Anxiety can feel like it comes out of nowhere: a pounding heart in a quiet room, a knot in your stomach before an ordinary meeting. But your body isn’t malfunctioning. It’s trying, a little too hard, to keep you safe.
The alarm system behind the feeling
When your brain senses a threat, it triggers the fight-or-flight response. Breathing quickens, muscles tense and your attention narrows. That response is brilliant in real danger, but it can switch on for deadlines, conversations or even memories — and then struggle to switch off.
Turning the volume down
Slow exhales, naming what you can see and hear, and gently questioning anxious predictions all signal to your nervous system that you’re okay. In therapy, we build on these skills and look at what keeps the alarm so sensitive in the first place.