Over focusing on the future and on your internal state (thoughts and feelings) is the perfect recipe for anxiety. Doing the opposite by shifting your focus to the present and external, can be a helpful exercise to practice. One exercise is called 5-4-3-2-1 Grounding: 5. Focus on five things you see around you 4. Focus on four things you can touch 3. Focus on three things you can hear 2. Focus on two things you can smell 1. Focus on one thing you can taste These types of activities are never quick fixes. Changing our attitude and response to anxiety is the ultimate “fix.” Instead of using this as an attempt to get out of an anxious state quickly, it’s often more helpful to experiment engaging in it with the attitude of: “I’m going to do this exercise while anxiety does its thing and runs its course.”