Anxiety and panic, two very uncomfortable emotional states, plague a number of people but anyone who suffers from these uncomfortable and debilitating feelings need not feel hopeless or helpless.
There are a number of non- pharmaceutical techniques that can bring relief and best of all they are simple to learn and inexpensive.
A panic attack can make you feel as if you are about to die. Your chest feels constricted. You feel as though you cannot breathe. Your heart races out of control and you may have the uncontrollable urge to scream madly or take off running.
What the heck happens?
Let's look at what is happening on a physical level when panic overtakes you. There is a part of your brain called the amygdala that is responsible for anxiety and panic. Its purpose is to keep you safe when you are being threatened. It releases a bolus of chemicals which activates the flight or fight response. Your pupils dilate so your vision will improve, your blood is shunted away from the internal organs and sent to the muscles in your limbs so you can perform superhuman feats or run like the wind.
This kind of physical response can occur even though it is not needed. You can be interacting with your boss, or partner, or in traffic and have this response occur if the amygdala gets activated.
When you panic during a situation when it isn't called for, you loose the ability to think clearly and you end up sabotaging yourself. The amygdala becomes activated by a fearful word, a fearful thought, which triggers a belief that you are in danger and the belief causes the panic button to be pushed. Wham!!!
What is my mind doing?
A metaphor I like to use to understand my mind is to think of it as a house with many rooms. When you are in panic you are in the basement where it's dark, suffocating, unknown and frightening. Another room holds the images and beliefs about the parts of yourself and others that you like, the things you are proud of, the images of your best self as well of that of others. Another room holds your judgments, condemnations, and criticisms of yourself and others.
Lastly, there is a room which is your sanctuary. There is only calm, peacefulness, reverence, safety and silence here. Fear has never existed within these walls. It is the part you were born with which is free of any judgments, beliefs, or conditioning. It is pure awareness. If you are religious it is where God resides or where the seat of the soul resides. Awareness of your thoughts allows you to quickly identify which room of your "mental" house your awareness is focused. You can learn to move your awareness out of one room into an other.
You have about 60,000 thoughts a day. Thoughts come and go all day long. It is important to know you are not your thoughts and that just because you think something does not mean it's true. Thoughts can be picked up from the environment and do not necessarily originate with you.
The thoughts you allow to be repeated over and over in your mind, and that you identify with, become your beliefs. Your beliefs determine your perception of yourself and your world. Your beliefs produce the chemical reactions which occur in the body that lead to a panic state or to peaceful, relaxed state. A belief produces chemical changes in the body whether the belief is true or not.For relief from anxiety and panic you must become aware of your beliefs and resolve to change the negative ones which open you to be attacked by your own thinking.
What can I do?
Meditation, relaxation exercises, yoga, guided imagery, toning, breath work, talk therapy, massage, herbs, energy healing, and meridian tapping, are all techniques that can be used to relieve the negative thought patterns which create anxiety and panic. A daily practice of anyone of these techniques or any combination of them, can help quiet your mind and reduce the occurrence of anxiety and panic attacks.
Your body is a walking pharmacy and it manufactures the chemicals which produce relaxation or panic. These techniques stimulate the body to produce relaxing chemicals.
If you would like information on any of these techniques, send me an email I will send you some internet links or I will help you evaluate which modality might work best for you.
What makes my anxiety worse?
The amygdala can be stimulated by caffeine, nicotine, viewing violent acts, being in hostile environments, and ruminating on fearful thoughts. Good mental health and good physical health must be a priority in order for the body to deal with anxiety.
Healthy nutrition, adequate water, physical exercise, adequate sleep, removal of toxins, supportive relationships, a purpose in life are all necessary for creating good health and creating mental and emotional balance.
Take a look at your life and see what areas really need to be improved upon in order to promote physical and mental health.
Your well being should be your number one priority. If it is not, you can be quickly overwhelmed by the demands of everyday life and become the victim of out of control anxiety. You can not change the outer world but you can change your inner world with determination, support, and healthy, healing practices.
Be the best expression of yourself that you can be! That is what the world needs more than anything else.
http://neuroscience.uth.tmc.edu/s4/chapter06.html
http://www.clear-mind-meditation-techniques.com/guideMeditation_1.html
http://www.youtube.com/watch?annotation_id=annotation_65069&feature=iv&src_vid=ECJUFCUPuHA&v=bE-aKlreJJU
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