Welcome to another video Anxiety Warrior, my name is George Alonso and today you’re going to learn how to handle an anxiety or panic attack like a pro.
If you have ever had an attack you know it’s something you want to end as soon as possible. I remember they left me all light headed and feeling vulnerable.
They were scary as hell and for some time it was not only anxiety I had to deal with, but also fear of having another anxiety attack.
Can you imagine? It’s like fearing fear itself.
Who would help me in such moments? Will it get worse for the next attack? Will I lose my mind?
For me all this meant 24/7 vulnerability. You know, that terrible uncertainty of now knowing when will the next attack come knocking at the door.
My greatest desire during anxiety attacks was to have a way out, but how do you escape your own mind?
There is no way of doing it, right?
Wrong!
There IS a way to control attacks, it’s just that nobody ever taught you how to do it.
So let’s get down to it.
We will be standing on the two pillars to defeat anxiety: Which are stillness and detachment.
And they will not only help you handle attacks like a pro, but also, they will help you defeat anxiety.
You can apply these principles to anxiety in many ways and that’s why you will be hearing about these two in practically all my videos.
Because they are the pillars to gain full control of your mind and emotions and therefore, the key to defeat anxiety.
I discovered their power when I had to deal with repeated panic attacks, long nights of no sleep, constant worry, overthinking and all that crap anxiety gives you.
Back then I was a lot into meditation and that allowed me to understand how exactly the mind and anxiety work.
Thanks to meditation I was able to understand that anxiety and panic attacks are just temporary, I was also able to recognize the fleeting nature of emotions, the natural tendency of the mind to fixate itself on ideas and the way we form attachments.
This may sound pretty deep, and maybe you think they have nothing to do with anxiety, but I was curious to see how useful those realizations were.
So I thought to myself: What if I apply what I learned during meditations to fighting anxiety? And it was a great idea.
I will tell you to use those teachings to help you with your anxiety and panic attacks.
First let’s talk about Stillness. Stillness is all about emotions and the way we get involved with them.
In the specific case of anxiety our involvement with fear is very strong.
Think about it, during a panic attack fear overwhelms us and not only we feel that fear, we become it, we are drowned in fear for the whole freaking attack.
Stillness changes this, because instead of suffering our emotions we will get out of the way and allow them to pass through us.
With stillness we speed things up by breaking our involvement with those emotions.
And the first step to do that is acceptance.
We get involved with fear because we feel aversion towards it, we have a strong sense of rejection and therefore we try to escape fear and escape the situation that brings us anxiety.
That’s why you must start by accepting it. Don’t reject the fear, don’t try to escape it, instead allow yourself to feel fear.
Yes, it may not be the most pleasant thing in the world, but the more you accept it the less you will suffer and the faster it will leave.
I know this is counter-intuitive but it helps a lot. And I also know it may be hard to understand at first, but stay with me and it will all be clear to you.
It is our aversion what creates the involvement.
When we try to escape it a cat and mouse game begins and the experience is overwhelming and terrifying. I like the example of a storm, because it fits perfectly here.
If you were to confront a storm you can do two things: Option one: You run away, but it will just eventually reach you and mess you up.
Or, option two: you can take a deep breath and go straight into the eye of the storm. This is Stillness, because right at the eye of the storm you can remain still and nothing will happen to you.
How do you remain still in the eye of this storm of panic? You have to become pure awareness.
As pure awareness you will not be affected by the ups and down of your emotions, you will observe them instead, with detachment.
Just watching it happen, without any reaction from you, and that means not acting out, not speaking and not even thinking. Pure awareness. Pure presence.
Which takes me to the next thing: Detachment, and this concerns your ideas. The Chaotic Thought we experience during anxiety.
In order to have peace of mind during a panic attack you must become this silent observer I was talking about, but on a mental level.
For a brief moment stop being your mind, stop being your anxiety and fears and just observe everything that is happening inside your mind.
You will become aware of the ideas anxiety is pushing into your mind and right there you must exercise detachment.
How? By not reacting to the worrisome thoughts anxiety is bringing about.
You have to observe in detail those ideas, how they arise and how they connect one to another.
And also you will observe how it is us, who reciprocate to this anxious thoughts by replying with other thoughts.
When you start observing this everything becomes clear. The key is to become pure awareness and that will help you in attaining both stillness and detachment.
So let’s wrap it up:
Stillness is all about becoming non-reactive to your emotions and just allowing them to flow through you.
Don’t react to them, don’t interact with them, don’t hate the fear, don’t fear anxiety, allow yourself to observe silently while you become pure awareness.
Your mind may be having anxiety. Your body may be experiencing the symptoms, but you are just observing.
Allow the emotions to pass, breathe deeply and cry if necessary, but don’t cling to the emotion. All emotions are temporary and you will make it faster if you remain still and unreactive.
And Detachment helps on a mental level. By becoming pure awareness you also stop reacting to your anxious thoughts and stop the Chaotic Mental Dialogue.
You will realize anxiety needs you to react to stay longer, but the less you respond, the less the attack will last.
Become aware of what anxiety is trying to do, watch the ideas arise and how they connect with one another. Watch but don’t react.
Keep your mind focused on the fact that anxiety is only a temporary matter.
If you exercise both stillness and detachment in this way your, attacks will be less intense, they will be shorter and they will happen less frequently.
This will help you a lot in understanding and defeating anxiety.
Our purpose here is to end anxiety permanently and although controlling attacks is only the beginning, it is a great step as it will give you the stability you need to work in depth with your anxiety.
For some, the concepts of this video may be completely new, so if you have any questions be sure to let me know and I will be happy to assist you in accomplishing the stillness and detachment described.
Thank you for watching Anxiety Warrior, be sure to subscribe and if you want, leave a comment and maybe a thumbs up.
See you next video!
Recent Comments