Sometimes you don’t want to talk about why you’re anxious—and honestly, you shouldn’t have to.
Sure, vocalising what you’re feeling can be helpful at times, but that’s not always true, and it doesn’t work for everyone. Whether you can’t find the words or just don’t feel like explaining yourself, it’s possible to ease your anxiety in ways that feel gentle, doable, and grounded, no words required.
1. Focus on something with your hands.
When your thoughts start spiralling, giving your hands something to do can bring you back into your body. It doesn’t have to be anything productive, just something tactile like folding clothes, kneading dough, doing a puzzle, or fiddling with a pen.
Physical action has a way of cutting through mental noise. It anchors your energy in the present and gives your brain something else to focus on without needing words or deep analysis. It’s a small change, but it works.
2. Get near water, even if it’s just the sink.
There’s something about water that calms the nervous system. Taking a shower, splashing your face, washing your hands slowly, or even standing by the kettle can create a little moment of reset when your chest feels tight or your head feels full.
It’s a way to pause without needing to explain what’s going on. The sound, the temperature, and the motion all give your senses something to hold onto. When your mind feels frantic, that kind of small sensory grounding helps more than you’d think.
3. Change your physical space.
Even moving to another room, stepping outside for a few minutes, or opening a window can shift the way anxiety sits in your body. Sometimes your environment is feeding the spiral without you realising it. It’s not about running away; it’s about giving your brain new input. A change in light, sound, or air can soften anxious energy and break that stuck-in-your-head feeling without needing to unpack anything emotionally.
4. Breathe in patterns you don’t have to overthink.
Being told to “just breathe” when you’re anxious can be annoying, but simple breathing patterns do help when you don’t want to talk. Try something easy like four counts in, four out, or sighing deeply a few times in a row.
Focusing on your breath without trying to perfect it can nudge your nervous system out of panic mode. You’re not forcing calm, you’re just giving your body something slow and steady to follow instead of the chaos inside your head.
5. Give your thoughts a task.
When your mind’s in overdrive, giving it something neutral to chew on can take the edge off. Try counting backwards from 100 by sevens, listing songs from a childhood playlist, or going through the alphabet naming countries or animals.
It sounds silly, but brain games pull focus without needing to talk or explain anything. It’s like creating a traffic jam in your brain, so the anxious thoughts can’t zoom around quite so fast. Just enough mental effort to slow things down.
6. Do something completely routine.
There’s something oddly soothing about doing tasks on autopilot when you’re anxious. Making your bed, brushing your hair, loading the dishwasher—anything familiar gives your brain something steady to hold onto. You’re not trying to fix the feeling. You’re just giving yourself structure when things feel loose and overwhelming. Even if it doesn’t “solve” anything, it makes the moment feel more contained, and that can be enough.
7. Use temperature as a reset.
Whether it’s cold water on your wrists, a warm cup in your hands, a chilled cloth on your face, changes in temperature have a calming effect on the nervous system. They don’t need an explanation or emotional processing to work.
It’s not magic, it’s just biology. Temperature changes trigger a physical response that tells your body it’s safe to calm down. No talking, no digging into your feelings—just quiet physical relief when your mind is too loud.
8. Turn on calming background noise.
Silence can sometimes make anxiety feel louder. A low-volume playlist, ambient noise, a podcast with a soft tone, or a fan in the background can help fill the space without overwhelming your senses. It’s not about distraction; it’s about creating a softer backdrop for your brain. Something steady and predictable gives your nervous system something to relax into, even if you’re not ready to speak or explain what’s going on.
9. Ground your senses one at a time.
Try choosing one sense—touch, sight, sound, smell—and focusing on just that for a minute. Feel the texture of your blanket, stare at a light pattern, notice background sounds, or hold something that smells familiar.
When anxiety’s buzzing, tuning into one sense can gently bring you back into your body. It helps you slow down without needing to dig into your emotions. You don’t need to fix the feeling. You just need something real to hold onto for now.
10. Do something slow on purpose.
Anxiety tends to make you feel rushed, even when there’s nothing to rush for. Doing something deliberately slow — like brushing your teeth slowly, stirring a drink mindfully, or walking slowly down the hall — helps calm that “go go go” energy.
It’s not about performing calmness. It’s just a quiet way to counterbalance the urgency in your chest. Matching your body’s pace to something slower reminds your system that there’s no emergency, even if it feels like there is.
11. Let your body shake it out.
Anxiety builds tension in the body—sometimes in your shoulders, your jaw, your fists — and letting it move can help you release it. Shaking out your hands, bouncing your knees, or dancing to one loud song helps let that energy out physically.
You don’t have to talk about what’s causing it. You’re just giving the anxious energy somewhere to go so it doesn’t sit frozen inside you. Moving through it without words can be the most natural thing you do all day.
12. Use something warm and weighted.
A warm blanket, a heated wheat bag, or even a weighted hoodie can bring a quiet kind of comfort. Warmth relaxes tense muscles, and pressure creates a sense of safety, like your body’s getting a hug without needing one from someone else.
When you can’t or don’t want to talk, this kind of physical reassurance is grounding. It speaks to your nervous system in a language it understands—soft, quiet, steady comfort when words are too much.
13. Get close to something natural.
Nature helps regulate stress in subtle ways. If you can get outside, even just for a short walk, do it. If not, try sitting near a plant, looking out the window, or listening to nature sounds—rain, wind, birds, whatever feels calming.
You’re not trying to “do mindfulness” or force yourself into a state of peace. You’re just letting the natural world take the lead. It brings you back into rhythm without needing to analyse a thing.
14. Write without a goal.
If your mind is racing, and you can’t talk about it, sometimes writing helps you get it out without needing to make sense of it. You don’t have to journal or be poetic—just let the words spill out however they want to. You can even write nonsense, song lyrics, or lists of things around the room. The point isn’t what you’re writing; it’s that you’re giving your thoughts a place to go that isn’t bouncing around in your head.
15. Remind yourself it doesn’t need to be fixed right now.
Anxiety makes you feel like something is urgently wrong, and that you need to solve it now. However, sometimes, the pressure to fix the feeling makes it worse. It’s okay to tell yourself, “I don’t have to solve this right now. I’m just riding it out.” That one change—from “I have to fix this” to “I can just get through this moment”—creates space. It turns the volume down a little, and that can be all you need to get through a hard patch without needing to put it into words.
