, journaling, changing your thoughts, accepting your thoughts, and similar approaches.
Why Meditation and Journaling May Not Help Your Anxiety
The problem I see often is that most (if not all) of these practices are just cognitive ones.
Meditation can be really hard if you struggle with anxiety (and sometimes can actually lead to more anxiety). Journaling can feel good in the moment (who doesn’t love a good “get it all out on the page” sesh?) but usually it’s just short-term catharsis.
Accepting and/or changing your thoughts can be helpful, but often stops short of what’s really needed.
What Impact is My Anxiety Having on My Life?
Anxiety is essentially designed to run the same loops over and over – not only in your mind, but in your body and your nervous system.
So while you’re thinking the same thoughts on repeat, your body is learning that chronically bracing, holding your breath and hitching your shoulders up to your ears is the answer.
Except it isn’t actually helping you soften those anxiety symptoms – it’s essentially keeping you in a state of fight, flight or freeze.
If your nervous system is chronically stuck in a state of overwhelm or anxiety, your mind and your thoughts will naturally follow.
What your anxiety really needs is for your body and nervous system to feel different. If you feel more connected to ease, softness, and safety in your body, nervous system and breath, your thoughts can begin to follow.
3 Somatic Practices I Use in Anxiety Therapy to Help Soften Anxiety Symptoms
When I recommend anxiety-reducing practices to my anxiety therapy clients in NY, I almost always start with somatic practices.
Inviting your body and nervous system to feel even a little bit differently can feel like a big shift, without a ton of effort. (Because honestly, if effort was the answer you’d probably feel calm most of the time!)
Here are 3 somatic practices you can try today:
1. Humming: This is a simple exercise you can do anywhere. Humming isn’t about sounding like Beyonce or having the lung capacity of an opera singer. Humming helps stimulate the vagus nerve, which is a key part of your parasympathetic nervous system and help calm your body and mind in stressful situations.
I use humming as part of my own somatic self-care practices and love that I can do it anywhere – in the shower, at a red light, in my office between clients. Interested in trying it? You can listen to my free 2 minute guided humming audio track here.
2. Movement: Clients often tell me that they try to drop into stillness when they’re anxious, whether through meditation or something similar. Movement can invite the stuck energy of anxiety to begin to loosen a bit and move out.
Some ideas to try: a walk, 5 jumping jacks, 2 yoga poses, energetic sweeping.
There’s no perfect movement for anxiety – try a few things and gently track what has an impact on your unique nervous system.
3. Music listening: Listen to a piece of music that invites a gentle sense of movement. This can be especially useful if your anxiety tends to make you freeze.
The music doesn’t have to be big or super energetic. Even a gentle guitar piece or quiet folk song can invite a sense of movement. Try looping it a few times to give your nervous system a chance to integrate the shift.
Anxiety Therapy in Midtown Manhattan & Throughout New York
You're made for so much more than just gritting your teeth, bracing your shoulders, and barely making it through each day.
You deserve to feel at home in yourself instead of constantly overwhelmed. To move through life with more ease, more softness, and a nervous system that doesn't feel like it's constantly on high alert.
You're allowed to experience true ease and real, lasting change.
It's time to stop just making it through and start building a life that actually feels good.
If you're ready to explore a somatic and creative approach to anxiety therapy, I'd love to help.
I offer somatic anxiety therapy in Midtown Manhattan and online throughout New York, combining nervous system regulation, creative arts therapy, and mindfulness to help you soften your ongoing anxiety symptoms and feel calm and confident.
Reach out today to schedule your free therapy intro call – I would love to support you.
About the Author
Maya is a licensed creative arts therapist/psychotherapist in NYC and online throughout New York State.
She specializes in helping anxious and highly sensitive women learn how to: deepen insight into real change, finally soothe their long-standing anxiety and show up with calm confidence in their work and relationships.
If you’re interested in working with Maya, you can learn more about her here or schedule your free therapy intro call here.
You don’t have to stay stuck - it’s time to reclaim your rhythm.