Tennis | Stress Reducing Tips | @caroline-cavanagh | The Anxiety Alchemist

2 Apr 2026 · 1 min

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1:04

Caroline Cavanagh teaches a visualization exercise where you imagine hitting negative thoughts away like tennis balls over a net. Each thought that returns means you need to hit it harder to win the point. The practice externalizes anxiety so you can discard unwanted mental chatter.

Chapters

We all have negative thoughts, but you don't have to keep them. So today's tip is I want you to become a virtual tennis player. Imagine a negative thought being a lot like a tennis ball coming over a net. But if it did that, I bet you wouldn't stand there and allow the tennis ball to hit you, but you do allow your negative thoughts to hit hard. So when that thought starts to come in, pick up a virtual racket and hit it away. You may use a backhand, you may smash it out of court, you choose. And if it comes back, it just means there's a bit of resistance, so keep going, up your game, hit it harder, and win the point. Now, this may sound a little bit flippant, but it works. Thoughts are not real. This tennis match is not real. But rather than allow that thought to get seated in your head, Do something to get it out where it belongs, and that's a long way from inside of your mind. Give it a go.