Anxiety
-- Can I Actually Get Rid Of It?
~
By Jan Tincher
Copyright
© Jan Tincher - All Rights reserved
http://www.tameyourbrain.com
If
you have anxiety and stress,
even if you've had it all your life, can you actually
get rid of it? . . .
Well,
in order to answer that question, you need to answer
this one. Can you think?
Because, if you can think, you can change. If you have
anxiety and you can think, you can change and NOT have
anxiety.
Let's look at it this way. What happens when you get
anxious?
Does your breath come in spurts? Does your stomach clench?
Do you get a headache? Picture your body going through
whatever it goes through when you get anxious. Look
at the TV screen in your mind, put an image of you on
it, and imagine or pretend you can see your body going
through an anxiety attack.
What's happening to your body? Is it doubling up, shriveling
up? When you find yourself going within, you are, in
effect, tightening up every cell in your body. The results
are not pretty. Once your cells start tightening up,
they can't stop. Pretty soon they are shriveled and
squashed together, much like a balloon with all the
air sucked out.
Wait, wait. I said that wrong. They can't stop unless
YOU stop them.
How
do you stop them?
You take a deep breath. Now, look at your body on the
screen in your mind. Watch as you take a deep breath.
What is happening to all of your cells now? They are
expanding with the deep inhalation. Look! They are "un-shriveling."
If your cells aren't shriveled up, you aren't experiencing
anxiety as you knew it! Man, what a revelation!
And, if your cells aren't shriveling up, chances are
your stomach isn't getting uptight, your muscles aren't
bunching, your headache isn't forming, etc.
Now, let's see what happens when you take a deep breath
at the very beginning of an anxiety attack. Breathing
is one of the first things anxiety affects. However,
if you are able to take a deep breath, deep breaths
are relaxing. You can't be anxious and relaxed at the
same time. Right?
Now, to keep your mind busy, when you take a deep breath
say to yourself, "I am taking a deep breath."
Say it very slowly until you stop inhaling. Then, exhale.
Say, "I am letting out my breath." Say it
very slowly until you stop exhaling.
Practice
that now. Think about things that give you anxiety attacks.
Take a deep breath. Let it out slowly. Say to yourself,
"I am taking a deep breath." Say it very slowly
until you stop inhaling. Then, exhale. Say, "I
am letting out my breath." Say it very slowly until
you stop exhaling. Repeat the process. Keep it up until
your mind goes to something that doesn't cause anxiety
attacks.
That's how successes are formed. You continually think
about the successful technique you used -- in this case
the deep breathing -- and NOT that the anxiety didn't
form, but instead think about how peaceful you felt.
TIP: You don't want to think about anxiety in any form.
You want to think about peace.
When you think about success, you aren't thinking about
failure. Failure in this example is anxiety. And, hey,
wait, get this! Thinking about anxiety caused more anxiety!
Thinking about success causes more success! A very important
point to remember. Empower yourself. Your mind can only
think of one thing at a time. Choose what that thing
will be.
Think about the dentist's/doctor's/lawyer's office,
think about deep breathing and relax. If you don't immediately
relax, do the deep breathing exercises and think about
relaxing until you do.
Think about the hospital's scent that always throws
you for a loop, the classroom where you are about to
take a test, the bank's office where you are about to
apply for a loan, think about deep breathing and relax.
If you don't immediately relax, do the deep breathing
exercises and think about relaxing until when? Until
you do!
After all, you aren't at those places right now, are
you? So, it should be really easy to relax now.
Think about any time that upsets you, do the deep breathing
exercises and relax. Get your brain used to relaxing
when faced with stress until it does so automatically.
Thanks
for reading.
