1. Slow your breathing

Breathe in for four counts and out for six. A longer exhale tells your body it's safe. Two minutes is enough to notice a difference.

2. Write the worry down

Getting a racing thought onto paper makes it smaller and easier to look at. Set aside ten minutes a day as worry time and park the rest until then.

3. Move a little every day

A short walk does more for anxious energy than you might expect. It doesn't need to be exercise. It just needs to be movement.

4. Protect your sleep, and 5. cut back on caffeine

Anxiety and poor sleep feed each other, and caffeine makes both worse. Small changes here often help more than anything else on this list.

Why small habits work

Anxiety lives in the body as much as the mind. Small habits work because they send the same calming signal again and again, until your nervous system starts to expect it. One big change is hard to keep. Five small ones are easier, and they reinforce each other.

Think of them less as a cure and more as turning the volume down, so you have more room to think clearly.

Making them stick

Attach each habit to something you already do. Breathe slowly while the kettle boils. Write your worries down right after dinner. Walk after your first call of the day. Linking a new habit to an old one means you don’t have to remember it.

Expect to miss days. Missing one day doesn’t undo anything. Just pick it back up the next day.

When habits aren’t enough

If anxiety is stopping you from doing things you want or need to do, if you’re avoiding places or people, or if you’re having panic attacks, habits are a good start but probably not the whole answer. A therapist can teach you tools like cognitive behavioural techniques that are designed for exactly this.