3 Myths About Anxiety You Should Stop Believing
By: Gina Romero, LICSW, LCSW
Anxiety is one of the most common reasons that people seek therapy, yet it’s also one of the most misunderstood. Many people assume anxiety is simply “overthinking” or something you can just push through. In reality, anxiety is a full-body experience that affects your thoughts, emotions, and even your physical sensations.
What Is Anxiety and Why It’s So Often Misunderstood?
Your nervous system is designed to protect you. When it senses danger (real or perceived), it activates a stress response. This can look like racing thoughts, a tight chest, shallow breathing, or a constant sense of unease. It becomes problematic when your body remains in this state.
When we misunderstand anxiety, we often respond to it in ways that actually make it worse. This blog post will discuss some common myths associated with anxiety, and provide some tools for managing more effectively.
3 Common Myths About Anxiety
Myth 1: Anxiety Is Just in Your Head
This is one of the most damaging misconceptions. As I mentioned above, the physical experiences of anxiety are just as important as the cognitive.
When you feel anxious, your body is actively responding to a real or perceived threat, just as we discussed above. Your heart rate increases, your muscles tense, and your breathing changes.
Because anxiety lives in the body, simply “thinking differently” doesn’t always resolve it. It can help, but it’s also helpful to include somatic approaches.
Myth 2: You Can Just Calm Down If You Try Hard Enough
If it were that simple, no one would struggle with anxiety. Telling someone to “just relax” ignores how the nervous system works and minimizes their experience.
Instead of forcing calm, the goal is to support your body in feeling safe again. This might include grounding techniques, cognitive interventions, or guided breathing that helps regulate your system gradually.
Myth 3: Anxiety Means Something Is Wrong With You
Experiencing anxiety means your body is doing exactly what it was designed to do—protecting you.
The issue isn’t that anxiety exists, but that it can become stuck or overactive. With the right tools and support, your nervous system can learn to return to balance.
10 Ways to Manage Anxiety
1. Practice Slow, Intentional Breathing
Breathing is one of the fastest ways to influence your nervous system. When you take slow, full inhales and long, extended exhales, you signal to your body that it’s safe to relax.
Try it out: Place one hand on your lower belly, and try breathing all the way into your lower belly. Notice how your hand rises and falls with your breath. Notice how your body softens on the exhale, and how your muscles relax.
2. Use Grounding Through Your Senses
When anxiety pulls you into your thoughts, grounding brings you back to the present.
Try the 5-4-3-2-1 exercise: Notice five things you can see, four things you can touch, and so on. This helps anchor your awareness in your environment and reduces overwhelm.
Fun fact: Your sense of smell is the fastest grounding tool.
3. Move Your Body Gently
Anxiety often creates excess energy in the body. Gentle movement like stretching, walking, or slow swaying can help discharge that energy. For a less gentle approach, dancing can also help!
4. Create a Sense of Space Around You
When anxiety rises, your world can feel small and tight. Expanding your awareness outward can help.
Try it: Notice the room, the air, and the environment. Notice how small you are in relation to the room you’re in, and in relation to your neighborhood, etc.
This practice can reduce the intensity of internal sensations.
5. Allow the Feeling Instead of Fighting It
Resisting anxiety often makes it stronger. Instead, try acknowledging it: “Something in me feels anxious right now.” This creates a sense of separation and reduces internal struggle.
6. Lengthen Your Exhale
A longer exhale activates the parasympathetic nervous system, which promotes calm. Try inhaling for four seconds and exhaling for six or more. Repeat as many times as desired.
7. Track Sensations Instead of Thoughts
Instead of getting caught in anxious thoughts, shift your focus to physical sensations–like your feet on the ground or your breath moving in your chest.
8. Build a Daily Check-In Practice
Pause throughout the day and ask: “What am I feeling in my body right now?” This builds awareness and prevents anxiety from building unnoticed.
9. Practice Self-Compassion
Speak to yourself the way you would to a friend. Anxiety can feel isolating, but kindness toward yourself creates safety internally.
Book recommendation: Self Compassion by Kristen Neff
10. Seek Professional Support
Sometimes, anxiety needs more than self-help strategies. Working with a licensed therapist can provide deeper, long-lasting relief.
Wandering Pine Wellness is here to help!
Effective Treatments for Anxiety That Actually Work
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT)
CBT helps you understand how your thoughts, emotions, and behaviors are connected. It teaches practical tools to challenge unhelpful thinking patterns and create healthier responses.
EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing)
EMDR is a powerful therapy that helps process past experiences that may be contributing to anxiety. It uses guided eye movements or other forms of bilateral stimulation to help your brain reprocess distressing memories.
Many people find that EMDR reduces the emotional intensity of past events, allowing their nervous system to feel safer in the present.
Learn more about EMDR here:https://www.wanderingpinewellness.com/emdr-therapy-las-vegas
Somatic Therapy and Body-Based Approaches
Somatic therapy focuses on how anxiety is stored in the body. Instead of only talking about thoughts, it helps you tune into physical sensations and gently release tension.
This can include:
Tracking sensations
Gentle movement
Breathwork
Nervous system regulation
These approaches are especially helpful because they work directly with the body—the place where anxiety is often felt most strongly.
Try This Somatic Exercise to Help With Anxiety
If you’re feeling anxious right now, try this gentle, body-based practice inspired by somatic movement and breathwork:
Flowing River Exercise
Sit or stand comfortably, allowing your body to feel supported
Imagine your body as part of a slow, flowing river—always moving, never stuck
Begin with a small, gentle movement in your head, like the current softly guiding you
Let that movement travel down into your neck and shoulders, allowing them to subtly shift and release
Continue slowly down your body. Chest, spine, hips, legs—Letting each area move just slightly, as if carried by water
Allow your breath to flow naturally with the movement, like waves coming in and out
On each exhale, imagine tension drifting downstream and away from you
Notice any areas that feel tight, and instead of forcing them to relax, let them move at their own pace
This type of slow, flowing micro-movement helps your nervous system shift out of a stress response and into a more regulated state, similar to the gentle sequencing and breath awareness described in somatic practices .
Ready for More Support?
If this exercise helped, you may benefit from working with a licensed therapist who specializes in anxiety and somatic approaches.
👉 Learn more here: https://wanderingpinewellness.com/las-vegas-anxiety-therapy/
Gina Romero is the Founder and a current therapist at WPW. She’s not accepting new clients at this time, but you can learn more about her here: wanderingpinewellness.com/ginaromero
