Make funny sounds with your lips, pucker them and whistle, do different movements with your face and mouth.

Stand in front of the mirror and blow silly kisses at your image. Make silly faces.

This will help you relax those tense muscles enough that you can feel the change for the moment.

I just sent you a message and hope it may help.

intense physical activity helps me through. when i can't take a break, a few jumping jacks or a bit of shadow boxing at my desk help me purge enough of the anxious energy to stay functional.

for what it's worth
once i radically accepted and made my peace with my ocd ticks, i found that some of them made dandy channeling and/or therapy tools when used deliberately. they seem much easier to control when used with deliberate intent. more and more, i wonder if my ocd is a case of great strength used badly.

Anxiety has a limit as far as how bad it gets. This is directly from Dr Weekes book. You’ve simply got yourself in a tizzy right now. I’ve been there, right where you are now. You are listening to the anxiety, believing every word it says. You can recover. It is possible.

I just feel demoralized. Like I said, yesterday, for the most part, was a good day. Today I had what could be likened to a panic attack and it affected my performance at work where I lead an hourlong math tutoring class for kids .I felt like I had no control over the kids and felt out of it during the class. Now there’s nothing but down time here at the job but I feel defeated. I don’t know how to handle this damn breathing ocd.

Accept it, let it be. The more attention you give it, the more it digs in. You mind is trying to tell you it needs attention, that is the bluff. It needs no attention. You just think it does. A plant requires water to thrive, if it doesn’t receive water, it shrivels up and dies. By giving all these thoughts attention, you are giving them water to survive. Stop watering the thoughts with attention, leave them alone. The neglect will cause them to die off. It’s a process. Won’t happen in a day or a month, but eventually they will lose power. You gotta be willing to stay with it for as long as it takes. But it can happen.

My diagnosis is GAD which includes many spectrums of anxiety. Health anxiety, social anxiety and good ole OCD which is my nemesis. I know what the constant bombardment of thoughts are like and I understand exactly what you are going thru. Anxiety is invasive. It affects us entirely, every thought, feeling, reaction, decision. Nothing escapes the influence of our anxiety. It is who and what we are because it exists in us. But deep within us still lies the person we can be without the influence of anxiety. It’s there waiting on us to deal effectively with the anxiety so we can emerge. There is no shame, no sin. It is simply the way it is right now. And I’m telling you that it can be overcome. It’s a disorder of the thought process we developed over time. We caused it to happen, through no fault of our own, we simply weren’t aware of what we were doing to ourselves. We just didn’t know any better. I don’t know of any other way to reassure you that what you are going thru right now can get better. I have only my own experience to rely on. And I am positive there are others who have successfully recovered. It can be done.

Thanks mtd, as always.

My heart cries for you, because I know the pain you are feeling. I want so badly to show you that it can be better. I am not where I wish to be yet, but I’m positive I am heading in the right direction. My own obsessive thoughts are becoming a distant memory, at the moment, my recovery seems to be more about learning who I am. You too can get there, I know it.

for what it's worth: perfectionism is one of my ocd ticks. when my perfectionism is roaring, i couple my breathing exercises with the mantra, "progress over perfection."

breathe in. . . "progress". . .
breathe out, . . "over perfection."

i soothe that defeated feeling of a setback by assuring myself that if i pulled the calming once, i can do it again.

It’s the calming I’m having a problem with. I sensed myself this morning going out of control. I tried to take deep breaths but my mind was telling me that I was breathing wrong. So I just kept getting more and more anxious as the calming breaths weren’t working but only compounding the anxiety.

Asuncion I know exactly how you feel. I do the very exact thing. I'm constantly questioning if I'm getting deep enough breaths. I love mtd's response! I have been trying more to not engage. We can do this! You can do this! Hugs and support!

Hoping this helps. I did a quick search, and they have apps that help with breathing exercises, for anxiety and for overall calming. Maybe an app on your phone might help you, especially during those down times at work, or quiet times during the day, when our minds will have a tendency to race.

I find that I am holding my breath while anxious, which is pretty common, apparently.