Let’s delve a little deeper into the self-help tools that are available to you when you get caught in the trap of stress, anxiety, depression, and panic attacks.
It helps to understand the deeper levels of you. By getting a better handle of how and when you lose control, you can see the patterns that throw you on the runaway merry-go-round anxiety trip. First of all, breathe. Take a deep, real deep breath right now. Take as many breaths as you need and focus on the fact that you can feel better by the end of this article.
Understand that no one wakes up in the morning and says, “I think I am going to make the worst decisions I can today. No matter what happens, I am going to shoot myself in the foot, and purposely mess up all of my plans and everyone’s else’s plans. On purpose, I am going to lie, cheat, steal, and be the worst possible person I can be.”
That is not the way things usually work. See if any of the following scenarios fit you, then try their remedies. You will feel better.
I will first caution you of the almost immediate voice answering you back in your head, you know, that self-sabotaging voice that says, “Oh, this is stupid. This won’t work.” Or for those of us who have spent years studying depression, anxiety and panic attacks, our often-over-educated ego dogmatically rears up and dictates, “That is not the way I was trained. These recommendations do not follow the protocol I was taught. There cannot be any other way to treat these symptoms other than the one way I know.”
Surprise, oh yes there is.
The other self-sabotage trap is to think, “I’ve already tried this. It does not work.” It is true that if you stop thinking and doing the self-help cure, it will not work. But if you do not give up, it does work.
You may be in the trap of giving away your personal power. Anxiety and panic issues have everything to do with giving away your power.
Are you still breathing? Oh yes, breathing. Let your shoulders detach from your ear lobes. Allow yourself to smile about this. It’s OK.
The very act of smiling, even if you force yourself to smile for no reason, begins the mental process of lightening the tone of yourself. This is why Laughter Yoga works. You are in charge of you. You can feel better if you want to. The question is, do you want to feel better? Be honest with yourself. History does not need to repeat itself unless you want it to.
You are not a victim unless you choose to be. Self-talk and self-improvement work even if you are on medication, or not on medication. Know that you are not bound by your past history to keep repeating patterns of dysfunction. You do have a choice. Again, do not listen to that self-sabotaging voice that says you always were and always will be stressed, depressed, and full of anxiety and panic attacks. You can stop all that NOW. History does not have to repeat itself.
Smile and relax as you understand that you really do have a choice. It has everything to do with the decisions you make. Until now, you may not have realized that you have a choice in deciding which thoughts you want to keep, and which thoughts are hurting you and you want to let go of. Until now you may have felt like a victim to your thoughts.
You might need a mental chisel to scrape that negative-thinking addiction out of your thinking process. If negative thinking, commenting, and behaviors have been deeply ingrained into the fabric of your mind, as if you were caught in an undertow carrying you out to the sea of despair, it may take longer to turn yourself around. Just know that it is possible to get out of that current of negative thinking. It can also happen in the blink of an eye. You simply have to want to do it.
Your thoughts do not think you. You think your thoughts. If you do not like how the way you are thinking is making you feel, CHANGE YOUR THOUGHTS. DECIDE TO THINK OF SOMETHING ELSE. You CAN do this. You have within yourself the ability to decide not to let any person, place or thing intefere with your desires, hopes, dreams and reality.
How can you do this?
Think of the next possible step, the next lighter thought. See yourself on the road to recovery. No matter how many times you have tried this before, think of these attempts to get back in control of your life as training for this time, when you firmly set your sights on your recovery. YOU CAN DO THIS.
No one has control over you and your thoughts. Even if you are confined and in prison with real brick walls, you still have control of how you think, and how you are going to conduct yourself from now on. That is a dramatic example. I use it because each of us thinks our situation is so unique, so much more difficult than anyone else’s. This is not the case. These recommendations work 100 percent of the time. The only time they do not work is when we stop doing them. It is simply a negative habit you have reinforced which blinds you to other positive solutions.
You might feel more comfortable taking baby steps. Or perhaps you have had enough of living like this and decide to take huge leaps out of the habit of anxiety and panic. How fast you get out of the dysfunctional habit of anxiety and panic largely depends on how much we can take trying on new behaviors. It will feel strange at first to allow yourself to think in new ways. It will feel odd to laugh at yourself, to lighten up.
Even if it is not the case immediately, see yourself as whole, happy, in control of your life, in control of your thoughts. Refuse to be a puppet for others anymore. Refuse to be a puppet of the negativity in your mind. Do the things that if you were in control of your life that you would do. Bring in flowers, music, better lighting, good aromas. Even if you are telling yourself this is the opposite of how you are feeling, you CAN change how you feel by staying with it.
Keep with it, like flipping a switch, you are in charge of you. Be stubborn and dig your heels in and refuse to follow that old familiar path of negativity that leads you directly where you do not want to go. If there are people, places or things that are adversely affecting your mood, avoid them if at all humanly possible. This is a new beginning.
When your mind finds itself thinking of the worry or the problem, be gentle. Tell yourself you will worry later. For right now, DECIDE you will only think of positive, loving, healing solutions for yourself. You can do this.
I am board certified by The National Accreditation and Certification Board, as a graduate of The American Institute of Holistic Health and Wellness. As a holistic health counselor and practitioner, drugless therapies have been my life’s work which has helped over 5,000 people. If you have tried and failed before, I encourage you to try again, with a new outlook for a better, more fulfilling future.
Namaste