Effective Tools for Anxiety and Overwhelm

Alina Gregory
Jul 15
4 min read

Updated: Jul 19

Over the years, both through my own experience and working with clients, I’ve tried a lot of different ways to manage anxiety and overwhelm. Some felt too clinical, others a bit too funky or esoteric. But these are the ones that actually worked. They’re simple, effective, and easy to use.

I’m sharing them because I know what it’s like to feel stuck in your head, disconnected from your body, or like your nervous system has set itself on a 1200 spin washing programme.

These tools can help you come back to yourself. Pick the ones that resonate, leave the rest, and be gentle with yourself as you try them.

1. Distract, Distract, Distract (The Right Way)

When your thoughts start spiralling, you're stuck in a left-brain loop responsible for logic, worry, over analysis, and rumination. It’s like being in a hamster wheel with no exit.

The trick is to break the cycle, not solve it from inside.

You're not avoiding the problem—you’re regulating your nervous system first.

Try doing something ‘pointless’ but soothing like:

Arranging your desk or drawer
Doodling shapes on a notepad
Making a cup of tea slowly / also enjoying it fully
Take a shower / fold laundry
Rearranging your bookshelf or workspace
Playing with a stress ball or beads

These small, rhythmic actions help break the mental loop and send a signal of safety to your nervous system.

2. Scan the Body

This gets you out of your head and into your body.

How to do it:

Close your eyes. Bring your awareness from head to toe. Where do you feel tension, pain, or uncomfort? Shoulders? Neck? Jaw? Chest? Give each area a number from 1 to 10 (how intense it feels)

No judgement, just notice.

Inhale: breathe into each areaInhale: imagine sending calm breath and light into that spot

Exhale: imagine releasing tension, stress, frustration

Do this slowly, one area at a time. You might even say the feeling you’re breathing out:

‘I release pressure, 'I let go of fear, 'I soften this tension.’

3. Fruit Holding Exercise (Mindfulness Tool)

One object. Five senses. Full reset.

Imagine you’re holding an apple in your hand (or an orange)

Study it as if you’ve never seen it before.

What’s the texture? What’s the weight? What are the colours and shadows?

Can you smell it? Hear it? Try to squeeze it!

How would it taste?

This pulls your focus into the present moment, calming the fight-or-flight/freeze response.

4. The Mindfulness Walk Checklist

(Even 20 minutes outside can make you feel much better)

Next time you go for a walk, notice / pay attention to / try to remember:

⚘Three things I found beautiful(a colour, a tree, a stranger’s outfit)

⚘Three people I saw or interacted with(even just a smile)

⚘Three things that surprised me or caught my curiosity(a street name, a bird call, a shop window display)

These activate gratitude, connection, and novelty:all known to calm an overstimulated nervous system.

5. Drink & Sleep: Basic but Brilliant

When overwhelm hits, start simple. Have a glass of water: dehydration often disguises itself as anxiety or exhaustion. Even a small drop in hydration can affect your mood and clarity.

Then rest.

Even a short nap helps, but real emotional reset happens during REM sleep, when the brain gently sorts through feelings and stress.

Ever heard ‘sleep on it’? There’s wisdom in that.

The brain processes emotions overnight, especially during dreaming, so things often feel lighter by morning.

6. Visualise Your Calm Self

If you can imagine it, you are already beginning to create it.

Close your eyes for a moment and picture a version of you who feels completely calm and grounded. They're not rushing, panicking, or chasing anything: everything's simply at peace.

Ask yourself:What do I look like? (posture, face, expression)What am I doing? (walking slowly, sipping tea, journaling, dancing?)

Where am I? (by the sea, in a cosy room, in nature, surrounded by calm colours?)

Continue and let the image fill your senses.

What’s the temperature like? What sounds do you hear? What smells are in the air?Now step into that version of you—even just for a few breaths.Feel what it’s like to be that person, to embody that energy.

You’re not pretending. You’re rehearsing calm and peace. This is neuroplasticity in action.

Optional mantra to say while visualising:

I carry calm within me. I can return to it anytime.

7. Do Something That Gets You into the State of Flow

This isn’t just distraction, it’s deep nervous system regulation. When you're in flow, your brain shifts from anxiety to creativity, from cortisol to calm.

That’s because you’re activating the right hemisphere of your brain. It’s the part responsible for intuition, imagination, visual thinking, and emotional regulation.

It’s the opposite of rumination.

Try these:

Colouring or painting
Rearranging a space
Playing or listening to music
Crafting or working with your hands, DIY
Designing, baking, building something simple

The right brain doesn’t worry, it experiences.When you engage it, you're not escaping the moment, you're soothing it.

Final Thoughts

If one of these spoke to you, start there. You don’t need to do all of them or do them perfectly. Just trying one is already a good shift.

Let me know which one you tried, which one surprised you, or which one you’ll be keeping close. And if someone you care about is going through a tough time, feel free to share these with them.