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When we think of anxiety disorders, we generally think of them as uncomfortable emotional responses to threat. These responses may include symptoms such as palpitations, shortness of breath, sweating, trembling or absolute paralysis.

While there is nothing inherently wrong in thinking about anxiety this way, a recent study pointed out that there is an entirely different way of thinking about anxiety that may be even more helpful.

How to escape a stuck mind

When this situation causes your brain to grab your wandering mind, stop it in its tracks and become fixated on threats, you have to loosen your mind’s grip and allow it to wander freely once again.

Because your brain’s inner eye has its resources fixed on the threat, it gets progressively exhausted. You can’t really summon it to help you suppress the anxiety, or get your mind off of it. Instead, you have to reactivate your mind-wandering circuits to give your attention a break.

Practically speaking, there are a few ways to do this. First, identify the negative spiral that has occurred like a pothole into which you have fallen on a mind-wandering journey. Simply name the feeling you are feeling and recognize that you need a mental reset.

Rather than deliberately trying to suppress the feeling, accept that your mind is wandering, and that the fixation on threat is not the constraint solution you are looking for.

To counter this constraint, up the ante on the mind wandering — wander even more. If you’re at work, you could keep a knitting kit and start using it just when anxiety strikes, or if at home, you could go out and do some gardening. Meditation is also an effective way to get out of the fixed-threat hole.

So when you’re next feeling anxious or wired, try allowing your mind to do what it naturally does — wander. You can bring it back to task gently, without fearing that you have lost your way. Or you can expect that it is wired to switch between wandering and focused states, and it will eventually come back on its own.

The more you mindfully interact with this switch, the more adept your brain will become at initiating it.

Srini Pillay, M.D., is a contributor to Harvard Health Publications.

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