Coaching practices for How to Stop Anxiety Chest Pain

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Does this sound like the set of challenges you might be facing?

  • The instant I feel my heart skip or my chest tighten, I’m sure something is really wrong with me, and the fear of the sensation spins it into something bigger
  • The second I feel my heart pound or my chest tighten I clench up and try to force it to stop, and the fighting just cranks it higher
  • I can feel it starting to build
  • My anxiety lives in my body
  • I always wait until I’m already in full panic to try to calm down, and by then it’s too far gone for anything to work

Practices that may help

  1. Interoceptive awareness
    Practice noticing and naming body sensations neutrally, so they stop reading as alarms.
    The Anxiety Toolkit, Made Practical
  2. Allow the sensations without resisting
    Let the physical feelings of anxiety be present instead of bracing against them.
    The DARE Response to Anxiety, Made Practical
  3. Deploy 4-7-8 as an acute anxiety interrupt
    Four cycles of 4-7-8 breathing can interrupt a building anxiety response before it escalates.
    4-7-8 Breathing, Made Practical
  4. Exercise to lower anxiety
    Use movement to discharge physical arousal and recalibrate the alarm system.
    Exercise for Mental Health
  5. Use grounding before anxiety peaks, not after
    Start the technique at the first sign of anxiety — not once the wave is overwhelming.
    The 5-4-3-2-1 Grounding Technique
  6. Paced breathing as grounding
    Slow and lengthen the exhale to bring acute arousal down while you ground.
    Grounding Techniques for Acute Distress
  7. Allow the sensations instead of fighting them
    Do not try to stop the racing heart, the dizziness, the breathlessness — allow them and observe.
    Panic Surfing
  8. Add interoceptive rungs for bodily fear
    If you fear the physical sensations of anxiety itself, include exposures that deliberately induce them.
    The Fear Ladder: Graded Exposure Made Practical
  9. Improve CO2 tolerance to reduce anxiety sensitivity
    The 7-count hold in 4-7-8 builds CO2 tolerance — a key factor in anxiety reactivity and panic thresholds.
    4-7-8 Breathing, Made Practical
  10. Extended-exhale breathing
    Lengthen the exhale relative to the inhale to down-regulate the nervous system fast.
    The Anxiety Toolkit, Made Practical

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