You might feel trapped in your mind. Anxiety can even enter your sleep at night. Fortunately this does not have to be the case. We show you how to release anxiety.
Simply put, your mind is constantly working, constantly chattering, at least for the anxious person and that can certainly cause stress and panic. If your mind is racing then how can you concentrate on anything else?
When you become anxious, your mind, seemingly puts a halt on everything in your life …
This is one of the things that was very difficult for people suffering with anxiety and panic. They can’t turn off the racing thoughts. Theirs minds are constantly worrying about a variety of things – in a nonstop fashion.
But, as mentioned, this does not have to be the case.
An amazing thing I learned comes from Carl Jung, who stated:
“What you resist, persists.”
Let’s examine this sound observation – which leads to a technique for releasing your anxiety.
If your mind is racing with anxiety and panic, there is no law or rule that you MUST continue exacerbating your anxiety by worrying about your panic or symptoms. It is resisting these thoughts and feelings that ensures they persist.
This reasoning may seem overly simplistic and you might be thinking something like “Well obviously if I could calm my thoughts that would solve the problem, but I can’t slow down my thoughts. That’s the problem.”
It may seem hopeless at first, but please read on…
Shirley Swede, in the Panic Attack Recovery Book, discussed the notion of just stopping whatever you are doing when you feel a panic attack coming on. Your typical reaction might be to pace back and forth when you start to feel a wave of panic, or perhaps you hyperventilate, etc. Well according to Swede, you must stop doing whatever you’re doing. And then, you stop resisting your anxious thoughts. Surprisingly this technique can do wonders.
Let’s examine the seemingly worst case scenario – which will help to explain things. Instead of fighting your anxiety and panic, you can embrace your anxiety. Do you think your attack would get worse and you’d lose your mind? No. Actually your symptoms would slowly dissipate –the more you stopped fighting them — and eventually cease.
Let’s me use a different example of how you can release your anxiety.
If you don’t allow yourself to become upset as soon as you become anxious, you can’t have a panic attack. If you don’t get worked up over something then you’re not going to be perpetuating anxiety or panic. How could you? Try this out sometime. Prove it to yourself. If you don’t try the suggestions in this website, then you are not going to receive as much benefit.
The whole reason that a panic attack and anxiety continues is because when a person becomes anxious, they continue to feed the symptoms by doing whatever it is that you habitually do when you become anxious.
Let’s look at an analogy.
If you grab one end of a rope and I grab the other and we tug in opposite directions, there’s obviously stress on the rope. If we are both tugging on the rope and then let go, what happens to the stress on the rope? It disappears. This is precisely the case with anxiety if you stop resisting.
The great thing with this suggestion is that it’s very easy to do. If you stop doing what you’re doing, thinking what you’re thinking — as far as anxious thoughts –and just relax, the panic and anxiety dissipates. It has to do so.
Now I’m not going to be naive here: releasing your anxiety is not exactly as easy thing to do initially. However I recommend that you try this idea out yourself. See how it works. By actually trying it yourself you can get a good sense of how it works for you. If you are having trouble with this suggestion, don’t worry: there are many techniques and suggestions throughout this website. There are many more articles but also videos and audio podcasts.
As well, to stay up to date on a variety of strategies for anxiety and panic attacks, please enter your email address in the sign-up box below. Don’t worry you can unsubscribe at any time and your email address will not be provided to others.
Reference (Anxiety Release)
Jung, C. Unknown lecture date.
Seymour, J. & Swede, S. (1987). The Panic Attack Recovery Book. New American Library.