Dear greenshade:

One exercise is to just pay attention and feel the sensations. You did that and described it very well. I can relate to the chest feeling.

Another exercise that might help you (it helped me again and again)- is to do the following once in a while, whether you feel that hurt in your chest, in a cross shape almost, or not-

Do a “chest opener” which simply means, stand straight and place your arms parallel to the floor/ ground and move them backward, so your chest is open, wide open. Hope you can google it if you are not clear about this posture. What it does in affect is to facilitate breathing, making more space available for oxygen. It also stretches certain muscles in the chest that are tight.

Any kind of other stretching exercise (simple yoga stretching postures) can help when anxious or otherwise, help with your lower back and any part of the body that is tense because of anxiety.

anita