If you were to see a tiger in the wild, you would experience     anxiety's protective feature: the fight, flight, or freeze response. This built-in danger monitor prepares your body to fight the tiger, run away from the tiger, or stay very still. But most of the time, when anxiety shows up, we aren't in any real danger. Many of us will never be face to face with a wild tiger. 

 

Instead, we might feel anxiety on our first day of school or when we think about our loved one's health. Although it's normal to feel anxiety sometimes, we don't want anxiety to keep us from feeling our best. Just like Kaiah, YOU have a superpower inside you - your breath and tools to calm yourself down. Try the grounding skills below and see which ones work for you. 

​

What does anxiety feel like? 

Anxiety causes physical sensations in the body. For some of us, anxiety might show up as a stomach ache or a headache. For others, it might be a fast heartbeat, sweaty palms, or sore muscles. Sometimes anxiety even makes it hard to sit still.

 

Next time you have anxious or worried thoughts, try to notice where in your body you feel anxiety. Then, use your grounding skills and notice what happens to the sensations.