The Scariest Thing But Unnecessary Re Panic Attacks
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The scariest thing about having any sort of problem with your mind is that your
mind is seemingly at the center of everything, well everything in your life anyway. It’s not like a broken leg which you can stick a cast on
and have it heal and aside from the annoyance of limited mobility, you can move on with your life.
Your mind, however, seemingly puts a halt on everything in your life, but this does not have to be the case.
Your mind is constantly working, constantly chattering, at least for the anxious person and that can certainly cause stress and
panic. If your mind is racing then how can you concentrate on anything else?
You become trapped in your mind. It can even enter your sleep at night. This is one of the things that was very difficult for me when I was suffering with anxiety and
panic. I couldn’t turn the racing thoughts off.
My mind constantly was worrying about this and that. It was nonstop.
Again, fortunately this does not have to be the
case.
An amazing thing I learned comes from Carl Jung, who stated:
“Whatever you resist, persists.”
Let’s examine this sound observation and apply it to panic attacks so that we can help ourselves.
If your mind is racing with anxiety and panic or you are having
a panic attack, there is no law or rule that you have to continue exacerbating your attack by worrying about your panic or
symptoms.
This reasoning may seem overly simple and you might be thinking something like “Well obviously if I could calm my thoughts that
would solve the problem, but I can’t slow down my thoughts. That’s the problem.”
It may seem like this at first, but read on.
Shirley Swede, in the Panic Attack Recovery Book, discussed the notion of just stopping whatever you were doing when you felt a
panic attack coming on. So if you were about to pace back and forth or sit there trying to
figure out what had brought your panic, or hyperventilate, etc., you just stop doing whatever you’re doing. You stop resisting your anxious thoughts
Let’s examine the seemingly worst case scenario. That is, you don’t fight your anxiety and panic and racing thoughts. What if you embraced your anxiety? What would happen? Do you think your attack would get worse and you’d
lose your mind? No actually your symptoms would slowly dissipate the more you stopped fighting them and would eventually cease if they were
not fought at all.
What happens is that by not continuing your racing thoughts or playing into your symptoms of a panic attack, the cycle of the
panic attack or anxiety decreases.
Let’s look at this differently.
If you don’t allow yourself to become upset when you feel
anxiety or panic creeping up, you can’t have a panic attack. If you don’t get worked up over
something then you’re not going to be perpetuating anxiety or panic. How could
you?
The whole reason that a panic attack and anxiety continues on
is because you continue to feed the symptoms by what you do with your body (physiology) and thoughts (remember we talked about this in a
previous installment. (If you don’t remember, you can click here, and then come back once you
refresh your memory.)
Let’s look at an analogy.
If you grab one end of a rope and I grab the other and we tug
in opposite directions, there’s obviously stress on the rope. That stress is similar
(metaphorically speaking) to the anxiety that is at the center of your panic attacks. Stress is
anxiety. Anxiety is stress. Resistance is stress. Stop resisting, stop anxiety. This is key.
Let’s come back to my analogy now. If we are both tugging on the rope and I let go
what happens to the stress on the rope? It disappears. This is precisely the case with anxiety
if you stop resisting.
The great thing with this suggestion is that it’s very easy to do. If you stop doing
what you’re doing, thinking what you’re thinking -- as far as anxious thoughts --and just relax, the panic and anxiety
dissipates. It has to.
Now I’m not going to be naive here: this is not exactly as easy
thing for the anxiety sufferer to do initially, to stop resisting that is. However knowing at
this point that it is possible and does work will be helpful for you – helpful the next time you feel anxiety.
What I would recommend is that you try this idea out
yourself. See how it works.
Know that this is possible. And you can be reassured to a spot where you’ll sincerely
give it a try.
I have previously recommended Dr. Larry Deutsch’s hypnosis
recordings called “Breathe Easy and Conquer Anxiety,” which is designed for anxiety sufferers.
It’s one of the effective things I used when overcoming my anxiety and panic attacks.
For only $19.95 you can instantly access this great resource, download it to your computer and be benefiting from it right
away. This is a great resource to calm your nerves by facilitating your ability to stop
resisting.
He offers a money-back-guarantee. If you’re unsatisfied for any reason, just send him
an email outlining the reason and he will cheerfully refund your money. So you have nothing to
lose, but your anxiety.
You’ve been subscribed to my newsletter for some time, I’m sure you’ve noticed that I do not recommend things left and
right. This in fact was my first recommendation to you.
If I recommend something it has to be something that I’ve used and really benefited from, something that is of high quality, and,
most importantly, something that I believe can effectively benefit the sufferer of anxiety or panic attacks.
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