50 Affirmations for Anxiety and How to Use Them

Affirmations for anxiety are short, believable sentences you say to yourself when you feel anxious, like “This feeling is strong, and it will pass.” A sentence that describes what’s true right now and what you’ll do next is easier to believe than one that promises calm. Below are 50 affirmations for anxiety in five groups, what studies say about them and a simple way to use one in an anxious moment.

Affirmations don’t treat anxiety disorders. If anxiety keeps getting in the way of your sleep, work or relationships, talk to your doctor or a mental health professional.

What are affirmations for anxiety?

An affirmation for anxiety is a sentence in the first or second person that you repeat on purpose to calm down a little or to stay steady while the feeling lasts. It works like other positive affirmations, but it’s written for the moments when your heart races, your thoughts loop or you dread something coming up.

Good affirmations for anxiety don’t argue with the feeling. “I’m not anxious” is easy to disprove when your hands are shaking. “I can feel anxious and still be safe” is true, so your mind has less to push back against.

Do affirmations help with anxiety?

Affirmations can help you get through an anxious moment, but none of the studies below shows that they treat an anxiety disorder. A few studies explain which kinds of sentences are more likely to help and which can backfire.

• A sentence you don’t believe can backfire. In a 2009 study by Joanne Wood and colleagues, people with low self-esteem who repeated “I’m a lovable person” felt worse afterwards than people who didn’t. People with high self-esteem felt a little better.
• Naming the feeling may lower the reaction. In a 2007 brain imaging study at UCLA, Matthew Lieberman and colleagues showed people photos of faces showing negative emotions. When participants chose a word for the emotion, activity in the amygdala, a brain area involved in fear, was lower than with other tasks. The study used photos, not anxiety in daily life.
• Talking to yourself as “you” can help before a stressful task. In seven studies with 585 participants, Ethan Kross and colleagues found that people who used their own name or “you” in their self-talk before a speech or a first meeting felt less distress and did better than people who used “I.”
• Calling nerves excitement can help you perform. In studies by Alison Wood Brooks at Harvard Business School, people who reframed their nerves as excitement, for example by saying “I am excited” out loud, did better at karaoke, public speaking and a math test than people who tried to calm down.

There’s also a different kind of affirmation in psychology research. In a 2005 study by David Creswell and colleagues, 85 participants either reflected on a personal value that mattered to them or did a neutral task before a stressful lab test. The ones who reflected on their values had lower cortisol responses. That task was about values, not about sentences like “I am calm,” so it doesn’t prove that every affirmation lowers stress.

How to use affirmations for anxiety in the moment

1. Notice and name it. Say to yourself “This is anxiety” or “I’m feeling panicky right now.”
2. Breathe out slowly. Take a normal breath in and let the breath out last longer than the breath in. In a 2023 Stanford study, people who did five minutes a day of breathing with long exhales for a month improved their mood more than people who did the same amount of mindfulness meditation.
3. Say one affirmation from the lists below. Say it slowly, in your head or out loud. One sentence is enough.
4. Do one small, concrete thing. Drink some water, put your feet on the floor or send the first email.
5. Write down what helped. Next time, you’ll know which sentence and which action worked for you.

Affirmations for anxiety attacks and panic

• I’m safe right now.
• This feeling is strong, and it will pass.
• My feet are on the floor. I’m still here.
• I’ve gotten through this feeling before.
• I can breathe out slowly.
• My heart is beating fast, and that’s my body reacting.
• I don’t have to fight this wave. I can let it pass.
• I only need to get through the next minute.
• I can sit down and wait for this to ease.
• I can ask someone to stay with me.

If you’ve never had a panic attack before, or you have chest pain or symptoms that feel different from usual, call your local emergency number. A doctor should check first whether it’s something physical.

Affirmations for overthinking and racing thoughts

• A thought is not a fact.
• I can notice this thought and let it go by.
• I don’t have to solve everything tonight.
• I’ve thought about this enough for today.
• I can write this worry down and come back to it tomorrow.
• I don’t need to know how it ends to take the next step.
• My mind is busy, and I can still do one thing at a time.
• I can’t control every outcome, and that’s okay.
• I’ll deal with what’s in front of me today.
• I can stop and ask myself what I actually know.

Affirmations for anxiety about the future

• I’ll handle tomorrow when tomorrow comes.
• I don’t have to have a plan for everything.
• I’ve adapted to changes before.
• I can make a decision with the information I have now.
• Not knowing what’s next is uncomfortable, and I can live with it.
• I can ask for help if things get hard.
• One bad scenario in my head is not what’s going to happen.
• I can plan the next week and leave the rest for later.
• Some things will go well, even if I can’t see them yet.
• I’ll take care of today, and today is enough.

Affirmations before an exam, interview or hard conversation

• I’m excited, and my body is getting ready.
• I can be nervous and still do this.
• I’ve prepared, and I’ll use what I know.
• You’ve done hard things before, and you can do this one.
• I’m allowed to pause before I answer.
• I can say “Let me think about that.”
• It’s okay if my voice shakes a little.
• I only need to handle the first few minutes.
• One mistake won’t decide how this goes.
• Whatever happens, I’ll be kind to myself afterward.

If you feel anxious most mornings, our list of 50 morning affirmations has a section for tired and anxious mornings.

Affirmations for anxiety at night

• I’ve done enough for today.
• Tomorrow’s problems can wait until tomorrow.
• I let my shoulders drop and my jaw relax.
• I don’t have to fall asleep right away. Resting counts too.
• I’m safe in this bed.
• I can put this worry on paper and leave it there.
• My breath gets slower with each exhale.
• Today had hard parts and good parts, and both are over.
• I’ll be able to think more clearly in the morning.
• Right now, the only thing to do is rest.

If you’d like to try writing down one good thing from your day before bed, read how to start a gratitude journal.

When affirmations aren’t enough for anxiety

Affirmations aren’t enough when anxiety keeps coming back, lasts a long time or makes you avoid work, school or people. In those cases, talk to your doctor or a mental health professional. According to the US National Institute of Mental Health, generalized anxiety disorder is usually treated with talk therapy, medication or both, and cognitive behavioral therapy is a well-studied type of therapy for it that the institute calls the “gold standard” of psychotherapy.

If you’re in crisis or thinking about hurting yourself, call or text 988 in the US to reach the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline, which is free and open around the clock. In an emergency, call 911.

We built Graceup as a gratitude journal, and it also has more than 2,500 affirmations in 19 categories, including one for stress and anxiety. You can save the sentences that feel true, write your own and set an affirmation reminder for the time of day when you usually feel anxious.

Photo: Gustavo Leighton on Unsplash