Imagery:

• Sit in a comfortable position and close your eyes. Think of a place where you would feel very comfortable and safe, such as lying on a beach, in a field, or in a forest. Whatever image you like is fine. Concentrate on this place and pay attention to all the details, the sights and sounds, such as the time of day, the temperature, the feeling of the wind on your skin, the sound of the waves breaking in the distance, the leaves rustling, and the birds singing. Continue to focus on what you see, hear and feel, and on how comfortable and safe you feel here. Do this exercise for 5 minutes, longer if you want. As you do this more and more, you will be able to imagine the scene much more vividly. You may find that some images work better than others.

Progressive Muscle Relaxation:

• Sit comfortably, close your eyes if you want to, take your shoes off. Clench your hands into fists and keep them clenched for three seconds then allow them to relax slowly. Do this same clenching exercise for other muscles, in this order: wrists, lower arms, upper arms, shoulders, neck, feet, legs, buttocks, stomach, lower back, upper back, forehead, eyes, jaw, lips. Concentrate your thoughts on how tense your respective muscles are throughout the exercise and then the feelings of relaxation.

Deep Muscle Relaxation:

• Sit comfortably, close your eyes, and take off your shoes. Clench your hands into fists and hold them clenched for three seconds, then relax them slowly. Do the same with your feet, clench your toes and observe the feeling as you do so. When you relax them, again observe the feeling as the muscles relax, often you will feel tingling, coolness, or a warm feeling. Without tensing your muscles, once again focus on the sensation you felt when your feet/hands were relaxed. Allow this feeling to flow through your feet and passed your heel to your ankle. At your own pace, focus on the feeling of your muscles relaxing and allow this feeling to move up into your legs, buttocks, hips, stomach and back. Don’t force yourself to relax, this process will happen all of its own accord. Allow the feelings to flow into your chest, through your shoulders and down your arms, and up to your neck and then flow into your head. The length of this process can differ and may take 5 minutes or twenty five minutes, depending on your pre-existing anxiety level, how relaxed you want to be, and how well adjusted to relaxing you are. Take your time, and practice this exercise regularly, even if you don’t feel that it is always necessary. Because, with practice your body will take less and less time to achieve deep relaxation.

For better ways to cure anxiety, stress, panic, fear, or phobia click here: http://www.johnsreview.net/beatanxiety.html

This article was written by John horrax.

 

References:

Edmund Jacobson, (2008). TENSE-RELAX FOR DEEP MUSCLE RELAXATION EXERCISE. Retrieved June 22, 2009, from K-State Educational Counseling services.

Frogge, Margaret Hansen RN, MS;Goodman, Michelle RN, MS, OCN;Yarbro, Connie Henke RN, MS, FAAN, (2007). Anxiety: Progressive Muscle Relaxation And Guided Imagery. Retrieved June 22, 2009, from Healthline.

Justin Schwan, Using Imagery to Conquer Anxiety and Depression.

 

The publication of this article does not constitute the practice of medicine, the information contained in it is not to be construed as medical advice, under no circumstances is it to replace the advice of your doctor or other health care provider.

 

 

 

 

Imagine you’re lying on a beach. It’s a beautiful day, the sun is shining and there is a gentle breeze wafting over your body. Sounds of nature fill the air as you chat and laugh with family and friends. You are surrounded by people you love and respect and who love and respect you. You feel warm, contented and happy, totally relaxed, anxiety-free.

Now imagine a very different scene. It’s the dead of night, you are alone walking down a dimly-lit alley. There are doorways on either side - who knows what’s hiding in them, waiting to pounce? You are scared, your senses are heightened - your sight and hearing have become more sensitive, able to pinpoint the slightest movement or sound. Your breathing and heartbeat have become more rapid, you feel light-headed and dizzy, want to go to the toilet or throw up, your limbs feel shaky and your whole body is now charged with energy, full of anxiety, ready to fight or flee, possibly for your life.

These two scenes represent either end of the anxiety scale. In the first we feel warm, secure and safe, we are fully relaxed, virtually anxiety-free. In the second we are fully tense, in a state of preparedness, highly alert and scared.

Anxiety and panic are a series of mind and body reactions that have evolved over millions of years and are essential to the survival of all living things.

Anxiety probably serves many functions, but two of the main ones are:-

1. It helps prepare our body for action, make us more alert, ready to fight or flee from any imminent threat to our survival - this is related to the direct anxiety symptoms such as fast heartbeat, fast breathing, being jittery and on edge, trembling etc. We can go from being totally relaxed to totally tense in an instant (related to panic).

2. It causes us to plan ahead for any potential dangers and how we may deal with them - an excellent survival strategy (it’s better to deal with a danger or avoid it before we get in the situation) but an unfortunate effect of this is that we can get anxious / nervous just thinking about situations - a main

ingredient in many anxiety disorders - related to symptoms such as persistent negative thoughts (worrying and obsessions).

Anxiety is a part of being alive. Although we may not realise it, it is with us all at varying strengths throughout our lives:-

- Without anxiety [of being knocked down] we wouldn’t be careful when we crossed the road.

- Without anxiety [of not having food and shelter, (or recognition, status, achievement)] we wouldn’t go to work each day.

- Without anxiety, the performances of athletes, entertainers, executives, students etc.would suffer (if they bothered to perform at all)

Anxiety is the fear of being harmed (in some way), it is a ‘preparer’ and an energizer, warning us of danger or potential danger and giving us the ability to avoid or deal with it. It is essential to our survival, yet for a number of reasons it can increase in strength and presence. It may come to be with us more intensely and give rise to anxiety disorders involving such things as persistent worrying and apprehension, panic, phobias, OCD and depression.

In part 2 we’ll look at how these ways in which anxiety works relate to various anxiety disorders (and depression).

Is it me or does the time seem to be going faster and faster every year

Sometimes it can be quite frightening the way the days and weeks go by so quickly. If you’re the worrying type, it’s very easy to get caught up in the whole “time” issue and feel that your life is passing you by. And what does worry do It makes you feel stressed, that’s what it does!

Then all of this stress makes you feel anxious . . . . . and before you know it you’re experiencing those horrible physical symptoms of anxiety.

Time for a change!!

Once you get into the habit of worrying about things it can be a hard habit to break. But worrying is a learned condition and, like any thing learned, it can be unlearned!

But before you can make any headway with changing your habits, let’s have a look at a few things that might be blocking you from making progress.

Are You Worthy

First of all, do you feel that you’re worthy of experiencing happiness Do you feel that you have to “earn” it in some way And by “earning” it I mean do you feel you have to endure some of the more unpleasant things in life before you have “earned” your happiness Is this you

Have you ever gone out for the day with the aim of having a really lovely time and had your day spoilt by worrying thoughts You know you locked the back door on your way out - so why are you suddenly worrying that you’ve left it unlocked Where did that random thought come from all of a sudden

Can you see how your worrying thoughts might be stopping you from experiencing happiness Your brain is literally sabotaging your more pleasant times because it’s been programmed over the years to think that you’re not worthy of true happiness.

Most worries are not useful. So you need to make a positive commitment to cutting down on worrying.

The Worry Notebook

One of the most popular ways of achieving this is to delay your worrying. Get into the habit of postponing your worrying until a later time. Have a special “Worry Notebook” and, as a worrying thought comes to you, make a note of it in your notebook. Tell yourself that the worry is written down (so you won’t forget it) and you will worry about it later.

Whether you actually do go back to your notebook later on or not is up to you, of course. Some people find they cope well by having a special ‘Worry Time’ where they choose to address their worries in an allotted time slot. However, some people find that they forget they ever had the original worry, they don’t refer to the notebook later on and the whole thing gets completely forgotten! How wonderful would that be And all because you chose to delay your worrying rather than dwell on it straight away!

Who knows, maybe if you look back over worries that you’d written down several weeks ago they would seem silly now and totally irrelevant. Why not try it and let me know how you get on

When Worrying Works in Reverse

When you worry about something, it’s a bit like having the Law of Attraction in motion but in a reverse sort of way. If you think about something for long enough your subconscious mind will do all it can to bring that thing into your life. It’s very obedient and “helpful” like that!

Unfortunately, your subconscious mind doesn’t deal with negatives very well. So if you’re always worrying that you don’t want to trip up at an important meeting, your subconscious will be very much focusing on “tripping up”. So don’t be surprised if it happens!

Another example could be that you’re worried about blushing in front of somebody you’re trying to impress. So what are you concentrating on Blushing, that’s right! And your subconscious mind will dutifully concentrate on blushing right along there with you!

So can you see that worry quite often can bring about the very thing you’re worried about !

Using the delaying tactic described above is quite often enough to calm things down with you. If you then choose to use positive visualisation as well (to imagine the smooth way that you would like things to happen rather than dwelling on the worrying aspects) then quite often the results will be amazing!