Bodily Sensations | PanicAway.com

Holiday Season and that old friend anxiety

November 20th, 2009 | Author: Barry Joe McDonagh

The holiday season can be one of the most stressful times of the year. Last minute shopping, in-laws, and everyone on their best behavior…or not.

People with anxiety often count down the days to the merry season with mixed feelings. If you suffer from panic attacks regularly, you are probably well aware of the physical manifestations that you will probably experience as the holidays draw near.

The body’s goal of the fight or flight response is to make you aware of danger, but if you’re having a panic attack, this response can be triggered by a variety of stimuli. Holiday stressors including shopping for friends and family, organizing holiday events, or just making travel arrangements can be difficult to deal with. Here are some effective ways to reduce stress and anxiety over the holiday season:

Try the Symphony Technique:

In my book Panic Away, I talk about how to rate your anxiety on a scale of 1 to 10, with 10 being the highest. The Symphony Technique allows you to imagine yourself as the conductor of a symphony orchestra, and all you need to do is start counting to a rhythm in your head. Just count 1 and 2 and 3 and 4, 1 and 2 and 3 and 4, in your head, and tap your feet on each number and move your hands as if you were a symphony conductor.

Now as you count, tell yourself the following: “I accept and process my anxious thoughts”, “I accept and process my bodily sensations”, “I accept and process my fear of panic”, and “I accept and process my beating heart”. As you say those words you conduct the bodily sensations. You are controlling the whole experience.

This is just a short example of how to use the symphony technique but what you are learning here is how to create inner movement. The inner movement is what helps you release the pent up feelings and allows you to feel more in control. By establishing a sense of control you feel much more confident in managing the anxiety.

Allow Yourself to Feel Anxious

Stuck in the crowds at the mall when holiday shopping?

Dreading a few days with the in laws?

Take a deep breath and let yourself feel the anxiety – this will help you release it. Acceptance is the first step because what we fully accept then goes through a transformation and is easier to manage.

Allowing yourself to feel anxious to the fullest will help you break out of the cycle of fearing your own thoughts, and allow your thoughts to simply flow. This is an important part of accepting your fears, processing them and then moving on. You’ll feel more and more confident each time you do this, and will effectively help you work through your anxiety.

Click here to learn more effective ways to reduce anxiety and better manage an oncoming panic attack >>

Tags: Anxious thoughts, Beating Heart, Best Behavior, Bodily Sensations, fear of holidays, Flight Response, holiday anxiety, Holiday Events, holiday panic, Holiday Season, holiday stress, Mixed Feelings, Old Friend, Panic Attack, Panic Attacks, Physical Manifestations, Stimuli, Stress And Anxiety, Stress Anxiety, Stressful Times, Stressors, Symphony Conductor, Travel Arrangements, Ways To Reduce Stress
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The Enemy Of Our Imagination

August 29th, 2009 | Author: Barry Joe McDonagh

People who experience panic attacks will often say that they feel out of control as soon as the panic is in full swing. Christian Nevell Bovee once wrote:

“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.”

Learn more about this approach and how to apply it to various manifestations of panic and general anxiety.

Click Here

Here is a small sample of how Panic Away has helped others:

…learned more from reading your program than I did from all the psychologists and other practitioners I had seen in the 25 years- I must tell you that out of all the items you can purchase regarding anxiety related products on the internet, I learned more from reading your program than I did from all the psychologists and other practitioners I had seen in the 25 years that I’ve had this condition.

I had been on Xanax and Klonopin for about 10 years, but this December, I decided to withdraw from it thinking I didn’t need the pills anymore according to some of the programs I ordered claiming “miracle cures”. That’s when all my symptoms started again. I felt as if I had wasted the past 20 years trying to get better.That’s when I started searching the web for home based “cures”. I ordered so many programs I started to get confused from too much conflicting advice.

Also, I was promised support but I am still waiting replies from some of the more expensive programs! You are a true gentleman, and I am going to post a very positive feedback on a website you might be familiar about called: Tapir? Talk to ya, Andy

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…I DEBATED ORDERING YOUR PROGRAM BECAUSE I HAVE SPENT APPROX. $8,000 IN THE LAST 5 YEARS, I RAN ACROSS YOUR PROGRAM SUNDAY, FEB. 5th. I DEBATED ORDERING YOUR PROGRAM BECAUSE I HAVE SPENT APPROX. $8,000 IN THE LAST 5 YEARS OF MY LIFE TRYING EVERYTHING FROM PANIC SUPPORT CLASSES, MEDICATION, COUNSELING AND THE LIST GOES ON, ALL TO RID MYSELF OF PANIC ATTACKS. SOMETHING INSIDE ME SAID, JUST KEEP TRYING, SO I DID. AFTER 5 YEARS OF OF LIVING MY LIFE WITH THE WORLD ON MY SHOULDERS I AM EXCITED TO SAY THAT I AM NOW PANIC FREE. AFTER ONE TIME OF APPLYING YOUR ONE MOVE TECHNIQUE, I AM A NEW PERSON. ONE OF MY MANY FEARS THAT I DEVELOPED WAS DRIVING. AFTER READING YOUR PROGRAM AT 12.30 AT NIGHT I WROTE DOWN SOME QUICK NOTES FROM YOUR “ONE MOVE TECH.” I RAN OUT OF MY HOUSE AND DROVE TOWARD THE DARKEST SCARIEST ROAD WHERE NOBODY WAS NEAR BY. THIS WOULD DEFINITLY BRING ON AN FULL PANIC ATTACK, WHICH IT DID. WHILE LETTING MYSELF FEEL THE EMOTIONS RUN THROUGH ME, I DID EXACTLY WHAT YOU TOLD ME TO DO, I WAS SCARED AS HELL BUT STOOD MY GROUND.

I INSTANTLY CALMED AND EVEN TRIED TO BRING THE ATTACK BACK ON, BUT COULD NOT. I LITTERALLY LAUGHED OUT LOUD AND SAT IN MY TRUCK AMAZED. AFTER ALL THIS TIME THAT WAS ALL I HAD TO DO. THE COMPLETE OPPOSIT OF EVERYTHING THAT I WAS TOLD. THIS WHOLE WEEK I HAVE DRIVEN WHERE EVER I WANTED,AT ANY TIME OF THE DAY. I AM SO GLAD I FOUND YOUR PROGRAM. THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR ALL YOUR RESEARCH, TIME, AND DEDICATION SO THAT PEOPLE LIKE US CAN NOW LIVE A NORMAL AND HAPPY LIFE. JACKSON CA, AARON ==================================

…I prayed to God to show me what to do I experienced my first panic attack in July of this year and ended up going to the hospital by ambulance thinking I was having a stroke or heart attack! I have had a bunch of attacks since then. Monday morning I awoke to an immediate attack and prayed to God to show me what to do. To make a long story short,I was led to your website but was afraid it was like the other ones where they try to sell you their products. However, your introductory information really spoke to me and I decided to take a chance. I read your book and it gave me the tools I was searching for to deal with my attacks. I could tell immediately that you have suffered from panic attacks yourself because you spoke with authority that can only have come from having dealt with the terrors yourself.

I am 42 years of age and have been noticing the psychological effects of perimenopause (one of which is panic attacks in my case). Thanks again!! Sincerely, Cynthia

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To Learn more about Panic Away:

Click Here

Barry McDonagh

PanicAway.com

All material provided in these emails are for informational or educational purposes only. No content is intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Consult your physician regarding the applicability of any opinions or recommendations with respect to your symptoms or medical condition.

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Gratitude Lifts The Weight of Anxiety

August 13th, 2009 | Author: Barry Joe McDonagh

Let me tell you why the art of gratitude is such a great tool for ending anxious thoughts.

A lot of people write telling me how their anxiety makes them feel very cut off or removed from the world around them. This sensation can be distressing as people fear that they will never be able to feel normal again.

This feeling is common and in my experience is mainly fueled by a cycle of anxious thinking.

A person with a panic disorder or a generalized anxiety disorder will spend much of their day mentally “checking in”.

Checking in is a term I use to refer to how people with anxiety constantly monitor their mind and body.

“Am I feeling ok?” “How are my thoughts ?”

“Am I feeling secure or on edge right now?”

The reason regular checking in happens is because anxiety has such a powerful effect on the mind and body.

People tell me that they can deal with the anxious bodily sensations but it is the anxious mind that causes them most distress. That is what I want to address today.

Anxiety can often feel like a thick fog has surrounded your mind. Nothing really seems enjoyable as you are always looking out at the world through this haze of anxious thoughts and feelings. This fog steals the joy out of life and can make you feel removed or cut off from the world.

The anxious thoughts act as a barrier to experiencing the world and this sensation of separation then leads to feeling even more upset as you fear losing touch with yourself.

So how do you get this anxious fog to lift from your mind?

When someone is very caught up in anxious thoughts they are top heavy so to speak. The constant mental activity they are engaged in has caused an imbalance where all of their focus is on their mental anxieties.

A powerful way to move out of this anxious mental fog is to switch your focus from your head to your heart.

By simply making a deliberate shift of attention to your heart you will find the anxious thoughts dissipate more easily and the mental fog starts to gradually clear.

You can make this switch by practicing the art of gratitude.

I am sure you have heard of people speaking about the art of gratitude and the benefits it can bring to you.

Did you know that it has now been scientifically proven that regular practice of gratitude can dramatically change your bodies chemistry giving way to a more peaceful body and mind.

The Heart Math Institute has 15 years of scientific research proving that a simple tool like the art of gratitude can dramatically reduce stress and improve performance for individuals and organizations.

Many Fortune 500 companies are now starting to use this technique to reduce work related stress.

I am going to outline the technique briefly in a very straight forward exercise so you can start practicing right now.

When you practice this exercise you will feel a lightness and greater sense of perspective on any matter that has been troubling you. This activation of your heart emotion will lift the sensation that anxious thoughts create.

This is a very simple exercise but it is really powerful. Print it off and try it someplace where you can be alone.

Are you ready?

-Begin by closing your eyes and moving your attention to your heart area.

-Imagine a feeling of warmth emanating from the center of your chest.

If appropriate place your right hand there. If you are around people or driving etc. simply imagine your right hand resting on your heart area.

Imagine this area glowing warmly for one to two minutes.

-Now, begin to focus on something in your life that you feel a genuine sense of appreciation for.

This can be one or more things that you really appreciate having in your life (e.g., family, health, friends, work, your home, a beautiful day etc).

It is important to focus on things that spark a real sense of gratitude and appreciation. If you really appreciate the thing you are thinking about, you will immediately feel a response from that area by way of a light warm sensation in your chest or an involuntary smile (remember those).

It does not really matter what you think about as long as it evokes this feeling of warm appreciation from your heart area.

Don’t struggle with this exercise. Everyone has something they can be grateful for. (Remember, the cemetery is full of people who would love to have your problems!)

Do not worry if you are thinking of your partner/family and you do not feel this. Some days it will be people close to you that will spark the heart feeling, other days it may be gratitude for very simple things like the fresh air you breath. It depends on the mood you are in, -remember it is the feeling you after.

The feeling we are looking to achieve is unmistakable, it is a positive change in your emotional state.

I say it is best to do this exercise alone because you will need to stay with this feeling for as long as you can.

Then, when you feel you have taken it as far as you can, open your eyes.

There is no time frame on this exercise, it can be a few minutes to half an hour. Again it is about establishing a heart/mind connection and getting your awareness out of the anxious thoughts and more into your body.

After a few attempts you can incorporate this into your daily routine.

Do it in the car. Do it sitting at your desk. Do it before you sleep at night.

You have to practice it frequently. Just like a muscle your heart will get more accustomed to this state and you will be able to switch into that feeling in seconds.

With practice you can also use this exercise in the middle of any stressful situation. You will be surprised at the positive outcome in terms of your own stress levels and the change in others around you.

This simple exercise can completely transform the outcome of interacting with other people, be it work or personal relationships.

This is especially true where there is conflict or misunderstanding between you and other people. Try it out, see what happens!

Be creative with it and make it your own daily ritual for yourself.

I am sure you agree that it is a worthwhile exercise to incorporate into your daily life. It is my experience that most people do not have the patience or time to make major lifestyle changes. By using this one simple exercise you can make a dramatic improvement to the quality of your life.

The simplest things in life are free and this is one of those gems.

Don’t pass it up

Kind Regards, Barry McDonagh

Learn more about Panic Away here: www.PanicAway.com


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