Anxiety & Stress
Evidence-based anxiety & stress practices.
23 concepts in this area — each broken into concrete practices with the real mechanism, an honest read on the evidence, and how to practice it with IX Coach.
- Accepting Uncertainty: The Core Skill in CBT for GAD
Why the need to know keeps anxiety running — and how to loosen its grip
- Applied Relaxation, Made Practical
Training relaxation to the speed and portability required to use it in real life
- Challenge vs. Threat Appraisal, Made Practical
Turning performance stress from threat into challenge — the cardiovascular and cognitive science
- Cognitive Reframing, Made Practical
How reappraisal changes emotion, the common distortions, and how to do it without toxic positivity
- Decatastrophizing, Made Practical
The evidence-based toolkit for getting worst-case thinking back to reality
- Defusion from Anxious Thoughts
Unhook from anxious thoughts without fighting them — the ACT approach
- Interoceptive Exposure for Panic
Deliberately inducing panic sensations to break the fear-of-fear cycle
- Panic Surfing
Ride the wave rather than fight it — the physiology and practice of weathering panic
- Progressive Muscle Relaxation, Made Practical
The tense/release method, why it works, and how to do it without straining
- Safety Behavior Fading, Made Practical
How avoidance in disguise keeps anxiety alive — and how to dismantle it
- Stress Inoculation Training
Meichenbaum’s three-phase protocol for building real-world stress resilience
- Tend-and-Befriend, Made Practical
Social affiliation as a biological stress-regulation strategy
- The 5-4-3-2-1 Grounding Technique
Five senses, present moment, out of your head — a step-by-step guide
- The Anxiety Toolkit, Made Practical
A small kit of skills for different moments, each with its mechanism and honest evidence
- The Clark Panic Model, Made Practical
The catastrophic misinterpretation loop and the CBT techniques that break it
- The Coping Card
Preload your rational voice for the moments you need it most
- The DARE Response to Anxiety, Made Practical
The four-step acceptance response, why fighting anxiety backfires, and how to practice it honestly
- The Fear Ladder: Graded Exposure Made Practical
Build the hierarchy, climb it steadily, let the nervous system catch up
- The Relaxation Response, Made Practical
The two ingredients, the physiology behind them, and how to practice honestly
- The Stress-Is-Enhancing Mindset
Crum’s mindset research — what works, what doesn’t, and how to use it honestly
- The Worry Tree
A CBT decision-tree that turns runaway worry into a bounded, actionable process
- Worry Exposure, Made Practical
How deliberate, structured worry practice reduces anxious avoidance
- Worry Postponement, Made Practical
Why containing worry to a fixed window helps, and how to run worry time without backfiring
Practice this with IX Coach
7 days free, then $40/month (~$1.30/day).