Neuroplasticity and Anxiety: Exercises to Retrain Your Brain from Anxiety

Home  >  Resources for Anxiety > Neuroplasticity and Anxiety

Anxiety disorders affect nearly 19% of adults in the United States each year, making it one of the most prevalent mental health issues today. But thanks to the brain’s incredible capacity for change—a phenomenon known as neuroplasticity—there’s hope for reshaping how we experience anxiety. In fact, consistent mental practices can strengthen these neural pathways, helping the brain become less reactive to stress and more resilient over time. Through neuroplasticity exercises, anyone struggling with anxiety can learn to reset their mind, harnessing the brain’s natural ability to heal and grow.

What is Neuroplasticity?

Neuroplasticity is the brain’s natural ability to reorganize itself by forming new neural connections in response to our thoughts, experiences, and behaviors. Psychologist and expert in Positive Neuroplasticity Dr. Rick Hanson describes the brain as adaptable, constantly rewiring itself according to what we focus on and practice. When we intentionally engage in practices that build calm, inner strength, or a sense of safety, we strengthen those positive pathways, making these responses to stress and anxiety more automatic over time.

Dr. Hanson emphasizes that we are not “stuck” with our habitual patterns, such as chronic worry or fearfulness. Instead, by repeatedly practicing new ways of thinking and feeling, we can reshape the brain to respond with greater resilience and calmness. Neuroplasticity, in this sense, empowers us to actively change our mental habits and transform our responses to anxiety. With focused practice, we can create a foundation of inner peace and strength that supports a healthier, less anxious mind.

What is Anxiety, and How Does It Affect the Brain?

Anxiety is a natural emotional response to perceived threats or stressors, ranging from mild unease to intense fear. While it serves as a survival mechanism by keeping us alert to potential dangers, chronic or disproportionate anxiety can negatively impact mental and physical well-being.

In the brain, anxiety primarily involves the amygdala, which detects threats and triggers the body’s fight-or-flight response. Chronic anxiety can over-sensitize the amygdala, making it more reactive to perceived dangers. Simultaneously, it may suppress activity in the prefrontal cortex, responsible for rational decision-making and emotional regulation. This imbalance can lead to heightened fear responses and difficulty managing stress effectively.

9 Neuroplasticity Exercises for Anxiety

1. A Calm Core

This exercise focuses on calming the body as a pathway to reducing anxiety. When your body relaxes, your mind naturally follows suit, creating a harmonious state of balance. According to Rick Hanson, engaging the parasympathetic nervous system, often referred to as the “rest and digest” system, is key to achieving this. By calming the body, you break the cycle of physical tension that feeds into mental anxiety. This practice not only helps you feel more at ease in the moment but also builds a habit of resilience over time.

Why It’s Helpful:

Rick emphasizes that anxiety often starts as a physical response, such as tension or shallow breathing, which then escalates into mental stress. By learning to calm the body first, you gain a powerful tool to interrupt this cycle. Over time, this approach helps reduce wear and tear on your health, increases focus, and allows you to face challenges with clarity and composure.

How to Practice:

1. Sit or lie down in a comfortable position, and focus on your breathing. Breathe in deeply through your nose for a count of four.
2. Slowly exhale through your mouth for a count of eight. Repeat this cycle for 2-3 minutes, or longer if needed.
3. Visualize your mind as a pond with stirred-up sediment. Imagine each exhale settling the sediment, leaving the water clear and tranquil.
4. Let this feeling of calmness sink in. Reflect on how you can carry this state of relaxation into your daily activities.

2. Building a Sense of Strength

This exercise is about creating a sense of internal strength by recalling moments of resilience. Rick believes that anxiety often arises from a perceived mismatch between threats and resources. By focusing on your strengths—both physical and emotional—you reframe your perception, tipping the balance in your favor. This exercise is designed to make you feel capable and prepared to face challenges, even in uncertain or anxiety-provoking situations.

Why It’s Helpful:

Rick underscores that most people underestimate their strength. Acknowledging and internalizing your past achievements or moments of endurance can help shift your mindset from helplessness to empowerment. This practice cultivates confidence, helping you feel stronger and less anxious when approaching life’s difficulties.

How to Practice:

1. Reflect on a specific time when you felt strong or capable—whether it was completing a physical challenge, enduring emotional hardship, or standing up for yourself or others.
2. Close your eyes and relive that moment. Focus on the details: your body posture, emotions, and the sense of accomplishment you felt.
3. Sit up straight, plant your feet firmly on the ground, and embody a determined posture. Feel the weight of your strength in your body.
4. Think of a mildly anxiety-provoking situation in your life. Visualize yourself handling it while maintaining this feeling of strength and determination.

3. Recognizing Protections and Resources

This practice involves focusing on the protections and resources available in your life to foster a sense of safety. Rick highlights that feeling secure is a basic human need, and anxiety often stems from a perceived lack of safety. By becoming more aware of the safeguards and support systems around you, you can reduce feelings of vulnerability and anxiety.

Why It’s Helpful:

Rick explains that when we feel unsafe, our minds become preoccupied with scanning for threats, which amplifies anxiety. Recognizing and appreciating the protections we already have shifts this focus, calming the mind and creating a foundation of reassurance. This practice builds a stronger sense of stability over time.

How to Practice:

1. Look around your environment and identify physical protections—walls, sturdy doors, locks, or even shelter from the elements. Reflect on how these provide safety.
2. Mentally list resources you have access to, such as financial stability, supportive friends, family, or medical care.
3. Imagine yourself as a small, safe creature finding refuge in a secure space. Feel the comfort and reassurance this brings.
4. Take a moment to savor these feelings of protection and let them sink into your awareness.

4. Internalizing Relief and Reassurance

This practice encourages you to fully embrace moments of relief when things go right. Rick believes that anxiety often leads us to overlook the times when our worries don’t materialize. By consciously savoring these moments, you can train your brain to focus more on feelings of safety and calm rather than fear.

Why It’s Helpful:

Rick notes that the brain’s negativity bias makes it easy to focus on fears and challenges while ignoring positive experiences. This exercise counters that bias, reinforcing a sense of relief and reassurance. Over time, this practice helps create a mental “safe ground” you can return to during anxious moments.

How to Practice:

1. Reflect on a recent worry that didn’t come true. For example, a feared confrontation that went smoothly or a task you thought would be overwhelming but wasn’t.
2. Close your eyes and relive the relief you felt in that moment. Focus on the physical sensations of relaxation and emotional comfort.
3. Let these feelings of relief settle deeply into your mind, creating a lasting sense of calm.
4. Remind yourself that not every worry becomes reality, and you can approach future challenges with less fear.

5. Reducing “Paper Tiger” Paranoia

This exercise aims to correct the brain’s natural tendency to exaggerate threats, a phenomenon Rick refers to as “paper tiger paranoia.” This evolutionary mechanism, designed to ensure survival, often causes unnecessary anxiety by interpreting harmless situations as dangerous. By challenging and reframing these exaggerated fears, you can develop a more balanced perspective and reduce needless worry.

Why It’s Helpful:

Rick explains that this innate bias to perceive threats—stemming from our ancestors’ need to avoid danger—often leads to heightened anxiety in modern life. By learning to distinguish real threats from imagined ones, you can reduce false alarms and focus your energy on actual challenges. This practice cultivates emotional resilience and clarity.

How to Practice:

1. Take a piece of paper and draw a line down the middle to create two columns. Label one “Wrong Thought” and the other “Right Thought.”
2. Write down an anxious or exaggerated thought in the “Wrong Thought” column, such as “I’ll fail this presentation and everyone will think I’m incompetent.”
3. In the “Right Thought” column, list three factual rebuttals to the fear. For example, “I’ve prepared well, my past presentations went fine, and even if it’s not perfect, people will understand.”
4. Reflect on these counterarguments and notice how they make you feel calmer and more in control.

6. Feeling “Alright, Right Now”

This practice helps you focus on the present moment to notice and appreciate feelings of safety and well-being. Rick emphasizes that most of the time, our bodies are functioning well, and we are safe. Acknowledging this basic “all-right-ness” helps shift attention away from imagined future threats and toward present stability.

Why It’s Helpful:

Rick points out that anxiety thrives on projecting fears into the future or dwelling on past events. Grounding yourself in the present moment allows you to access the calm and stability that often go unnoticed. This practice reinforces a sense of ongoing safety and reduces the habit of bracing for imagined dangers.

How to Practice:

1. Sit quietly and focus on your breathing, noticing its natural rhythm.
2. Bring your attention to the physical sensations of safety: steady breathing, a calm heart rate, and the feeling of being supported by the chair or ground beneath you.
3. Remind yourself, “Right now, I am okay.” Let this thought sink in as you observe your surroundings.
4. If your mind begins to wander, gently bring it back to the present, reaffirming your sense of being “alright, right now.”

7. Taking Action in Response to Real Concerns

This exercise focuses on addressing concrete issues that contribute to anxiety by taking proactive steps. Rick highlights that anxiety often persists when actionable problems are left unaddressed. By breaking challenges into manageable tasks, you can reduce anxiety and feel a sense of control.

Why It’s Helpful:

Rick explains that anxiety can sometimes paralyze us, making problems feel insurmountable. Taking systematic action binds anxiety to constructive efforts, allowing you to face challenges head-on. This approach transforms vague fears into solvable problems, fostering confidence and emotional stability.

How to Practice:

1. Identify one area of your life where you feel anxious, such as finances, health, or relationships.
2. Break the concern into smaller, actionable steps. For example, if you’re worried about money, create a budget or reach out to a financial advisor.
3. Commit to taking one step at a time, focusing on progress rather than perfection.
4. Reflect on how each action reduces your anxiety and reinforces a sense of control over the situation.

8. Connecting with Your Sense of Strength in the Body

This practice emphasizes using physical posture and body awareness to evoke a sense of strength and resilience. Rick believes that embodying strength physically can influence your emotional state, helping you feel more prepared to face challenges.

Why It’s Helpful:

Rick highlights the connection between body and mind, noting that physical adjustments can significantly impact emotional states. Adopting a confident posture not only helps you feel stronger but also sends signals to your brain that you are capable and ready to handle difficulties.

How to Practice:

1. Stand or sit up straight, with your shoulders back and your feet firmly planted on the ground.
2. Breathe deeply and focus on the sensation of gravity grounding you. Feel the stability of your body.
3. Visualize yourself facing a specific challenge with this strong, resilient stance. Picture yourself succeeding or managing it effectively.
4. Practice this posture regularly to build a lasting association between physical strength and emotional resilience.

Reinforcing Safety Through Daily Routines

This exercise involves creating consistent daily routines that promote calm and predictability. Rick suggests that routines act as an anchor, reducing the mental strain caused by uncertainty and helping you feel more secure in your day-to-day life.

Why It’s Helpful:

Rick emphasizes that unpredictability can heighten anxiety by making us feel out of control. By establishing routines, you create a stable framework that reassures your brain and reduces the mental effort required to manage daily activities. This consistency fosters a sense of calm and control.

How to Practice:

1. Identify one or two calming practices to incorporate into your daily routine, such as mindful breathing, meditation, or journaling.
2. Choose specific times to perform these practices, such as first thing in the morning or before bed.
3. Stick to your routine consistently, even on busy days, to reinforce its calming effect.
4. Reflect on how these routines make you feel more grounded and prepared to face the day’s challenges.

Reasons to Apply Neuroplasticity Exercises for Anxiety

1. Reduce Automatic Fear Responses: Neuroplasticity exercises can help retrain the brain to respond to stressors with calm and resilience instead of anxiety. This is especially useful if your mind tends to jump quickly to worst-case scenarios or overestimate threats.

2. Build Inner Resources: Techniques like focusing on inner strength and recognizing protective resources reinforce a sense of security and self-assurance. These exercises strengthen the brain’s ability to access calm and confidence, even in challenging situations.

3. Shift Negative Thinking Patterns: Anxiety can be fueled by automatic negative thoughts. Neuroplasticity exercises, like challenging distorted thoughts, help replace these patterns with more balanced, realistic thoughts, reducing the power of anxiety.

Dr. Rick Hanson explains how the brain’s tendency to overgeneralize fear from past experiences leads to unnecessary anxiety. He shares strategies to prevent and rewire fear responses, including managing stress hormones, challenging overgeneralizations, and fostering peace and fearlessness.

Stephanie Veillon is a creative director and instructional designer with over 15 years of experience supporting clients in the mindfulness, personal growth, well-being, learning, and psychology fields. She leverages technology, design, marketing, and best online practices to tell client stories and enhance student experience.