Finding Calm in Uncertain Times

…Managing Fear & Anxiety

In a world where headlines shift by the hour and certainty feels like a luxury, fear and anxiety can quietly take over—often before we even realise it. 

Photo by Uday Mittal on Unsplash

Since COVID, baseline anxiety levels have noticeably increased. What was once manageable now feels overwhelming for many, as prolonged uncertainty and collective trauma have reshaped our nervous systems—making heightened anxiety the new normal.

But what if there were simple, grounded ways to reclaim calm, even in the most uncertain of times?

To navigate these turbulent emotions effectively, it’s important to first understand what fear and anxiety really are—and how they uniquely affect both mind and body.

Understanding Fear & Anxiety

Fear and anxiety are often used interchangeably, yet they are distinct emotional states with different psychological and physiological effects. Fear is an immediate, instinctive reaction to a real or perceived threat—our body’s built-in alarm system. It activates the fight, flight, freeze, or fawn response—priming us to confront, escape, shut down, or appease in the face of perceived danger, all in the service of survival.

Anxiety, in contrast, is more enduring and future-focused. It’s the mind’s response to uncertainty—the anticipation of potential threats, even in the absence of any immediate danger. While fear typically fades once the threat is gone, anxiety tends to linger, driven by the brain’s habit of spinning “what-if” scenarios. This can leave us stuck in a loop of worry, shaped both by our inner thought patterns and by external pressures—whether from our families, communities, or the broader world.

Over time, this constant state of alert can lead to nervous system dysregulation—in other words, our bodies and minds remain stuck in survival mode, unable to return to a sense of calm or safety. It’s like a car alarm that won’t shut off—blaring day and night, even when there’s no real threat—leaving us overwhelmed and exhausted.

Common Symptoms of Anxiety & Their Impact on Daily Life

Anxiety manifests in various ways, affecting not just our emotions but also our physical health and cognitive functioning.

Physical Symptoms:

  • Increased heart rate and palpitations
  • Muscle tension and headaches
  • Shallow breathing or hyperventilation
  • Digestive issues (stomach pain, nausea, irritable bowel symptoms)
  • Fatigue and sleep disturbances

Emotional Symptoms:

  • Persistent worry or dread
  • Irritability and restlessness
  • Feeling overwhelmed or out of control
  • Sudden mood swings

Cognitive Symptoms:

  • Racing thoughts and difficulty concentrating
  • Catastrophic thinking (assuming the worst will happen)
  • Indecisiveness and over analysing situations
  • Difficulty remembering information due to mental fog

How Uncertainty Fuels Anxiety

In times of uncertainty—whether due to global crises, economic instability, health concerns, or personal struggles—our brains instinctively seek predictability. When clear answers are lacking, the amygdala, the brain’s fear centre, becomes hyperactive. This over-activation sends signals to the body to brace for danger, even in the absence of a real or immediate threat.

This reaction is deeply rooted in our evolutionary survival system. For our ancestors, uncertainty often meant potential danger—like the sound of rustling in the bushes possibly signalling a predator.

Photo by Zeke Tucker on Unsplash

Today, uncertainty may come from sources like job insecurity, illness, or world events. While the threats have changed, our brains continue to process uncertainty as if it were life-threatening, triggering chronic stress and persistent anxiety.

Every thought we have carries a neuro-chemical signature—a form of energy that can permeate our entire system, affecting both body and mind. When worry becomes constant, this internal alarm floods us with stress hormones, making it difficult to find a sense of peace.

As one client described it, anxiety can feel like a “runaway train”—unstoppable and out of control. 

Over time, chronic anxiety can deeply impact daily life—disrupting work, straining relationships, and diminishing overall well-being. In response, many people unconsciously rely on defence mechanisms like procrastination, perfectionism, overworking, overthinking, or disordered eating. Others may withdraw socially or dissociate in an effort to escape the discomfort.

Think of your nervous system like a mug already filled near the brim—holding layers of worry, fear, & past experiences.

Add daily stressors like alarming news or personal concerns, and it quickly begins to overflow. This overflow represents the point of emotional overwhelm—where our coping strategies become reactive and compulsive. We may desperately seek control, shut down, or lean into habits that momentarily soothe but ultimately perpetuate distress.

Recognising when our “mug” is close to overflowing is crucial. It gives us the chance to pause, regulate, and create space before we’re swept away by the weight of it all.

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Anxiety thrives in uncertainty, feeding on the unknown and convincing us that we are powerless. But the truth is, while we cannot always control the world around us, we can learn to calm the storm within.

The good news is that understanding the underlying mechanisms of fear and anxiety is the first step toward regaining balance. By recognising how uncertainty amplifies anxiety and becoming aware of its physical and emotional symptoms, we can start to take intentional, empowering steps to calm the nervous system and reclaim a sense of control.

“You don’t have to control your thoughts. You just have to stop letting them control you.” 

~ Dan Millman

Action Steps for Managing Anxiety & Building Resilience

Resilience isn’t about eliminating anxiety; it’s about responding to it with self-compassion and intention. Build daily rituals that support nervous system regulation: regular sleep, movement, nourishing food, and connection with safe others.

1. Reframe Negative Thoughts with Therapeutic Tools

Work with a therapist (or practice independently) to identify unhelpful thought patterns like catastrophising, black-and-white thinking, or “what-if” spirals.

    Use techniques to challenge these thoughts start by asking:

    • Is this thought based on facts or assumptions?
    • What’s the evidence for and against it?
    • What might I say to a friend in this situation?

    2. Practice Reality Testing

    When anxiety strikes, pause and ask yourself:

    • Has this actually happened, or is it a fear of what might happen?
    • Am I responding to the present moment or reacting to a mental “disaster movie”?

    Bringing awareness back to the present helps interrupt anxious storytelling.

    3. Build Self-Awareness

    • Keep a journal or use a mood-tracking app to monitor when and why anxiety arises.
    • Notice patterns—certain situations, people, or thoughts that trigger dysregulation—without judgment. 

    4. External or Internal Stressors?

    Begin by noticing whether your anxiety is triggered by external pressures—like a looming work deadline—or whether it’s being fuelled by your internal dialogue. Often, it’s that persistent inner voice we all struggle with at times, echoing self-defeating messages such as:

    “You’re not good enough.”

    “No one really likes you.”

    “Nothing ever works out for me.”

    Ask yourself: Are these thoughts really true?
    Am I mistaking an old, distorted belief for present-day truth?
    And if I am—do I truly want to consent to it?
    Do I want to give it space, weight, and authority in my mind?
    To let it drag me down and magnify my fear?

    No.

    You have a choice. You can pause, challenge the thought, and decide what truly deserves your energy and belief.

    These internal narratives can be just as powerful as any real-world external stressor.

    Let’s Layer on the Somatic to the Psychotherapeutic

    Psychotherapeutic tools—while invaluable—address only part of the healing process. They focus on identifying limiting beliefs, reframing negative thoughts, and shifting behaviours. But to create deep, lasting change, we must also engage the body’s emotional memory system. This is where Emotional Freedom Techniques (EFT) comes in as ‘big hitter’ in the healing process. By combining cognitive awareness with somatic release, EFT adds a level of potency that talk therapy alone often can’t achieve.

    The Secret Side Door to Healing: Why EFT Works When Nothing Else Does

    One of the reasons EFT (Emotional Freedom Techniques) is so powerful is because it doesn’t just talk to the brain—it taps directly into the body’s stress response system and rewires it in real time.

    When we’re triggered—by a thought, a memory, or a sudden sense of dread—the brain’s alarm system kicks into gear. This starts in the amygdala (our fear centre), which sounds the alert and floods our system with cortisol and adrenaline. But here’s the key: the medial prefrontal cortex, another part of the brain, has the unique ability to regulate the amygdala. It can essentially turn the volume down on fear… but only if it’s given the right conditions to engage.

    Photo by Vera Lee Bird on Unsplash

    Think of the medial prefrontal cortex as the secret side door to healing. It doesn’t barge in through logic or willpower—it opens when we feel safe enough to reflect, regulate, and process. That’s exactly what EFT tapping creates.

    When you tap on specific meridian points while acknowledging what you’re feeling, it does two things simultaneously:

    1. It sends calming signals to the amygdala, helping the body register that the threat is over.
    2. It engages the medial prefrontal cortex, allowing you to reprocess old patterns and shift emotional responses—without reliving the trauma or reactivating the fear loop.

    This blend of somatic safety and cognitive awareness is what makes EFT a game changer—especially in times of uncertainty, when your logical brain alone can’t override the storm inside.

    How to Use EFT Tapping in Real Time

    You don’t have to wait for the perfect moment, a quiet room, or a therapist to use EFT. You can tap when:

    • Anxiety hits out of nowhere—pause and tap as you name what you’re feeling. “Even though I feel this panic in my chest, I’m safe to feel it and let it move through me.”
    • Old wounds get reactivated—maybe a conversation or situation echoes the past. A few rounds of tapping can interrupt the emotional flashback and bring you back to the present.
    • You’re spiralling about the future—tap on the thoughts directly: “Even though I don’t know what’s going to happen… I choose to come back to now.”

    The power of EFT is that it meets you where you are. It doesn’t require you to be fixed or perfect or calm. You start with the truth of how you actually feel—and from there, you create space.

    Space for breath. For presence. For healing.

    In a world full of uncertainty, tapping gives you an anchor. It’s your portable nervous system reset button—a way to come back to centre, again and again.

    So if fear and anxiety have been running the show lately, know this: you are not broken, and you’re not alone. Your nervous system is doing its best to protect you. And with tools like EFT, combined with therapeutic coaching or other tools, you can learn to speak its language, calm the storm, and choose a different story—one round at a time.

    Activate Your Inner Calm with Vagal Brake Breathing

    Before your mind can talk you out of a fear spiral, your body needs to know it’s safe.

    That’s where vagal brake breathing comes in. This simple breath pattern—in through the nose for a count of 4, and out through the mouth for a count of 6 or longer—helps activate your parasympathetic nervous system (aka your rest-and-digest mode). It’s one of the fastest ways to switch off the fight-or-flight response and bring your whole system back to safety.

    Photo by Eli DeFaria on Unsplash

    The key is in the exhale. The longer out-breath acts like a brake on your internal stress engine—it literally signals to your brain, “We’re okay now.” This is why it’s called the vagal brake—because it tones and activates the vagus nerve, the superhighway connecting your brain, body, and emotional regulation system.

    And here’s the magic combination: Do this breathing while gently tapping or rubbing your collarbone points. This combination sends a double signal to the brain and body—through breath and touch—that it’s safe to down-regulate. That it’s okay to pause. That it’s safe to feel what you’re feeling without being consumed by it.

    Why It Works So Well

    • The collarbone points are energetically and neurologically rich areas that help soothe the nervous system when stimulated.
    • The slow exhale deepens the relaxation response, grounding you in your body.
    • Together, they create a physiological interrupt—a moment of stillness in the chaos—where you can choose how to respond instead of react.

    Let the Emotion Move, Not Build

    Here’s something most people don’t realise: a single emotion takes around 90 seconds to move through the body. That’s it. A minute and a half. The reason we stay stuck in anxiety, fear, or overwhelm for hours—or days—is because we block or resist that natural process.

    Imagine a dam in a river. When one emotion gets stuck, others start piling in behind it: fear, then frustration, then shame, then helplessness… and suddenly, your inner river turns into a flood.

    Photo by Manish Patel on Unsplash

    Using vagal brake breathing and EFT together is like opening the floodgate safely. You give the emotion a path to move through and out. Then—and only then—can the cognitive work kick in. That’s when your brain is clear enough to reframe, rewire, and respond.

    This is how you become the calm in the chaos.

    Not because the world stops being unpredictable—but because you’ve built a toolkit that helps you stay rooted, regulated, and resilient no matter what’s happening around you.

    So next time anxiety flares or fear grips your chest, start here:

    1. Breathe in for 4, out for 6.
    2. Tap or rub your collarbone points gently.
    3. Acknowledge what’s coming up—without judgment.
    4. Let the emotion pass through you instead of building up.
    5. Then bring in the mindset tools, the thought work, or whatever else you need.

    In times of uncertainty, we may not be able to control the world around us—but we can transform how we respond to it. As Viktor Frankl reminds us, the path to calm begins not with changing our circumstances, but by cultivating resilience within ourselves.

    “When we are no longer able to change a situation, we are challenged to change ourselves.” 

    If you are a practitioner interested in training in Rapid Imprint Resolution Method, please reach out to us, we’d love to hear from you. 


    Main – Photo by Ravi Pinisetti on Unsplash