Major Panic Attacks ( Archived) (5)

Have you ever practised yoga and meditation?

A prominent psychologist once said that the only way to feel better instantly was to buy a case of your favorite of scotch, find a willing partner and book a two week vacation to some tropical island. Then, you may feel better - at least for a couple of weeks. While this humorous little piece of advice is not something that I would recommend - it does make one strong point. There is no known quick fix to deeply rooted psychological issues. There is, however, the next best thing. Coping skills.
The coping skill that I will outline below won’t make it all go away but will help you to learn to calm yourself down and to relax when you begin to feel anxious.
You may be thinking “meditation, oh sure, what’s next - incense and hippie beads?”

Study after study has shown meditation, when done correctly, to be a very successful form of stress reduction. And there is really nothing mystical or hocus-pocus about it. The primary cause of anxiety is an over active or out of control thought process. Effective meditation slows down your thought process and - voila - reduces your anxiety.

The first step is to find a comfortable position. Many people choose to sit with good posture in an upright position. I suggest preparing yourself by first doing a few minutes of diaphragmatic breathing and muscle relaxation exercises to relax you physically.

Next - close your eyes. (Studies show that by simply closing our eyes we can reduce our brain activity by up to seventy-five percent.) You may at this time start to become aware of your own thoughts. Let the flow and go away. The idea here is to have as few thoughts as possible, but don’t become anxious if you cannot eliminate your thoughts altogether. Simply let them go each time you recognize yourself drifting into thought.

One of the things that helps us to eliminate our thought process is to concentrate upon or repeat a mantra. A mantra is quite simply just a word or a phrase or a number that you try to visualize and repeat over and over again. The sole purpose in this is to eliminate any thoughts that might want to creep into your mind.

Many times I would meditate while doing my breathing exercises. My mantra would be the numbers that I was using for counting my breaths. I would close my eyes and while breathing in I would visualize and focus upon the numbers; one, two, three, four, five, six, seven...And then as I was breathing out I would again focus upon and visualize the numbers: One, two, three, four, five, six, seven... I also will often us a Bible verse or simply the name “Jesus” while visualizing each letter’s, size, shape, dimension, color and texture.

You may have a favorite word or phrase that you want to use for your mantra. Some people simply repeat and focus upon the name of a loved one or a favorite phrase. It doesn’t matter. The Idea is to have something to focus upon to help you to stop thinking.

Try to meditate at least once every day for at least twenty minutes or any time that you feel stressed or anxious. Meditating will leave you refreshed and help to become aware of your thought process. It will also help to bring you out of anxiety and recondition you to react more calmly in stressful situations. Don’t worry if you become so relaxed that you nod off and fall asleep.

I have had panic every time I was on the street or in a shopping centre 10 years ago. But I had to get a job and it was in shopping centre! Somehow facing the fear I did get rid of it. I could not also step on the elevator before that shopping centre work, but now I am fine.