The Enemy Of Our Imagination

People who experience panic attacks will often say that they feel out of control as soon as the panic is in full swing.

“Panic is a sudden desertion of us, and a going over to the enemy of our imagination.”

Doesn’t that sum it up well?

A confident self assured person can suddenly feel powerless and vulnerable as soon as the panic manifests. As the bodily sensations race, the mind jumps from logic and reason to wild fears fueled by the imagination.

The hardest part for most people to get their heads around is why they feel so suddenly powerless during a panic attack?

The automatic reaction for most to the sensations of a panic attack are to fight against it. To shut it down and end it as soon as possible. Coping techniques like deep breathing and distraction are mildly effective at best. When these techniques fail to get results, that is when the person really leaps over to ‘the enemy of their imagination’.

It goes something like this:

“I used all my coping techniques but I still feel very anxious, in fact it may be getting worse!

“What if this keeps getting worse and no help can get to me here?”

Where people run with this type of thinking their imagination will continue to escalate the fear, leaving them feeling more and more vulnerable and out of control.

The secret to regain control and come back to yourself, is to learn how to respond to the panic in an appropriate manner.

The solution is to work with the bodily sensations rather than against them.

Let me give you a small example. If you were sitting on a train and started to feel sensations that indicated the beginning of a panic attack, instead of trying to stop the experience do the opposite.

Acknowledge that you are safe, label the sensations and then tell the sensations that scare you, to get worse. If you are sweating tell your body to sweat more, if your heart is racing, tell it to race faster.

Move into the experience rather than against it.

The real panic only begins as soon as you hand over reason and control to your imagination. By moving into the experience voluntarily, you become the decision maker and therefore retain control. If you’re going to have a panic attack it is going to happen on your terms.

You empower yourself because you are directing the whole experience not handing “over to the enemy of our imagination.”

End Anxious Thoughts In 4 Easy Steps

After having visited my site I can almost imagine what your repetitive anxious thought might be.

Maybe it’s a fear of:

-a panic attack
-never being free of general anxiety
-a bodily sensation that worries you
-a fear of losing control to anxiety

Whatever your particular fear is, I want to share some tips and techniques with you over the coming days that will not only help you end these fears but also reduce your general anxiety level dramatically.

After many years of coaching people to be anxiety free, I have noticed that those who experience panic attacks or general anxiety almost always deal with the frequent occurrence of anxious thoughts.

Anxiety has a sneaky way of seeding doubt regardless of whether the fear is rational or irrational.

So what can be done for people who suffer from repetitive anxious thoughts?

To begin, lets look at how an anxious thought is powered and then I will demonstrate how to quickly eliminate the intensity of the thought.

Say for example you are going about your daily business when an anxious thought enters your mind.

Whatever the nature of the thought, the pattern that follows is usually quite predictable.

The anxious thought flashes briefly in your awareness and as it does so you immediately react with fear as you contemplate the thought. The fearful reaction you have to the thought then sends a shock-wave through your nervous system. You feel the result of that fear most intensely in your stomach (due to the amount of nerve endings located there).

Because of the intense bodily reaction to the thought you then get sucked into examining the anxious thought over and over.

The continuous fearful reaction you have to the thought, increases the intensity of the experience. The more you react, the stronger the thought rebounds again in your awareness creating more anxious shock-waves throughout your body. This is the typical cycle of anxious thoughts.

For some it feels like the anxious thoughts are hijacking their peace of mind.

Because of the reaction you are having, you may continue to spend the rest of your day thinking about the anxious thoughts you experienced.

“Why am I thinking these thoughts?” “Why can’t I shake off this eerie feeling?”

The harder you try not to think about it, the more upset you become. It is like telling someone

‘Whatever happens do not think of a pink elephant’.

Naturally enough it’s all they can think about. That’s the way our brains our wired.

So how can you eliminate these unwanted anxious thoughts?

To begin with:

-when you start to experience anxious thoughts, it is very important not to force the thoughts away.
Let the thoughts in. The more comfortable you can become with them, the better. These thoughts will never go away fully but what you can learn is to change your reaction to them.

By changing your reaction to the anxious thoughts you become free of them.

Once you establish a new way of reacting to the thoughts it does not matter if you have them or not. Your reaction is what defines the whole experience (and that applies to almost everything).

Everybody experiences fleeting thoughts that many would consider scary or crazy. The difference between most people and somebody who gets caught up in them, is that the average person sees them for exactly what they are, fleeting anxious thoughts, and casually ignores them.

The anxious person is at a disadvantage as they already have a certain level of anxiety in their system. The thoughts easily spark feelings of further anxiety which builds into a cycle of fear. You break the cycle by changing how you react to the fearful thought.

Here is an example of how to approach this:

You are enjoying the way your day is going but then all of sudden a fearful thought comes to mind.

Before you would react with anxiety to the idea and then try to force that thought out of your mind.

This time, however, say:

“That’s a fear of X. I could worry and even obsess over that but this time I’m going to do something different. I’m not going to react to it. I’m also not going to try and stop it either. I’m just going to label the thought and not react.”

Then the thought comes again with more intensity and possibly with new ’scary’ angles you never considered. When this happens you do exactly the same. As if you were observing a cloud passing overhead, you simply

-Observe it,
-Label it (fear of whatever), then
-Watch it as it passes by with no judgment.
then

-Move your attention on to what you were doing.
Observe, Label, Watch, Move on

See the anxious thought for what it really is: -one of the thousands of fleeting sane and insane thoughts every one of us experiences daily.

If you are a more indoors type of person then instead of thinking of the thoughts like clouds passing in the sky, you might try imagining a large cinema screen and the anxious thoughts are projected out onto the screen in front of you. Play around with this approach. Find what works for you.

The key thing to remember is to:

Observe, Label, Watch, Move on

By practicing this approach you gradually stop reacting with fear to the thought and you learn to treat it as nothing more than an odd peculiarity.

When you are at a stage where you are comfortable doing the above exercise and you feel you are making good progress, then try this additional step:

Actually invite one of your more regular fearful thoughts in.

Call the fear to you, say you just want it to come close so you can observe it.

It may seem like the last thing you would wish to bring upon yourself, as you don’t particularly enjoy these thoughts but this approach can be very empowering. You are now calling the shots. You actually invited the issue in.

By doing this you are discharging the dense vibration of fear surrounding the anxious thought. That fear was sustaining itself on your resistance, -the idea that you could not handle these thoughts.

The fear quickly evaporates when you turn around and say “yes of course I can handle these thoughts.”

Fear intensifies when we pull away from it. Anxious thoughts become a mental tug of war if we struggle with them.

It is the mental struggle of pulling against the anxious thoughts that creates the inner psychological tension.

The inner tension is fueled by thoughts like:

“I can’t handle to think about this -please go away”
“I don’t like that thought- I want it to stop!”
Take a different stance. Invite anxious thoughts in. Willingly sit with them, label them and do your very best not to react.

Yes, it does take practice but very soon you find yourself in a unique position of control. You are no longer a victim of fearful thinking but a decision maker in what you will or will not be concerned about.

As with every technique there is always a level of practice involved in the beginning. Initially you start observing but then suddenly get anxious about the fearful thought. That’s very normal in the beginning.

Keep at it. Practice and you will quickly see how less impacting those fearful thoughts become.

Do not let your mind trick you into believing that your anxiety is something you will always have to struggle with. That is simply not true.

Not alone is it possible to control the occurrence of anxious thoughts but I can teach you how to end panic attacks and general anxiety if that is your goal.

You can have the life of your dreams. Anxiety does not have the right to steal that hope from you.

Agoraphobia and Panic Attacks

There is phobia that is linked to the experience of panic attacks, and that is agoraphobia. Agoraphobia is the fear of open spaces or of being in crowded, public places such as shopping markets. It is a fear associated with leaving a safe zone, such as the home.

Because of a feeling of being vulnerable, people who experience this fear often suffer from panic attacks in these “open” situations. It is true to say many people who have regular panic attacks experience different degrees of agoraphobia. Some have a lingering background anxiety about being away from home should they experience a panic attack. Other people are so immobilized by this fear that they find it very difficult to leave their home for even a short period.

The thinking behind agoraphobia usually follows the line that were a panic attack to occur, who would look after the person, how would he or she get the assistance and reassurance they needed? The vulnerability grows from the feeling that once victims of agoraphobia are caught in the anxiety, they are suddenly unable to look after themselves and are therefore at the mercy of the place they find themselves in and the strangers around them. In its extreme form, agoraphobia and panic attacks can lead to a situation where people become housebound for numerous years. Please note, this is by no means a hopeless situation, and I always need to reinforce the fact that something only becomes hopeless once the person really believes that to be the case.

To begin with, the primary issue that needs to be addressed is the belief in the safe zone. To clarify, when I talk about safe zone, I am referring to the zone where the person believes panic attacks do not occur, or at least occur infrequently. As comfort is found there, it is where the person tends to spend more and more time. The safe zone of anxiety is a myth sustained by the mind. The mind has developed a habit of thinking that dictates that being inside the safe zone is the only place to feel secure and avoid agoraphobia and panic attacks. If agoraphobia is an issue for you, watch as your mind comes up with reasons why it believes only a certain area is safe and another is not. Those reasons range from being near the phone or people you trust to having familiar physical surroundings to reassure you.

The reality of anxiety is that there is no such thing as a safe zone. There is nothing life threatening about a panic attack, and therefore sitting at home is the same as sitting under the stars on a desert island. Of course, your mind will immediately rush to tell you that a desert island is a ridiculous place to be as there are no hospitals, no tranquillisers, no doctors, NO SAFETY.

You need to review your previous experiences of panic attacks. Aren’t you still here, alive and well, after all those attacks during which you were convinced you were going to die?

It may be that on occasions you have been driven to the hospital where they did medicate you to calm you down, but do you really believe that you would not have survived were it not for the drugs? You would have. If the same bout of anxiety had occurred on this desert island, it too would have passed, even if you were all alone. Yes, when it comes to conditions that need medical attention such as asthma, diabetes, and a whole litany or other conditions, then having medical aid nearby is a big asset, but no doctor in the world would tell someone with anxiety that there are only specific safe zones in which she or he can move.

As I know more than anyone how terrifying it can feel to move out of your safe zone as the feeling of fear is welling up inside, I do not wish to sound harsh. This course is not about chastising people for their behaviours. It is a way of looking together at solutions and seeing through the myths that form prison walls. The goal is to enable you to return to a richer and more meaningful life and ultimately defeat your agoraphobia and panic attacks. I also realize that people around you cannot understand why a trip to shops would cause you such discomfort. You will have to forgive them and try not to be upset by their lack of understanding of your problem.

If an individual such as a partner or family member has not had a similar anxiety issue, that person may often find it hard to understand and empathize with what you are going through. I am sure you have been dragged out of the house numerous times against your will, kicking and screaming. This can then lead to tensions and arguments and is upsetting as it can make you feel less understood by those around you. People around agoraphobics are often simply trying what they feel is best. If you can see that their intentions are well meaning (although often misguided), then you will be able to relate to them better and help sooth any potential conflicts.

There is one thing I am sure you will agree with, and that is that the only person who will get you out of agoraphobic thinking is yourself. These are your thoughts, and only you can begin to change that pattern. Dealing with long term agoraphobia and panic attacks is a slow process to begin with, but once the results start happening, it moves faster and faster until you reach a point where you will find it hard to believe that going out was such a difficult task.

Why Distraction Helps Ease Anxiety

In order to quickly move away from generalized anxiety you need to throw yourself 100% into life.

What is needed is to engage regularly in an activity that stimulates you, and holds your complete attention, something in which you can become completely absorbed.

Something that distracts you is a very valuable tool in taking your attention away from the uncomfortable sensation of anxiety that may be lingering in your body.

You see almost everyone with anxiety finds themselves getting a bit obsessed about how they feel at any given moment. The less preoccupied the person is, the more time there is to obsess over anxious sensations.

I am sure you have noticed that when you are doing something you enjoy or that really holds your attention, the less you ‘check in’ to measure your anxiety level.

Quite simply, the more you engage with life the less stagnant and anxious you will feel.

Some of the possible activities that interest you could be:

Gardening, playing a musical instrument, sport, or simply having a good conversation with a friend. The idea here is to find something that you can repeat on a regular basis that you enjoy doing or that at very least holds your attention.

If you find you have too much time on your hands and are having problems coming up with something you could do then I recommend you volunteer in a local voluntary scheme. It could be anything from helping the elderly, looking after animals or environmental conservation.

If you can spare even one or two hours a week for such work, not only will you feel your self-esteem improve, but it will help shake off any lingering feelings of isolation or loneliness which are so often accompanied by anxiety.

One thing you can be certain of is that there is some organization near you crying out for a volunteer just like you to assist them with their work.

The art of distraction has always been used to help people refocus and avoid concentrating on whatever physical or emotional discomfort the person is going through. It may just be the caring friend who invites their recently heart broken roommate out on the town to have some fun.

Dentists and doctors use distraction techniques frequently to distract the patient from a physical discomfort they may be experiencing, by giving them something else to focus on (usually the bill).

The purpose of using distraction, for people who want to live anxiety free, is to have new experiences that take the person’s mind off the anxious feelings they have been experiencing.

If you imagine that all the fearful anxious thoughts that go through your mind are like a roll of film being run through a film projector (your mind) and out into your life. Concentrating on some activity immediately cuts the film and brings you directly into the here and now.

When you are fully engaged with life there is no room for any anxiety disorder. This mental space you create enables both your body and mind time to become less sensitized to the anxiety.

By doing something you enjoy and feel you are good at, helps build new competencies. You are saying to yourself that the anxiety path is not one you want to travel down anymore and that you will put your focus elsewhere.

The more time you give to following these rewarding pursuits, the easier it is for your body to relax and return to a natural state of peace.

Combine this with my ONE MOVE technique and people often look back weeks later and wonder if it was really them who was so anxious all the time. Note, it normally takes a few weeks to reduce feelings of general anxiety. That is the standard amount of time to come back to feeling more yourself.