Reduce anxiety with the Time Travel Chairs exercise

When we're overwhelmed by stress or uncertainty, our minds often become trapped in cycles of worry that make it difficult to think clearly or make confident decisions. The Time Travel Chairs exercise is a simple yet powerful coaching technique that helps you step outside your immediate concerns, access a calmer perspective and reconnect with your own inner wisdom. By physically changing your position and imagining a positive future, you can create greater clarity and identify practical next steps.

We all find ourselves in situations where there is just too much to think about, where we end up feeling anxious, confused and literally stuck in all of it.

So if you find yourself in one of these situations and want to feel clarity over what to do, and generally feel less anxious and able to cope with it all, this is where a ‘time travel’ chair exercise can be very helpful.

All you need is a couple of chairs or seats of some kind - whatever is most comfortable for you. 

Step 1: Get it all out (sat in the first chair)

All of your anxieties, all of your worries, all of the things you're stressed about, all of the dilemmas, the thoughts, all of that stuff-say it. Really get it out. Really feel it and experience it as you say it.

How this works:

• Speaking aloud can encourage you to express feelings that you may have held in, giving you space to accept and acknowledge their presence.

Step 2: Move (to the second chair)

In this place, imagine that everything worked out better than you could ever dream of.

Those six months, or one year down the line, whatever it is for you, just imagine that everything worked out better than you could ever have dreamed.

Really visualise what that looks like - what’s happening, where you are, who's around you, how you feel...

How this works:

• By imagining a time in the future, you are shifting your focus away from your survival part of your brain, and shifting it to the part of your brain that is concerned with your dreams, aspirations and goals.

You might notice that when you do this, you feel calmer, think more clearly and things feel much more manageable.

Step 3: Give yourself some advice

Then, from this place, look back at where you were a moment ago.

Look back at your present-day self in that chair.

All the worries, all the anxieties, all of the stuff churning around inside, and give yourself some advice.

Give yourself some words of wisdom from here, e.g. "take some time off, do the important stuff - make time for your loved ones and friends"

How this works:

• Because you are now in a calmer frame of mind (literally), you can access that logical part of yourself – that was there all along, but may have been held back by all of that worry, stress and fear.

Step 4: Move back - and take that advice

Once back in your original position, place a hand on your shoulder and take all of that advice in. 

This is a Neurolinguistic Programming (NLP) tool known as anchoring in coaching, whereby you literally make sure something lands in your body, so you really do receive it.

• Write down your previous words of wisdom from step 3 – you may find it useful to return to these words when similar worries arise.

Step 5: Take action!

Now, based on this advice, do something about your situation. It's a well-known ideology that "nothing changes, if nothing changes", so set yourself something really specific that you'd like to achieve - and make that your next goal. 

It could be as simple as going somewhere you've been anxious about. Have a go at this exercise before you head out, and see if it helps you to tackle it.