Mindfulness For Anxiety Relief
With Chris McDonaldBy the end of this course, you'll understand how anxiety shows up in the body and nervous system, mindfulness tools you can use regularly, and how you can shift your relationship with your anxiety. You'll learn to use breath as an accessible, in-the-moment tool to shift out of fight-or-flight, including the 4-4-6 breathing practice, and you'll apply external grounding techniques — including the orienting reflex and the 5-4-3-2-1 technique — to interrupt anxiety in real time. You'll practice observing anxious thoughts with distance and curiosity rather than getting swept up in them, and learn to turn toward difficult emotions with self-compassion instead of avoidance, using body-based awareness and therapeutic mindfulness practices. This is a 6-lesson mini course (approx. 1 hour 28 minutes total) combining teaching with guided practice — each lesson pairs a concept with at least one experiential exercise, so you're not just learning about mindfulness, you're practicing it. You'll move through understanding anxiety, the window of tolerance, and your autonomic nervous system; the breath as your most accessible anchor for regulation; grounding through the senses and the world around you; observing thoughts without being swept away by them; meeting difficult emotions with curiosity and compassion; and making mindfulness a sustainable, everyday practice. No prior meditation experience is needed. This course isn't about eliminating anxiety — it's about changing your relationship with it. Go at your own pace, revisit lessons as often as you'd like, and know this isn't a replacement for therapy — it's a companion to it.
Practical tools to calm anxiety in the moment and build a steadier sense of peace, one practice at a time.
About this course
By the end of this course, you'll understand how anxiety shows up in the body and nervous system, mindfulness tools you can use regularly, and how you can shift your relationship with your anxiety. You'll learn to use breath as an accessible, in-the-moment tool to shift out of fight-or-flight, including the 4-4-6 breathing practice, and you'll apply external grounding techniques — including the orienting reflex and the 5-4-3-2-1 technique — to interrupt anxiety in real time. You'll practice observing anxious thoughts with distance and curiosity rather than getting swept up in them, and learn to turn toward difficult emotions with self-compassion instead of avoidance, using body-based awareness and therapeutic mindfulness practices. This is a 6-lesson mini course (approx. 1 hour 28 minutes total) combining teaching with guided practice — each lesson pairs a concept with at least one experiential exercise, so you're not just learning about mindfulness, you're practicing it. You'll move through understanding anxiety, the window of tolerance, and your autonomic nervous system; the breath as your most accessible anchor for regulation; grounding through the senses and the world around you; observing thoughts without being swept away by them; meeting difficult emotions with curiosity and compassion; and making mindfulness a sustainable, everyday practice. No prior meditation experience is needed. This course isn't about eliminating anxiety — it's about changing your relationship with it. Go at your own pace, revisit lessons as often as you'd like, and know this isn't a replacement for therapy — it's a companion to it.
Meet your Teacher
Chris McDonald is a Licensed Clinical Mental Health Counselor Supervisor with experience in the mental health field since 2009, as well as a Certified Registered Yoga Teacher (RYT 200). Chris integrates somatic and nervous-system-informed approaches, including breath work, grounding, mindfulness, and yoga practices, into clinical work with people experiencing anxiety. Drawing on both professional training and personal experience with anxiety, Chris brings a grounded, compassionate approach to teaching practical tools for nervous system regulation and emotional well-being.