How to Calm Anxiety
Because honestly? It’s kind of tough to do so…
Anxiety has a way of following you around, popping up its head at inopportune moments to remind you that you should be worried about something. Often, it’s tough to disengage from this voice, which can get pretty loud sometimes.
That's where the mindful movement of The Class can serve you well to soothe those stresses and provide powerful ways to relieve anxiety.
Research shows that both mindfulness and movement are powerful antidotes to anxiety, a condition that affects one-quarter of women in any given year—nearly twice the rate of men. One meta-analysis in Psychiatry Research in 2020 on 14 randomized controlled trials found that mindfulness-based stress reduction was effective in lessening symptoms of anxiety over the short-term in young people compared to control conditions. Mindfulness-based stress reduction, or MBSR, works by helping you control reactions that put you in a fight-or-flight mode and gives you the tools to name and accept what you’re feeling, alleviating worry.
Similarly, a 2018 review and meta-analysis in BMC Health Services Research found that exercise is a bona fide treatment for anxiety, relieving symptoms for those who had been diagnosed with an anxiety disorder or who experienced heightened worries or angst, compared to control groups. Physical activity may bump up the production of feel-good neurotransmitters, improve confidence in your ability to push through difficult physical—and thus mental—sensations, and reduce racing thoughts. The authors conclude that exercise can be a powerful tool in a treatment plan for anxiety.
Experience Mindful Movement with The Class
The Class is more than just a workout. It combines cardio, strength training, yoga, and meditation to help you return to your body, to your mind—to you.
How The Class’ mindful movement helps you
learn how to reduce anxiety.
Mindfulness is a key component of The Class, and is one reason why 92% of students report feeling less anxious post-workout. But this type of mindfulness is more than just being and noticing—it’s doing and noticing. “In The Class, we put the body in motion and bring awareness to what is happening in the now, becoming more in tune with our sensations, feelings, thoughts, and energy in both the body and the mind,” explains Jaycee Gossett, founding Teacher and VP of Training at The Class.
The pairing of mindfulness with movement is unique to The Class—and activity can help make mindfulness even more effective. “In The Class, we practice dynamic moving meditation, where we get all the benefits of mindfulness with physical exercise,” Jaycee says.
Movement “invites us to have a greater understanding of what’s going on with us, and that brings in the ability to shift whatever may be stirring,” Jaycee says. For example, you may enter Class feeling uneasy or unsettled, but still trying to ignore those feelings to get through your day. That only makes them grow stronger—or at the very least, keeps them as a nagging force by your side that weighs you down. Anxiety will continue to say “pay attention to me,” until it becomes unmanageable.
The benefit of The Class is that your Teacher will take you through one movement (or exercise) per song—and that repetition is key to the meditative aspect of each session which results in your mind releasing focus on what you're doing because muscle memory has kicked in. When that happens, Jaycee says that you can “explore your internal world.” That might seem scary or frightening—and those feelings are completely valid—but remember that you’re in a safe space in Class (physically and emotionally) to dive into these internal feelings.
Jaycee adds that, “The Class incorporates breath, sound, and mindful movement, allowing you to release what may have felt over-activated or shut down, resulting in a more anchored, centered, and awakened state.” When you can notice your thoughts and feelings and move through them (literally!), that will go a long way in learning how to stop anxiety.
Another perk? An impressive 90% of students report feeling more resilient post-Class. Resiliency is your ability to bounce back from adverse or stressful situations. You can improve resiliency by developing coping strategies and changing how you view what’s happening in the world around you, according to the American Psychological Association. And you can do that through The Class. “The way we move helps us learn how to self-regulate, manage our energy and reactions, and strengthen both the body and our ability to move through challenging situations,” says Jaycee.
Balance the intensity The Class with the flow of yoga and the stillness of meditation to build an even stronger body and deeper connection to self.
Yoga + Meditation
How you can reduce anxiety with The Class
When one of your goals is to learn ways to relieve anxiety in your day-to-day, there are three things you can focus on during each Class:
Embrace mind wandering: The goal of mindfulness is not to get it right 100% of the time. Your mind will wander—there are certainly a lot of things going on and many worries that come along with them—and finding yourself off somewhere else in your head is to be expected. When that happens simply, and without judgment or shame, notice that it’s happening and bring your attention back to your breath, which will shift you back into the present moment.
Reflect: Noticing your mind wandering can also give you important information. “We invite students to get curious about what is happening when we do begin to wander. Is it in the cardio moves, slow moves, hard moves, or quiet movements?” asks Jaycee. “These insights can be helpful to bring into our day-to-day so that we can continue to practice presence outside of Class”.
Bring in a mantra: One thing you’ll notice post-Class is how your mindset has shifted. You can use that to your advantage by using a mantra to stay in a powerful, resilient, and less-anxious mindset for the rest of the day. These are three things Jaycee might say in Class to help you focus during the movements, overcome any physical discomfort, and calm anxiety when you leave—and you can use them as your own internal dialogue, too:
“Use this The Class to work out or work through the life experiences that cause us stress today. The ones that we choose not to carry into tomorrow.”
“It’s not about stopping the problems or the difficulties, it’s about what we do with them and how we come out of them.”
“Our emotional body is just as important as our physical body. Spending time getting to know our emotions helps us have a better understanding of who we are and how we react in life.”
Calm your anxiety
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