Anxiety and trauma are not only thoughts. They show up as a jaw that stays clenched at a red light, a chest that will not fill all the way, a 3 a.m. wake-up with your heart already going.
Somatic exercises for anxiety work on the gap between knowing you are safe and feeling it. These are the eight our clinicians in Scottsdale teach most often, what each one does physiologically, and when to stop. They are self-regulation practices, not trauma therapy. Individual results vary.
This article is for general information and is not a substitute for professional diagnosis or treatment. If you take medication for anxiety, PTSD, or depression, none of what follows replaces it. Do not stop or change a dose on your own. That is a conversation with the person who prescribed it. If you are having thoughts of suicide or self-harm, call or text 988 to reach the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline, or call 911 in an emergency.
The research support for somatic work comes from studies of a clinician delivering it over a course of sessions, not from someone doing a 60-second exercise alone at home. That does not make the home version useless. It makes it a different thing: a way to practice noticing and settling, so the clinical work has somewhere to land.
Why Body-Based Practice Helps With Anxiety and Trauma
Anxiety is common enough that most people reading this know someone living with it. An estimated 19.1% of U.S. adults had any anxiety disorder in the past year, and about 31.1% will experience one at some point in life (National Institute of Mental Health). What those numbers do not capture is how physical it feels.
What the Stress Response Does to the Body
A threat response is a whole-body event. Heart rate climbs, breathing goes shallow and fast, blood moves toward the large muscles, digestion slows, and the muscles around the jaw, neck, and hips brace for something. That sequence is useful when there is something to run from.
The problem is what happens when there is nothing to run from and the sequence starts anyway, or starts and never finishes. The body stays partway through a response it never got to complete. That is why the sensation can outlast the event by hours, or by years.
Why Talking About It Is Not Always Enough
Talk therapy works from the top down. It uses language, insight, and meaning to change how you relate to an experience, and for a great many people that is enough.
Body-based work runs the other direction. It starts with sensation, posture, and breath, and lets the thinking brain catch up afterward. That matters when someone can describe what happened in careful detail and still feel their chest tighten every time they do. If that is familiar, it may be worth reading what somatic therapy is alongside this guide, or looking at how we approach anxiety treatment more broadly.
The 8 Somatic Exercises
Each one below has the same three parts: how to do it, why it works, and when to skip it. That last part is not filler. Body-based practice can stir things up, and knowing when to stop is as much a skill as the exercise itself.
Start with one. Sixty seconds of an exercise you actually do beats twenty minutes of one you dread.
1. Orienting: Look Around the Room
How to do it
- Sit or stand where you are and let your head turn slowly, as if you had all the time in the world.
- Let your eyes land wherever they want to land. Do not choose for them.
- When something holds your attention, stay with it for a breath or two. Name it silently: lamp, doorframe, tree.
- Keep going for about 60 seconds, then notice whether your breathing or shoulders changed on their own.
Why it works
Turning the head and scanning the environment is the orienting reflex, one of the oldest things a nervous system does. Under threat, vision narrows and fixes. Deliberately widening it and letting the eyes move freely gives the system current information about where you actually are, which is usually somewhere safe. Orienting is a foundational move in Somatic Experiencing, the body-oriented approach developed by Peter Levine and offered here as Somatic Experiencing therapy.
When to skip it
If the room itself is the reminder, orient somewhere else. Step outside, or look out a window. And skip it entirely while driving.
2. Grounding: Feet, Seat, and Contact
How to do it
- Put both feet flat on the floor and press down, firmly enough to feel it in your legs.
- Hold that pressure for about five seconds, then release. Repeat three times.
- Now notice every place your body is being held: heels, backs of thighs, the chair against your spine.
- Stay with that contact for 30 seconds. Nothing to change, just contact.
Why it works
Pressing into the floor sends proprioceptive input, information about where your body is in space, up to a brain that is currently busy with something else. It is hard to be fully inside a worry loop and fully aware of your heels at the same time. Grounding does not argue with the anxious thought. It competes with it for attention.
When to skip it
If noticing your body feels intolerable rather than settling, drop the interior focus and use the environment instead. Orienting is the gentler starting point.
3. The Physiological Sigh
How to do it
- Inhale through the nose until your lungs feel about three-quarters full.
- Without exhaling, take a second short sip of air through the nose.
- Let it all go through the mouth in a long, unforced exhale. Longer out than in.
- Repeat one to five times. Most people feel a shift inside three rounds.
Why it works
The double inhale reinflates collapsed air sacs in the lungs, and the extended exhale is where the parasympathetic shift happens: heart rate slows on the out-breath. In a randomized trial from Stanford, five minutes a day of cyclic sighing for one month improved mood and lowered respiratory rate more than an equivalent dose of mindfulness meditation (Balban et al., Cell Reports Medicine, 2023). Note what was tested there: a daily practice over a month, not a single breath. If breath is the piece that interests you most, we go deeper in our guide to breathwork for anxiety.
When to skip it
If you live with panic attacks, breath-focused work can sometimes trigger one. Start with a single round rather than five, and stop if your breathing feels harder to control rather than easier.
4. The Body Scan
How to do it
- Sit or lie down. Start at the soles of your feet.
- Move your attention upward in sections: feet, lower legs, hips, belly, chest, hands, arms, shoulders, jaw, face.
- At each stop, ask one question. What is here? Tight, warm, buzzing, numb, nothing at all. All valid answers.
- Do not try to relax anything. Noticing is the whole exercise. Give it three to five minutes.
Why it works
The body scan trains interoception, the sense of your own internal state. That is the raw material every other exercise on this list depends on, because you cannot settle activation you have not noticed. It also builds a vocabulary. Over a few weeks, "I feel awful" tends to resolve into something more specific and more workable, like a band across the chest that shows up before meetings. Practices in this family sit alongside the breathwork sessions we run as part of treatment.
When to skip it
Scan the outer edges only, hands and feet, if the torso feels like too much. Skip it before sleep if it tends to wind you up rather than down.
5. Self-Holding
How to do it
- Place one hand flat on your upper chest and the other across your lower ribs or belly.
- Let the weight of your hands rest there. Steady, gentle pressure, not pressing hard.
- Breathe normally and notice the warmth building under each palm.
- Stay for one to two minutes, or until something in your torso softens.
Why it works
Warmth and firm, predictable contact are among the earliest calming signals a human nervous system learns to read. Self-holding supplies both, plus a physical sense of containment when things feel scattered. It is also the most portable exercise here, since it works under a desk or in a parked car with nobody noticing. If you are working through trauma treatment, this is often the one clinicians suggest first, because it asks the least of you.
When to skip it
If touch is itself a trigger, do not push through it. Rest your hands on a table or a cushion instead and use the same steady pressure there.
6. Humming, Sighing Out Loud, or a Long Voo
How to do it
- Take an easy breath in through the nose.
- On the way out, make a sound. Hum with your lips closed, sigh audibly, or make a low sustained "voo" like a distant foghorn.
- Let the sound run the length of the exhale, then stop and breathe normally for a moment.
- Repeat four or five times, listening for where the vibration lands in your chest, throat, or face.
Why it works
This one stacks two things. The exhale is naturally longer when you are making sound on it, which is the same lever the physiological sigh pulls. Vocalizing also engages the muscles of the throat and larynx, an area richly supplied by the vagus nerve. Research on vagal tone and vocalization is still developing, so treat the vibration piece as a plausible mechanism rather than settled science. What is not in question is the exhale. Clients working on emotional regulation often find this easier than silent breathing, because the sound gives you something to track.
When to skip it
If hearing your own voice feels exposing, hum almost silently with your mouth closed. The exhale is doing most of the work anyway.
7. Gentle Shaking
How to do it
- Stand with your knees soft and unlocked.
- Shake out your hands as though you are flicking water off them. Ten seconds.
- Let it travel: forearms, upper arms, shoulders, then a loose bounce through the knees.
- Stop after 30 to 60 seconds. Stand still and notice what is happening in your arms and legs now.
Why it works
A stress response mobilizes the body for movement that often never happens. You get the fuel and none of the running. Shaking gives that mobilized energy an outlet and, more usefully, a clear ending: the stillness afterward is the part worth paying attention to. You will see this described online as shaking the trauma out of your body. That framing overstates what anyone can show. Describe it as motor discharge and a reset, and you are on solid ground. It can help with the restlessness that often accompanies PTSD treatment, without being a treatment for PTSD.
When to skip it
Skip or shorten it if you have a joint, back, or balance issue that makes bouncing a bad idea. Sit and shake only the hands instead. Stop if shaking builds rather than releases activation.
8. Pendulation With a Resource
How to do it
- First, find your resource: a place in your body that feels neutral or pleasant right now. Often the hands, the feet, or the back against a chair.
- Rest your attention there for 20 seconds until you can find it easily.
- Now bring attention to a place that holds some tension. Stay only a few seconds. Do not dig in.
- Return to the resource. Wait until you feel settled again.
- Go back and forth two or three times, always finishing on the resource.
Why it works
Pendulation is the principle that you approach difficulty in small doses and always have somewhere to return to. It is a core Somatic Experiencing technique, and it is the one on this list with the strongest clinical evidence behind the professional version. In the first randomized controlled trial of Somatic Experiencing for PTSD, 63 adults were assigned to 15 weekly sessions or a waitlist, and the treatment group showed large reductions in posttraumatic symptom severity, with effect sizes of 0.94 to 1.26, plus a moderate effect on depression (Brom et al., Journal of Traumatic Stress, 2017). That trial studied trained clinicians over 15 sessions, not a solo practice, which is exactly why this exercise belongs last.
When to skip it
If you cannot find a resource, stop here and go back to orienting or grounding. Pendulation without a reliable place to return to is the fastest route to feeling flooded, and it is the exercise most worth doing with a clinician first.
How to Practice These Safely
Most articles about somatic exercises put a line about talking to a therapist at the very bottom. This is the part we would rather you read first, because body-based practice can surface more than expected, particularly for someone carrying unprocessed trauma.
Start Small and Titrate
Titration means working in doses small enough that your system can handle them. In practice: one exercise, 30 to 60 seconds, once or twice a day. Not four exercises for twenty minutes because today was hard. Frequency builds the capacity. Duration mostly builds resistance to doing it again tomorrow.
Signs to Stop
Stop the exercise, open your eyes, and put your feet on the floor if you notice any of the following:
- Distress climbing rather than settling as the minute goes on
- Feeling far away, foggy, or as though you are watching yourself from outside
- Numbness spreading, or losing track of where your body ends
- A racing heart that will not come back down after a few minutes
- Memories or images arriving faster than you can manage them
None of that means you did the exercise wrong or that something is wrong with you. It means the dose was too large for today. Shrink it, or move to an exercise that keeps your eyes open and your attention outside the body.
When to Get Help Now
If you are having thoughts of suicide or self-harm, this is not a self-practice moment. Call or text 988 to reach the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline, available 24 hours a day, or call 911 if there is immediate danger. If you take prescribed medication, keep taking it as directed and raise any changes with your prescriber rather than adjusting on your own.
When a Home Practice Is Not Enough
A daily minute of grounding is a real thing. It is also not treatment, and it is worth being honest about where the line sits.
Signs You May Want Structured Treatment
The question is usually not how bad the symptoms are on their worst day. It is how much of your life they are quietly reorganizing. Work that takes twice as long. Sleep that has not been reliable in months. A list of places, people, or conversations you have started avoiding without deciding to. Alcohol or something else doing the work of settling you down at night. People who function well at work often carry this the longest, which we wrote about in trauma in high-functioning adults.
What Structured Care Looks Like at Redefine
Our Partial Hospitalization Program runs 5 days a week, 25 to 30 hours weekly across 5 to 6 hour days, typically for 4 to 8 weeks. Our Intensive Outpatient Program runs 3 days a week, 9 to 12 hours weekly, which is the option most people choose when they are holding down a job. For a shorter, more concentrated format, there is the intensive trauma therapy retreat. If you are unsure which fits, the level of care quiz is a reasonable starting point.
Redefine Wellness & Treatment is an out-of-network provider. Coverage and reimbursement vary by plan, so verify your benefits before you start rather than after. Individual results vary, and no program can promise a particular outcome.
Common Questions About Somatic Exercises
Somatic exercises are short body-based practices that use sensation, breath, and movement to settle a stress response. Instead of working through thoughts, they work through what the body is doing: where it is bracing, how it is breathing, what it registers as safe. Most take under two minutes.
Release is popular shorthand rather than an accurate description. What the research supports is clinician-delivered somatic therapy reducing posttraumatic symptoms over a course of sessions. A home exercise supports regulation: it helps you notice activation and settle it. That is genuinely useful, and it is not the same as processing trauma.
Thirty to sixty seconds is enough to start, once or twice a day. Frequency matters more than duration, because you are building a capacity rather than completing a task. If a longer session leaves you drained or avoidant the next day, that is a signal to shorten it.
They can, for some people. Turning attention inward may amplify sensation before it settles, particularly with a trauma history. Stop if distress climbs rather than eases, if you feel foggy or far away, or if memories arrive faster than you can manage. Then try a smaller dose tomorrow.
Often yes, in small doses, and better with support in place. The exercises that keep your eyes open and your attention outside the body, like orienting and grounding, are the safest starting points. Pendulation and long body scans are worth learning with a trauma-informed clinician before you practice them alone.
Somatic exercises are self-practice: short techniques you use on your own between other things. Somatic therapy is a clinician-delivered treatment, given over a course of sessions, with someone tracking your nervous system alongside you. The exercises support the therapy. They do not replace it.
There is randomized controlled evidence for Somatic Experiencing. In a 2017 trial, 63 adults with PTSD were assigned to 15 weekly sessions or a waitlist, and the treatment group showed large reductions in posttraumatic symptom severity. The evidence base is smaller than for EMDR or CBT, and it is real.
Talk therapy works from the top down, using language and insight to change how you relate to an experience. Somatic therapy works from the bottom up, starting with sensation, breath, and posture. Many people do both. The body-based route often helps when someone can describe what happened and still feels it physically.
Redefine Wellness and Treatment is an out-of-network provider, so coverage and reimbursement depend on your specific plan. Some plans reimburse a portion of out-of-network care and some do not. Verify your benefits before starting rather than after. Our team can walk through what your plan shows by phone.
Redefine Wellness and Treatment offers Somatic Experiencing at our Scottsdale location, as part of a plan built around the individual rather than a fixed sequence. We serve Scottsdale, Paradise Valley, Cave Creek, Fountain Hills, and the wider Phoenix metro. Call (888) 546-5580 to talk it through.
