When anxiety has been running the show, the first goal is simple. Get a tool you can use right now, in the moment, that brings the arousal down. From there, the work expands into handling the situations that used to set everything off. Both pieces are teachable, and the order matters more than most people realize.
Step one: rapid relaxation you can use anywhere
The first thing I teach is how to relax quickly and consistently. A few breaths, in the actual moment when anxiety starts to climb, can be enough to change what happens next.
A couple of techniques work this way. Diaphragmatic breathing, brief grounding sequences, and quick body scans can each shift the nervous system out of high alert within a minute or two. The National Institute of Mental Health includes relaxation training among the well-supported components of anxiety care.
The point of starting here is impact. Once you can bring your arousal down on demand, you stop feeling at the mercy of every spike. That single shift changes how everything else feels. The same situation that used to send you into a long recovery
passes through and out.
How quick is Rapid Relaxation?
Rapid Relaxation is having a tool that:
- Works within a minute or two
- Can be used anywhere, including in public
Most people can learn the basics in a single session and then build consistency over a few weeks of regular practice. The Anxiety and Depression Association of America notes that brief, portable techniques tend to get used more often than long protocols, which is why they produce real-world results. A tool you’ll actually reach for beats a tool you might use someday.
Step two: mental rehearsal and imagery practice
Once the rapid tools are in place, the work shifts to the situations that have been hard. Here we use a lot of imagery. Old situations that triggered anxiety get reviewed in the mind, slowly and deliberately, while using the new tools to keep arousal manageable. New scenarios get practiced too: meetings, conversations, drives, flights, whatever is coming up.
Research summarized by Kaplan and Tolin in Psychiatric Times shows that exposure-based work is among the most effective interventions for anxiety disorders.
The nervous system responds to vivid mental rehearsal in measurable ways, which is why athletes and performers have used it for decades. Your body doesn’t fully distinguish between a well-imagined scene and a real one, so the new responses you rehearse start to feel familiar before you’ve even tried them out in real life.
Why this order matters
Trying to face hard situations without a way to manage arousal often backfires. The person gets overwhelmed , the old pattern wins, and the takeaway becomes “I can’t do this.” Starting with rapid relaxation shifts the balance.
By the time imagery work begins, you already have a way to bring yourself down. The rehearsal becomes practice in using your tools. That changes what your nervous system learns from the experience. Each rehearsal teaches the brain that the feared situation is workable, which counters what years of avoidance taught it.
If you’ve been waiting to feel less anxious before tackling the things anxiety has taken from you, there’s a different way to start. Exploring anxiety treatment is a low-pressure way to see what these tools could do for your situation. The first step is just a conversation.
Dr. Joseph S. Weiss is a psychologist in Seattle, WA. He works with people dealing with anxiety, OCD, panic, insomnia, and phobias, drawing on CBT, EMDR, and other approaches with strong research behind them. What keeps him in this work is watching people get their lives back, one small step at a time.
References
Anxiety and Depression Association of America. (2022). Tips to manage anxiety and stress. ADAA.
Kaplan, J. S., & Tolin, D. F. (2011, September). Exposure therapy for anxiety disorders. Psychiatric Times, 28(9).
National Institute of Mental Health. (2023). Anxiety disorders. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
