Mindfulness means paying attention to what is happening right now, on purpose and without judging it. For anxiety, that can mean noticing a worried thought without following it into the future, or feeling your heart race without adding a second layer of panic about the racing. It is a skill, and like most skills it grows with practice.
Dr. Rabin draws on mindfulness-based approaches alongside psychodynamic therapy and CBT in her work with anxiety. The practices below are in no particular order. Try a few and keep what helps. None of them replaces care from a clinician if anxiety is getting in the way of your life.
1. Anchoring on the breath
Rest your attention on the feeling of breathing, in the belly, chest or nostrils. When your mind wanders, which it will, notice where it went and gently come back. The point is not to breathe a special way or to empty your mind. It is to practice returning, again and again. Many people start with five minutes a day. If focusing on the breath makes you more anxious, try the feet on the floor or the sounds in the room instead.
2. The body scan
Lying down or sitting, move your attention slowly through the body, from the toes to the head, noticing sensations without trying to change them. UMass Memorial Health's Center for Mindfulness introduces it in the first weeks of its Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction course. Anxiety often shows up in the body first, as a tight jaw, shallow breath or knotted stomach, and the body scan can help you notice it earlier.
3. The three-minute breathing space
This short practice comes from Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy. It has three steps of about a minute each: become aware of what you are thinking, feeling and sensing right now; gather your attention on the breath; then widen your awareness to the body as a whole. Because it is brief, it is easy to use in the middle of a stressful day, before a meeting or when you notice anxiety building.
4. Noting thoughts as thoughts
Anxious thoughts can feel like facts: "This is going to go badly." A simple practice is to label them as they come, silently saying "worrying" or "planning" or "there's that thought again." MBCT teaches a related skill, seeing thoughts as passing mental events rather than facts. Labeling does not make the thought go away, but it can loosen its grip enough for you to choose what to do next.
5. RAIN
RAIN is a four-step practice taught by meditation teacher Tara Brach: Recognize what is happening, Allow the experience to be there as it is, Investigate with interest and care, and Nurture with self-compassion. Her site describes it as an easy-to-remember tool for working with difficult emotions. It can be useful when anxiety is tangled up with shame or self-criticism.
6. The self-compassion break
This short exercise comes from Dr. Kristin Neff. When something is causing you stress, you say to yourself three things: this is a moment of suffering (mindfulness), suffering is a part of life (common humanity) and a kind phrase such as "May I be kind to myself" (self-kindness). Her site offers other wordings, like "This hurts" or "I'm not alone." Many anxious people are hard on themselves, and this practice is a gentle counterweight.
7. Mindful walking
Walk slowly and pay attention to the feeling of each step: the heel, the roll of the foot, the shift of weight. When your mind wanders into worry, come back to your feet. Walking meditation is also part of the MBSR curriculum. It can suit people who find sitting still too uncomfortable when they are anxious, and it fits into a commute or a walk around the block.
8. A structured course: MBSR or MBCT
Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction was created by Jon Kabat-Zinn at UMass in 1979. UMass Memorial Health runs it as eight weekly 2.5-hour classes plus a day-long session, taught online. Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy was developed by Zindel Segal, Mark Williams and John Teasdale to help prevent depression from coming back, and runs as eight weekly classes plus an all-day session. A group course adds a teacher, a set structure and daily practice, which can help if you struggle to practice alone.
What the research shows
Most of the research on mindfulness for anxiety has studied structured programs like MBSR rather than single short exercises. A 2023 randomized trial in JAMA Psychiatry, led by Elizabeth Hoge, assigned 276 adults with anxiety disorders to eight weeks of MBSR or the medication escitalopram. Among the 208 who completed treatment, anxiety scores fell by a similar amount in both groups, and an analysis of everyone who enrolled found the same. The authors concluded MBSR was noninferior to the medication, meaning not meaningfully less effective. The trial had no placebo or waitlist group, so it compares the two treatments with each other. An earlier 2013 trial by the same lead author compared MBSR with a stress management class in 93 people with generalized anxiety disorder. Both groups improved about equally on the main anxiety measure, MBSR did better on some secondary measures, and the authors concluded it may have a beneficial effect on anxiety symptoms.
A 2010 meta-analysis by Stefan Hofmann and colleagues at Boston University, pooling 39 studies and 1,140 participants, described mindfulness-based therapy as a promising intervention for anxiety and mood problems. The National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health also notes that few studies have looked for harmful effects, and cites a 2020 analysis in which about 8 percent of participants had a negative effect from meditation, most often anxiety or depression, a rate similar to that reported for psychological therapies. Results vary, and no single trial can tell you how mindfulness will work for you.
When mindfulness is not enough
If you have been through trauma, turning attention inward can sometimes bring up more distress, not less. That is a reason to go slowly and to practice with support, not a sign that you are doing it wrong. Dr. Rabin trained at The Trauma Center and writes about safety and pacing on her trauma therapy page.
If anxiety is affecting your sleep, work or relationships, talking with a therapist can help you understand what is driving it, not just manage the symptoms. Her post on high-functioning anxiety in professionals is a good place to start, and her anxiety therapy page explains how she works. You can book a free 15-minute phone consultation with Dr. Rabin through her contact page.
If you are in crisis, call or text 988. In an emergency, call 911.
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Last reviewed September 2026. This guide is general information, not medical advice. If you are in crisis, call or text 988, or call 911 in an emergency.
