A Simple Trick to Calm Anxiety in Minutes

Anxiety doesn’t care if you’re in a meeting, on a train, or lying awake in bed at 3a.m.

When it hits, your primitive brain takes control: maybe your heart is racing, your stomach is churning...your thoughts are definitely spiralling, and suddenly everything feels like a threat. The great news is that you can gently hand control back to your intelligent, rational brain in under two minutes with an incredibly simple technique. It’s called the 3-3-3 Rule, and it’s one of the many tools I teach clients in my solution focused hypnotherapy practice.

What is the 3-3-3 Rule?

It’s a quick grounding exercise that pulls you out of drowning as thoughts are added to the emotional 'stress bucket', and brings you back into the present moment using your senses. Here’s exactly how to do it:

1. Name 3 things you can SEE    

Look around and quietly (or out loud) name three objects: “Blue mug… green plant… grey carpet."

2. Name 3 sounds you can HEAR    

Tune in carefully: “Traffic outside… the clock ticking… my own breathing.”

3. MOVE 3 parts of your body    

Wiggle your fingers, roll your shoulders, tap your feet – anything that brings awareness back into your physical self.

That’s it! Easy to remember, this only takes about 60–90 seconds from start to finish. So how does something this simple work so powerfully? Because anxiety lives almost entirely in the primitive (reactive) brain, the ancient part that's designed to spot danger and trigger fight-flight-freeze responses. When we’re anxious, this part hijacks our mind, flooding us with adrenaline and catastrophic and unhelpful 'what-if' thoughts (that probably won't happen anyway). The 3-3-3 Rule works because it activates the prefrontal cortex, which is your intelligent, rational brain. By deliberately noticing sights, sounds and movement, you activate the area of the brain responsible for logical thinking, decision-making, and calm, measured perspective. In neuroscientific terms, you’re switching from the amygdala (fear centre) to the prefrontal cortex (control centre).

In solution focused hypnotherapy, we do exactly the same thing, just in a deeper, more lasting way. I guide you into a relaxed trance state (which feels like pleasant day-dreaming) and train your brain to choose the intelligent response over the primitive one, again and again, until calm becomes your default setting and you no longer revert to past patterns of behaviour.

Try it right now and see what happens. Even if you’re feeling okay, give it a go. 3 things you see…3 sounds you hear…Move 3 parts of your body. Can you notice the shift? That tiny pause is your rational brain stepping back into control.

The beauty of the 3-3-3 Rule is that it’s instant, free, and works anywhere. Use it before a presentation, during a panic attack on public transport, or when your mind starts racing at night. Over time, each repetition of 3-3-3 rewires your brain to access calm more quickly. This is the same principle we build on in solution focused hypnotherapy sessions, where clients often see dramatic, lasting reductions in anxiety in just a few sessions.

So next time anxiety tries to hijack you, remember that you don’t have to fight it or reason with it. Just practice a 3-3-3 and let your intelligent brain take over. You’ve got this. And if you’d like to make calm your new normal, then get in touch to see if solution focused hypnotherapy might be the perfect next step for you.