Anxiety is a nervous system state, not a personality flaw. Your autonomic nervous system has two modes: sympathetic (fight/flight, which accelerates heart rate, shallows breathing, tenses muscles) and parasympathetic (rest/digest, which slows heart rate, deepens breathing, releases tension). In anxiety, your sympathetic system is chronically activated. Your body genuinely believes you're in danger — even when you're logically safe. This is why "calming thoughts" often don't work. You can't think your way out of a physiological state.
Slow, extended exhales — five seconds in, seven out — directly stimulate the vagus nerve. Research shows this pattern reduces anxiety within minutes. Not hours. Minutes. You're giving your body a physical signal: the emergency is over. It can stop bracing.
In anxiety, your body is perpetually braced for action. Stillness signals safety. Learning to hold a pose — to sit with a small, uncomfortable sensation without fleeing — is controlled exposure therapy for your nervous system. The pose becomes a rehearsal. The world stops feeling so full of emergencies.
A meta-analysis of 8 RCTs found yoga significantly reduces anxiety. The NHS-funded Yoga4Health programme showed "statistically significant and clinically meaningful decreases in anxiety." Yoga isn't a replacement for therapy — but for many people, it's the missing physical piece that makes therapy work better.