I like to think of anxiety as a triangle made up of three connected parts: your thoughts, your body sensations and your behaviours.

Each one affects the other two, which means anxiety can begin from any point in the triangle.

Lets see some examples:

Example 1 – Anxiety starts with a thought (followed by body sensation and behaviour)

You remember that you have to give a presentation tomorrow. Almost immediately, thoughts such as “What if I forget what to say?” appear. Your stomach tightens and your heart starts racing. To make yourself feel better, you spend hours rewriting your slides, checking them again and again or asking colleagues if they think it’s good enough.

Example 2 – Anxiety starts with the body (followed by thinking and behaviour)

You wake up with a tight chest and a racing heart after a poor night’s sleep. Nothing has happened yet, but your mind immediately starts looking for an explanation. “Something must be wrong.” “What if today is going to be awful?” As the uncomfortable sensations continue, you cancel your plans, stay at home or keep checking your symptoms online.

Example 3 – Anxiety starts with a behaviour (followed by thinking and body sensation)

You come home after a stressful day and suddenly snap at your partner or child. A moment later, you start thinking -“Why did I shout?” “I shouldn’t have done that.” “I’m a terrible person. Am I going to control it ever?” Your chest tightens and your stomach knots.

Most approaches focus on changing your thoughts or your behaviour, and they can be incredibly helpful. But there is another way in.

Easing the body sensation.

Something interesting happens when the uncomfortable sensation in the body begins to settle.

The anxious thoughts often become quieter on their own, and the urge to avoid, escape, overeat or constantly seek reassurance starts losing its grip.

This is the idea behind the Dissolving Anxiety exercise. Rather than trying to fight your thoughts or control your behaviour, it teaches you how to notice and gently dissolve the body sensations underneath them.

When the body changes, the rest of the triangle often changes with it.

I’ve seen this happen countless times. People often tell me, “The thoughts are still there, but they don’t bother me anymore,” or “I suddenly realised I didn’t need to react in the way I usually do.” Nothing magical happened. The body settled, and the rest followed.

You can try free the Dissolving Anxiety exercise, so you can experience this approach for yourself – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BarsT2N0GGM

If you’re curious about how your own attention and anxiety interact, you can start with the free Attention & Anxiety Assessment. It takes about 10 minutes to complete and will help you understand how your attention currently operates, how it may be contributing to your anxiety, and where you can begin making small changes. The link is here – https://www.openfocusattentiontraining.com/2026/07/14/the-attention-and-anxiety-assessmen