How to Calm the Physical Symptoms of Anxiety
When anxiety hits hard, your body often feels it before your mind even catches up. Maybe your heart is racing, your breathing gets tight and shallow, your chest feels heavy, or your hands start to shake. If this sounds familiar, you’re not alone. Many people deal with these exact symptoms, especially in moments where they need to stay focused.
Let’s walk through a few simple, realistic steps that can help your body settle, and how anxiety therapy can help.
Set Realistic Expectations
When your anxiety is at a 10, you’re probably not going to bring it all the way down to a 2 right before a presentation or a stressful meeting. That doesn’t mean you’re doing anything wrong.
Aiming for a 6 is still progress. It’s still helpful. Expecting your body to completely flip out of anxiety mode in a few minutes sets you up for frustration, and that frustration only makes your symptoms stronger.
Give yourself permission to aim for “more manageable,” not “perfect.”
Drop the Self-Criticism
Being anxious is already miserable. Adding judgment like: Why can’t I get it together? What’s wrong with me? only amps up your body’s stress response.
Compassion isn’t about pretending you’re calm. It’s about not beating yourself up for feeling something human. That alone can loosen the intensity you’re feeling in your chest and your breath.
Breath Work: One of the Most Effective Tools
Breath work is one of the most well-researched ways to calm physical anxiety symptoms. It is simply: slow, intentional breathing from your diaphragm, not the shallow breaths from the top of your chest.
When you breathe this way, you activate your body’s calming system, known as the parasympathetic nervous system. This is what helps shift you out of “fight-or-flight” mode and into a more restful state.
Doing a few deep breaths when you’re overwhelmed can help in the moment. Practicing daily improves something called vagal tone, which teaches your body to settle faster and more effectively over time.
It’s one of the easiest tools to use because you can do it anywhere: at your desk, in your car, or even standing outside a meeting room.
Other Anxiety Calming Techniques You Can Try
Breath work is a great place to start, but other skills can support your body when anxiety hits:
Progressive muscle relaxation: Gently tensing and releasing muscle groups to help your body let go of tension.
Five senses grounding: Noticing what you can see, hear, smell, taste, and touch to pull your attention out of the spiral.
You don’t have to do everything at once. Start small. Build from there.
When Anxiety Feels Bigger Than You Can Manage, Anxiety Therapy in Utah Can Help.
Sometimes the physical symptoms of anxiety show up so often and so intensely that they start getting in the way of your daily life. Maybe you’re avoiding situations you used to handle without thinking. Maybe your sleep is suffering. Maybe you’re exhausted from constantly bracing for the next wave.
This is where anxiety therapy in Utah can help.
Anxiety isn’t just “in your head.” It affects your body, your thoughts, your routines, and even your relationships. Maple Canyon Therapy has an anxiety therapist who can help you understand why your anxiety is showing up the way it is, learn tools that actually fit your life, and address the deeper patterns that keep your system stuck in overdrive.
You don’t have to push through this alone. Support is available, and therapy can genuinely make anxiety feel manageable again.
A Simple 3-Step Plan to Get Started with Online Therapy in Utah
Book a free 15-minute consultation.
This is a quick, low-pressure call where you can share what’s been going on and get a feel for whether we’re a good fit. You don’t have to prepare anything. I’ll guide the conversation.Talk through what you’ve been experiencing and what support you’re looking for.
We’ll talk about your symptoms, your stressors, and what you want to get out of therapy. This helps us create a plan that actually fits your life, not something generic or overwhelming.Start online therapy and learn tools that finally help your mind and body feel less overwhelmed.
Sessions happen from the comfort of your home through online therapy in Utah, and we move at a pace that feels manageable. Over time, you’ll learn tools and work through the deeper patterns that keep anxiety stuck.
Why Online Therapy Is a Great Option for Anxiety
Online therapy can be a huge relief if you’re already carrying a lot of anxiety. You don’t have to fight traffic, sit in a waiting room, or scramble to look “put together” before a session; you can show up exactly as you are. While TikTok loves to joke about therapists taking calls in drive-thrus, that’s not the level of care you’ll get here. Online therapy with me is the same professional, evidence-based support you’d receive in an office, just without the extra stress on your plate.
I offer online therapy across Utah, including Salt Lake City, Provo, Cedar City, St. George, Logan, and everywhere in between, so you can get high-quality care without leaving home.
About the Author
Ashlee Hunt, LCSW, is an experienced eating disorder and anxiety therapist and the owner of Maple Canyon Therapy, where she provides online therapy across Utah. Ashlee specializes in helping women who struggle with anxiety, body image, eating disorders, chronic health-related anxiety, and the emotional impact of high pressure and perfectionism, and people pleasing.
She has worked at multiple levels of care in the eating disorder field, including outpatient, intensive outpatient, and residential settings. Ashlee is trained in EMDR and uses a trauma-informed approach to help clients understand why their anxiety shows up the way it does and how to break long-standing patterns that keep them stuck.
Ashlee also served as an adjunct professor in the Utah State University Department of Social Work, where she taught foundational social work practice and empowered future clinicians to develop strong therapeutic skills.
Her work blends clinical knowledge with a compassionate, gentle style that helps clients feel understood and supported while building skills that actually make life easier.