When you’re feeling anxious, all you have to do is remember these 3 simple things.
Don’t ask questions, just do this until you’re no longer anxious…then read beyond.
1st
Breathe in through your nose for 4 seconds, hold your breath for 4 seconds, and breathe out through your mouth for 6 seconds with your mouth postured as if you’re about to whistle. Focus on your breathing, even if you stray in thought, simply bring your attention back to this.
2nd
Simply note what you feel or think. Example: “I noticed that I’m feeling anxious after lying about where I have been” or “I’m noticing I keep thinking about the past or future which always makes me feel scared”
3rd
Place your hand on top of your stomach whilst you breathe in and out for a few mins, or whilst meditating.
In-Depth
1st
This breathing exercise slows your heart rate down immediately and helps you to relax and form better thoughts and/or see more rationally. It’s important to understand that this is not an opinion that I am trying to put onto you, this is a KNOWN FACT.
This 100% slows your heart rate down, proven a million times over and I find it particularly important to know that this is proven… otherwise you’ll try and fight yourself on questions like “Is this even doing anything” or “how do I know whether or not this only works for certain people” which has happened to me on different occasions, so you’re not alone.
2nd
This was the game-changer that truly helped me to overcome my deepest worries and anxieties, observing your thoughts and feelings as they surface. What this does, is it identifies what’s going on in your head and body immediately so you no longer have to give any conscious or subconscious thought to it, the mystery is essentially gone and out of the way. To help further explain, here’s an example.
Let’s say you frequently think about the past and every time you do that, it throws you into a panic. You immediately become anxious and focus on not being anxious as opposed to what it was that made you anxious in the first place. When this happens, your mind has no idea what’s going on, it just knows that you need to be in survival mode and survival mode is all you can think about. Your mind doesn’t know what caused this and it certainly doesn’t care, BUT, if you were to say to yourself at that moment “I thought about the past and I’m now feeling anxious”, you’ve taken all of the guessing away from your brain. The anxiety you were feeling will QUICKLY leave your body and you can move on with your day.
What’s amazing about this, is you start to notice the difference immediately and the more that you do it, the quicker your anxieties start to vanish. You become more self-aware, which is great for every single aspect of life. My second day of doing this was the most amazing and most eye-opening experience for me because I was essentially observing my anxieties as they went away for good.
This is obviously more easily said than done, it’s hard to face worries head-on because we often don’t want to feel like there’s a problem. We just want to be “normal” but the thing about it is, this is all a beautiful experience. While the anxieties slowly leave you, you become overwhelmingly happy. You become aware of how much better your life is now in comparison to where it was, and you’ll truly feel for those who are going through the same struggle that you did and will want to help. This is why I’ve created this blog, I know what it’s like and I want to be of service to you.
3rd
placing your hand on your stomach whilst breathing and/or meditating is the easiest way to bring you back to the present moment. When you’re anxious, your mind is going 100 miles an hour all over the place and there isn’t any one thing in particular that you’re focusing on at that time. By simply placing your hand on your stomach, you essentially let yourself know where “you” are at, it helps bring you back and break you from your cycle.
Closing
I dealt with panic attacks and anxiety for years without telling anyone, I didn’t have anyone I felt like I could open up to. I’d always had some type of image that I “needed to uphold” and for this reason, I didn’t want anyone to see me as “weak”.
What’s interesting, however, is that nearly everyone you’ve come into contact with has deep worries and anxieties at least regularly throughout their life. Maybe you catch them in great times in their life, maybe you catch them in great moments throughout the days, but the thing is you never really know what someone else is going through. Think about it, do people you know, know that you have anxiety and/or worries, or are you able to put a mask on and hide it from the public for the most part? If you have that capability, you better believe that nearly every other person does as well.
Please remember this for me.
You are not alone. I’m just a stranger on one side of a screen and you are a stranger on the other, however, I’m here to tell you that I’ve been through my fair share and I’m now in a place where pure joy and happiness lie and I just want to be able to share this with you. Keep your head up and keep working on yourself. Whether you have “good” or “bad” days as of right now, as long as you are working on yourself, every little thing will start to align for you.
You’re going to make it through this, just trust me on that for now.
Sincerely,
Mason