Anxiety is Physical. Understanding Your Body’s Stress Signals

Many people believe anxiety is only mental, but anxiety usually begins in the body long before we consciously feel worried. Understanding these physical patterns can help you respond with compassion rather than overwhelm.

How Anxiety Speaks Through the Body

Heather’s Perspective

The nervous system reacts to overwhelm by activating physical responses, such as:

• tight chest or throat

• shallow breathing

• stomach discomfort

• restlessness

• numbness or disconnection

These sensations are not signs of failure, but they’re signs of activation. Somatic counselling teaches you to notice these cues gently, helping your body shift out of a protective state and into regulation.

With awareness and support, the body learns it doesn’t have to stay in anxiety.

How the Mind Interprets Anxiety

Marco’s Perspective

The mind often tries to explain or control the body’s anxious state.

This can create spirals like:

• “What if I can’t handle this?”

• “I should be coping better.”

• “Something bad is going to happen.”

  
  

These thoughts are attempts to make sense of physical activation.

Existential anxiety, our relationship to uncertainty, responsibility, or change, can also heighten the experience. Therapy helps you understand these thought patterns, how they developed, and how to relate to them with more clarity and less fear.

When Body and Mind Work Together

Anxiety is an interplay between physiology and meaning. When you recognize early somatic cues and understand the beliefs that rise up with them, you gain flexibility and choice.

This integration supports emotional resilience, self-awareness, and a sense of inner steadiness.

Simple Ways to Begin Calming Anxiety Today

• Place a hand on your chest and belly to follow your breath.

• Ground yourself by pressing your feet into the floor.

• Name three sensations without judgment.

• Describe your anxiety to create distance and perspective.

Small, consistent practices create meaningful shifts.