Breaking the Grip: Stop Anxiety from Controlling Your Life

Feeling overwhelmed, restless, or stuck in a loop of racing thoughts? Anxiety can grip us all, but it doesn’t have to control your life. In this episode of The Mr. Mind Podcast, Ryan Johnson shares practical tips and simple techniques to help you break free from anxiety’s hold. From grounding exercises like the 5-4-3-2-1 method to the power of gratitude, movement, and reframing your thoughts, you’ll learn actionable ways to calm your mind, take back control, and find peace in the chaos. Whether you’re dealing with social anxiety, stress at work, or everyday worries, this episode is packed with tools to help you thrive. Tune in, take a deep breath, and start your journey toward a calmer, more focused you.

Ready to take that first step? Let’s do it together!

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Transcript

Ryan Johnson (00:00):

That tightness in your chest, your palms sweaty, your eyes darting across the room, your mind racing. Yes, we are talking about anxiety and I will be giving you tips on how to conquer yours. Thank you so much for tuning into the Mr. Mind Podcast, your twice a week dose of living the well. I am Ryan Johnson, your mindset coach for today. I want to start off by saying something. You guys probably know this, but yes, yes, yes, yes, yes. I used to do music, so that means I used to go perform at various places, venues where there is many, many, many people there. So this might come to a surprise to you that I generally have social anxiety. Whoa, whoa, whoa. Hold on, hold on, wait. What? You do music. You have social anxiety. Yes, I do. But it's only when I am in big crowds where at, I feel I cannot attribute something if I'm not performing, if I'm not speaking at an event, that's when the anxiety comes.
(01:22)
Haven't figured out why yet, but I have figured out ways to control it in these ways. I will be passing down to you on this podcast episode, but first we must define anxiety. What is anxiety? And it's very simple, right? What it is, it's basically your body's alarm system, right? It's trying to protect you, trying to keep you safe, trying to keep you alert, ready for action. But here's the thing, in today's world, that alarm can go off even when there's no real danger during a meeting or before a tough conversation or going to your in-laws. You never know. A lot of different situations and instances where anxiety can just pop up into your face, and we don't like that, do we? This is nothing new. The reason why it came to and how it came to was because back in the caveman days, it was created to keep us alive.
(02:21)
It wants us to be alert because if we go off, we might get killed by something bigger than ussr by a different tribe. You'd never know. That's why it was built in. So how do we turn it off? I think I really turn it off, but there's ways that you'd be able to control it. Now, I'll be going over those in just a minute, but how does it feel? How does anxiety feel? I mean, well for you, but let me tell you, it shows up differently. I mean, for some it's racing thoughts or worst case scenarios on repeat. For others it's physical, right? Tight chest, sweaty palms. That feeling that you can't sit still, you always got to move. You feel antsy. You got to out. I say normalize it, but how do you do that? Ryan? Oh, that's a good question. You, thank you.
(03:06)
I want to start off by telling you that anxiety is a normal human experience. You're not broken, you're not weak. Don't feel alone fulfilling it. The key to this anxiety, the key is learning how to respond to it in a way that calms you down instead of letting it take over how to handle anxiety. But there's different ways that you can do it. One of 'em is you anchor yourself to the present. Your mind is watering to the future, to the past, to different scenarios. You need to anchor yourself to the present. Here's one way you can do so, a grounding exercise, right? So when your thoughts, when they start spiraling, one of the best things you could do is focus on the present moment. And here's a way that you can do it. I love it. It's called the 5 4, 3, 2, 1 method. And if you forget that you have different problems, my friend, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, method.
(04:04)
Look around and name five things that you can see, four things that you can touch, three things that you can hear, two things that you can smell in. One thing that you can taste. It's a quick way to pull yourself out of your head and into the present, into the here, into the now. And another way you can do that is via a breathing exercise. So your breath, your breath is really what is going to help you out through this breakout of anxiety. So what you're going to do is you're going to inhale for four seconds. You're going to hold it for four seconds, and then you're going to exhale for six seconds. So always going to exhale a little bit longer. So what you're going to do is you're going to repeat that a few times. Inhale four, hold four, exhale six. You're going to repeat that a few times and watch.
(04:49)
You're going to notice how your body starts to relax. Your heart calms down. You're going to feel a little warm blanketing feeling on your arms and your legs, your shoulders and your back, and that's your body calming down. And you'll see that it does work almost instantly. Another way you can take on this stress, this anxiety, is to take action with your worries. Write it down. Things are so much better when you write it down, get it out of your head. Get it out of your head, write it down. And that's the best way, especially if your anxiety comes from feeling overwhelmed. So you're going to grab a notebook or even your phone, forget it, forget a notebook, grab your phone, it's always with you and write it all down. It's like cleaning up a cluttered room in your mind. Get it all neat to put it in different categories, and you're going to break it down.
(05:41)
You're going to take one thing from your list, just one, and break it down into smaller doable steps. You're going to start small. You're going to focus on progress, not perfection. And when you get done with all of that, you must not forget to move your body because sometimes anxiety, it has a nasty habit of building up like steam and a kettle, and the best way to release it, move, whether it's walking, dancing to your favorite song, stretching for five minutes, which is my personal favorite stretch for five minutes. Get your body moving and moving can help your mind settle, not can, it will help your mind settle. Here's another tool that you can use to beat this anxiety of yours. Change your focus, right? Anxiety is there because you are focusing on something that is bringing you that anxiety. So how can you do it?
(06:34)
Reframe your thoughts. Ask yourself, what's the worst that could happen and how would I handle it? Nine times out of 10, you'll realize that you can handle more than you give yourself credit for, or you can do a quick gratitude shift because another way to change your focus is gratitude. So when anxiety hits you right in your forehead, not on, but in your forehead, pause and think of three things that you're grateful for. I mean, they don't have to be big. Oh, my big house. It doesn't have to be big like that. Something simple as a sunny day, your favorite snack, you being able to drink a Coca-Cola when there's millions of people that are unable to do so small things. And I promise you, this will help you feel a lot better. Here's what I want you to remember. Anxiety is normal and it doesn't have to control you because with the few simple tools like grounding yourself, writing it down, moving your body, shifting your mind set, you can take back control and find peace and the chaos.
(07:38)
Listen, I challenge you to try one of these, not all of them, just one the next time your anxiety strikes. Because even just one small step can make a big difference. And if you do try it. I'd love to hear about it. Connect with me on Instagram. That is the Mr. Mind. There's two Ds. Thanks for spending these few minutes with me here today. Remember, you are stronger than your anxiety, and every time you take a step forward, you're winning. If you got anything from this episode today, this crazy episode of anxiety, please share it to someone because trust me, you are not the only one that is going through it. Can you do me a favor? That very last person that you sent a text to, unless you are really trying to avoid that person, send that person a text. Say, Hey, good morning. Hey, good afternoon. Hey, good evening. I hope your day is going wonderful because you never know. They just might need it.