Last month we looked at getting a better understanding of what anxiety is and how it functions in our mind and bodies. Knowing how to build our resources in the moment is key to managing all overwhelming feelings and so I’d like to end the year with ways to manage and recover from anxiety.

Action and Reaction

One of the most useful perspectives to begin with is that fear - and the discomfort associated with it – it is a communication, a message about something from our bodies and our subconscious.

It often emerges that what is being communicated is about safety and the need to create or experience that. Paradoxically however, many of the behaviours and responses that result from anxiety do not necessarily lead to safety in the long run.

The issue is not whether or not a person feels fearful, but rather what the person does next as a result of the anxiety; and it is here that therapeutic interventions such as Neuro-Linguistic Programming and CranioSacral Therapy are of tremendous value in healing anxiety disorders.

When combined with healthy lifestyle changes, these modalities allow core anxiety and fear to be discharged from the body and a state of balance and inner security to evolve.

Making Changes

The good news is that anyone who suffers from anxiety or panic attacks also has the ability to learn to cope with them so well that they no longer become frightening.

In fact, with lifestyle changes and new ways of coping, the intensity and frequency of panic attacks can be reduced so effectively that they cease altogether. There are five lifestyle changes which are highly effective in managing panic disorder:

• Learn to meditate; or begin a regular programme of deep, progressive relaxation. Both balance and harmonise brain-wave patterns and bring about a deep sense of calm;

• Exercise regularly! We spoke last month about the “fight-or-flight” mode your body goes into when you feel anxious. Exercise burns off that surge of adrenalin, and allows your body to create the exact chemical counter-balance you need to feel calm again;

• Eliminate stimulants and habit-forming substances (especially caffeine, sugar, nicotine and alcohol) from your life. Anyone who has been at a toddler’s birthday party has seen first-hand just how sugar can tip us over into frenzy – the other substances do exactly the same in less obvious ways;

• Learn to acknowledge and express your feelings, especially anger and sadness. Suppressed emotion takes a tremendous amount of energy and attention to sustain. Acknowledging how you feel – to a good friend, a trained counsellor, even to your journal - enables you to release that tension; and
  

• Lastly, adopt beliefs and attitudes toward life which promote calmness, acceptance and empowerment. Whatever may be happening in the world around you, you have a choice about what you think and how you respond to circumstances. We have little or no control over other people’s behaviour or actions; but we do have power over our own and that power is absolute – use it to your own benefit and choose to belief in the inherent goodness of life.

May your Festive Season be peaceful and blessed.

Read the first part of Sharon Plaskitt’s focus on Anxiety – Under Pressure

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