Anxiety symptoms are often loud and impossible to ignore. At its best, anxiety can keep us alert and prepared—like the nerves that sharpen focus before a test or the quick response that helps us avoid danger. But when anxiety lingers too long or shows up too often, it stops being useful. Instead, it becomes disruptive, exhausting, and overwhelming.
If you live with an anxiety disorder, you know how much it can interfere with daily life. Constant worry, racing thoughts, panic attacks, insomnia, and even physical symptoms like stomach issues or a pounding heart can leave you feeling trapped in distress. Avoiding every trigger isn’t realistic, so learning how to manage anxiety in the moment becomes essential.
That is where DBT skills come in. One of the most effective distress tolerance skills is called IMPROVE the Moment—a tool designed to give you relief even when you can’t change the stressful situation itself.
What is the IMPROVE skill?
The variety of DBT skills that can be used for anxiety treatment offers you both ways to build long-term resilience against anxiety, as well as in-the-moment skills that can help you immediately. The IMPROVE skill is designed to help you cope when anxiety feels unbearable. It doesn’t erase the source of your worry, but it changes how you respond to it—helping you step out of panic and into a calmer state of mind.
Each letter in IMPROVE stands for a different way you can create space, soothe your nervous system, and shift your perspective. You can use one, several, or all of these strategies depending on what feels helpful in the moment.
If any of these steps feel invalidating, skip the skill and move on to the next letter. Your distress is real, and you do not need to pretend it isn’t a problem. The IMPROVE DBT skill is only useful if it actually improves the moment for you.
How to Use IMPROVE for Anxiety
Imagery
Use your imagination and think of a safe, beautiful place. Picture yourself there in detail, relaxing and enjoying the moment. Indoors, outdoors, a place you know, or a place you create just for you. You can imagine yourself alone, or with people who feel safe.
Notice the details; how would this place smell, how would the textures feel, what would you see, and what soothing sounds could you hear while in this place? Relax into the imagery; if you notice your mind wandering back to anxious thoughts, gently redirect your attention back to the imagery you create for yourself.
Find meaning
If it feels comforting, look for meaning in your current distress. Some people find comfort in knowing that suffering can lead to wisdom or maturity. Some people transmute their suffering into artistic expression. Others may find that connecting to others through sharing their suffering and receiving comfort, or helping others know they’re not alone, adds meaning to their experience.
Is there a silver lining to what you’re going through? Is there a deeper meaning you can find that can make this current moment easier to bear?
Prayer
Whether you believe in a supreme being/beings, the greater power of the universe, or even the power of your own Wise Mind, connecting to this presence in your life through prayer can reduce distress. When anxiety is making it hard to function, meditation, repeated phrases or mantras, sharing your distress, asking for strength, or spending time considering your place in the universe can all help turn down the volume on anxiety in the moment.
Relaxation
You know what activities help you relax; which of them can you do in this moment? Whether it’s a warm mug of tea, stretching at your desk, your favorite music in your car, a warm bath at home, or whatever helps you relax, when anxiety is interfering with the moment, countering it with a little self-care can help.
One thing
When you’re in the grips of a panic attack at your work desk, or anxiety has you awake and frantic at 2 in the morning, choose one thing in the moment you are doing (sitting in a chair, lying with your head on a pillow, typing on a keyboard) and focus all of your attention on that one thing. Return your attention to that one thing over and over, creating a moment of mindfulness and perspective when your anxiety is trying to demand all of your attention.
Vacation
Take a break from life’s demands. Go for a walk. Take a study break and listen to your favorite music or podcast for 15 minutes (set a timer so you don’t get derailed by escapism). Drive to your favorite coffee shop and sit and enjoy a cup at a table. Book an actual vacation if you can!
Encouragement
Anxiety makes the world feel very narrow, making it harder to feel like you can actually make it through these difficult experiences. Feeling weak, frustrated, and defeated is common in anxiety disorders, and Encouragement can counter the harsh negative self-beliefs that anxiety can amplify.
Think of some positive affirmations that you can repeat to yourself to counter the loud voice of anxiety; write them down and look at your list when anxiety gets loud. Affirmations can be very personal to you and your situation, or can be as simple as, “I am safe,” “I can make it through this,” “I am enough,” “I can do this,” “This is anxiety, I can handle this,” or “These are just thoughts, not facts.”
THIRA Health offers Seattle-based anxiety treatment that can help you IMPROVE the moment
IMPROVE is one of many distress tolerance DBT skills that are used in THIRA Health anxiety treatment program, alongside DBT skills that support mindfulness, interpersonal effectiveness, and emotional regulation to reduce the impact anxiety has on your life.
If you or a loved one are struggling with anxiety, contact THIRA Health today to start working with our expert therapists. At THRIA Health’s Bellevue mental health treatment center, our comprehensive DBT programs take a holistic approach to mental health, using DBT, mindful movement, family support, community involvement, and artistic expression to help you not only cope with the extremes of anxiety but to thrive.
