Move Out of Your Mind – Use Exercise to Ease Anxiety
- Brainz Magazine
- 5 days ago
- 6 min read
Eszter Noble is an RTT® practitioner, Clinical Hypnotherapist, and Coach, specializing in anxiety, fears, and depression. Her method utilizes the most effective techniques from CBT, NLP, psychotherapy, and hypnotherapy, with the ability to provide freedom from any issues and deliver permanent, lasting solutions.
When you’re riddled with anxiety, getting up to exercise may very well feel like the absolute last thing you want to do. Activity, movement, however, is so important when it comes to dealing with anxiety because it changes your brain chemistry, your body’s stress response, and your thought patterns in ways that make you less vulnerable to getting stuck in anxious states. It may feel difficult to get started, but movement triggers endorphins, which improve mood, stress resilience, and brain function. Psychologically, regular exercise offers a concrete coping strategy, builds self-efficacy, and provides distraction from worry, all of which support better overall mental health.
Overcoming overwhelm
Most of us experience overwhelm, and it can feel like your thoughts, emotions, or demands are simply “too much,” and you don’t believe you can cope or keep up, so the idea of adding physical activity to your plate can seem incredibly daunting. It’s important, therefore, to start small. Even 5 or 10 minutes a day is an excellent way to initiate your new active way of life. Building good, consistent habits is more important than striving for perfection.
Consistency is also crucial, and it gives your nervous system a sense of safety and predictability, which can lower baseline stress and make anxious “spikes” less intense over time. Regular, repeated calming habits (like a set sleep time, daily movement, or a brief breathing practice at the same time each day) train your brain to expect regulation instead of threat, so it’s easier to settle when anxiety shows up. Again, it doesn’t have to be perfectly done, just done.
One more element we absolutely cannot neglect when it comes to feeling overwhelmed is shifting your self-talk by noticing harsh thoughts like “I can’t cope” and replacing them with more balanced ones, such as: “This is a lot, but I can handle one thing at a time.” Be deliberately kind to yourself, speaking as you would to a close friend or a loved one who is struggling. This positive self-talk is crucial because it helps regulate your nervous system, builds resilience, and ultimately shapes more helpful beliefs about yourself, which directly improve your mood, motivation, and coping.
The enemy of anxiety is action
Deep down, you may agree and know full well that exercise is very beneficial, but often it can feel nearly impossible to take the first step. Before you start beating yourself up over it or labelling yourself as lazy, allow me to share some insight on how your mind sees the situation. The fact is that your mind has a very different agenda. Your mind’s number one job is to keep you alive, and it doesn’t care if you thrive or not. Survival is the number one priority, and it will do what it can to preserve energy for a possible dangerous situation. This is why waiting for motivation is also a waste of time. It will feel hard, it will feel uncomfortable at first, but you need to understand and accept that, despite what your mind is trying to make you believe, discomfort does not equal danger. You will be fine. In fact, not only will you survive the difficulties of a workout or movement, but your body, mind, and mental well-being will thank you for it.
Action helps overcome anxiety by breaking the cycle of avoidance that keeps your nervous system “stuck” in threat mode. Each small step you take towards something you care about teaches your brain that you can handle discomfort and that the feared situation is survivable. When you repeatedly act in line with your values, going to the gym, making the decision to work out, stepping outside instead of staying in bed, you build evidence of competence, shrink the power of anxious predictions, and gradually shift from feeling powerless to feeling capable and in control.
Structure and systems to succeed
We often make plans and create a list with goals, and then, somehow, out of nowhere, almost, these mysterious obstacles appear. You wanted to go to the Pilates class, but you don’t have clean gear. You really had all the intentions of going for a long walk, but that meeting came up. You were going to cycle, but it started to rain. Well, no need to worry because we are going to use the way our mind works in our favour and annihilate all possible obstacles.
Our mind just wants to keep us safe and be prepared for anything that could be a potential threat. That is why it’s acting like a radar, seeking out anything that could harm us, and ‘negative thinking’ becomes such a part of our everyday life. So, with that in mind, let’s harness this behaviour.
Next time you plan on going to the gym, ask yourself: “How can I mess this up?”
I might have a massive meal beforehand, that would make me feel unable to move
I may forget to buy groceries and not have any food when I get home
I could forget to wash and prepare my gym gear the day before
I won’t check my schedule and be double-booked
Once you have your list of ‘unexpected issues,’ turn it around. What do I need to do to ensure I’m successful? Clean the clothes, prep the food, check the calendar, etc., and bam, no more surprises!
Something else people often underestimate is their environment. Do not expect to live a healthy lifestyle, work out consistently, or even just be active if your entourage is the opposite. If people around you mock you, make fun of your new Stanley Thirst Quencher Cup, or tease you for wanting to be fit, chances are you will surrender to the scrutiny and give up. Personally, I would suggest finding new friends. Your environment and the friends you keep shape who you become over time.
Starting can be daunting, and unfortunately, your mind will always try to pull you back to what is familiar, because it deems that safer. So, what should you do to become the new and improved you? And the answer is already there! You have to do, or in other words, take action, to become the new and improved version of yourself. By consistently showing up for yourself and keeping your promises to yourself, you signal to your subconscious that you are worthy.
Finally, please do not wait to feel ready, there will never be a perfect time, and if the idea of moving your body, being a bit more active, feels unattainable due to time constraints, you may well need to reprioritize. Look closely at your calendar or silently admit to yourself that you could probably trim the screen time a bit. For a week, write down what you spend every hour of the day on, and very quickly you will find the gaps. Your physical well-being shouldn’t be the last thing on your to-do list!
Progress for peace of mind
A lot of people hide behind perfectionism, claiming that they want to do everything just right, but unfortunately, it’s often one of the biggest excuses we use to delay what we really need to do. Focusing on progress instead of perfection is so important because perfection is an impossible standard that fuels anxiety, procrastination, and a constant sense of failure, but small, consistent steps are actually what build real habits and long-term change. When you allow yourself to do ‘something not perfect’- the pressure drops, it becomes easier to start, and even a short, imperfect version of your routine still reinforces the identity of someone who shows up for themselves.
This progress mindset will help you see mistakes or missed days as information rather than proof you’re not good enough, supporting your mental health, more self-compassion, and sustainable daily routines that fit your real life. Giving yourself permission to be imperfect is incredibly freeing. True happiness and calmness come from self-acceptance and realistic goals, not unattainable perfection.
Read more from Eszter Noble
Eszter Noble, Clinical Hypnotherapist & Coach
Eszter Noble is an established Clinical Hypnotherapist using the RTT® (Rapid Transformational Therapy) method, trained by world-renowned hypnotherapist Marisa Peer. She is known for handling extremely difficult cases and clients who have been stuck for years and have tried it all. Specializing in anxiety, fears, and depression, she is extremely intuitive and honest, dedicated to empowering her clients to become the best possible versions of themselves. Offering her expertise in English, German, and Hungarian, Eszter’s mission is to take the taboo out of therapy.
