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Panic Attack

Okay, so your heart is racing – maybe you’re feeling a bit faint or dizzy – perhaps have difficulty breathing or chest pains . . . tingling . . . feeling like you’re out of control and in terror . . . a panic attack feels horrible!

The good news is that you can absolutely take back your command of yourself again and indeed, eradicate panic attacks completely!

Why we have panic attacks

We have an incredible 60 – 90,000 thoughts every day – and if the majority are positive we’ll be in our Palace Mind and feeling all the wonderful benefits of that but if the majority are negative we’ll be living in our Rats’ Den mind and feeling fearful, anxious and depressed. We tend to have lots of the same thoughts day after day, so if they’re negative, we get deeper and deeper into our Rats’ Den mind. (See Part One, chapter three).

In the quest for survival, the amygdala in our primitive Rats’ Den mind triggers a rush of adrenalin to enable us to react quickly in the event of threat. This is useful if we’re in a burning building or in some other potentially life threatening situation to make good our speedy escape. Then our anxiety level would subside again once the danger had passed.

However, when we’re living in our Rats’ Den mind which is constantly on the alert for the danger and assumes the worst possible scenarios, our anxiety levels rise more and more, and more things seem a threat.

Our amygdala consequently responds to this risen level of threat and triggers the ‘fight or flight’ response, as it’s known, in less and less serious situations.

Effectively, instead of the ‘threat alarm’ being triggered by a real fire, it gets triggered because we’ve burnt the toast! It’s not a pleasant way to live. If our anxiety level rises enough, the overwhelm of that causes us to experience a panic attack – or Irritable Bowel Syndrome or various other unpleasant experiences.

What to do in the grip of a panic attack

We can access our subconscious mind and use the power of visualisation to make a big shift here. Your brain cannot tell the difference between real and imaginary so what we imagine in visualisation is like it’s real! (See ‘Reprogramming your subconscious mind’ in Part One, chapter four).

The simple visualisation below, if done properly, will help significantly. What we really want is to shift our thinking and our patterns and live in our Palace mind and never have a panic attack ever again. Whilst you’re working with The Recipe in Part One of this book to reach that lovely goal, the visualisation below can be a turning point for you in taking back your own power.

You’ll be best to be guided though it, so click here to download the audio (It won’t play direct, you’ll need to download it when prompted). Once you have listened to the audio and experienced the shift in your feelings a few times to be familiar and comfortable with it, you can then do this for yourself wherever you are. Come back to the audio for reinforcement.

Visualisation – Calming Panic

Do your best to focus on one small specific item – maybe a button on your clothing or particular point in a picture you can see, or shape in the decor or something else to hand and really stare at that one specific point. Start counting backwards from 300 – 299 . . . 298 . . . 297 . . . let your counting get a bit slower . . . 296, 295, 294 . . . keep staring at that specific point . . . 293, 292 . . . keep going . . 291 . . . if you feel your eyes want to close that’s fine, you can keep the image of the point you’re staring at in your mind even with closed eyes . . . just keep focused on it, gently counting backwards . . .

Whilst still focusing on the image and counting backwards, become very aware of the little muscles on the top of your head . . . you might find they’re very tight, it’s amazing how much tension we hold there without realising . . . and just gently let them go . . . let go of those scalp muscles and let them relax . . . (keep focused on the point you’re staring at . . . keep counting backwards). If you want to sit more comfortably or lie down that’s fine . . . now let go of your forehead and let that soften . . . and relax your eyes . . . feel how nice it is to be able to let them be closed. (Keep your awareness of that specific point . . . keep counting backwards). Let go of your cheeks and your jaw and all over the back of your head and just feel a wave of calm and tranquility coming into the top of your head and gently washing down over your scalp and down your face and the back of your head, relaxing those muscles even more . . . let go of your neck and feel that wave washing down into your shoulders, relaxing them, soothing them, taking away all that panic and tension . . . all down your arms as you let them go . . . (keep counting backwards . . . keep focused on the awareness of that one point) . . . letting go even more – and feeling that wave of peace and tranquility flowing all down your back, all across your shoulder blades . . . soothing, calming . . . down your spine, out across your middle and lower back relaxing each and every muscle, every piece of skin . . . soothing, calming . . . now feeling it all around your chest and lungs and heart, feeling so cool and healing . . . let your breathing become slower and deeper . . . (keep counting backwards) and let go of your chest and solar plexus . . . feeling that wave of calmness washing through . . . now letting go of your pelvis and buttocks and your whole torso – even more . . . breathe in calm and breathe out all that anxiety and tension that was just harming you . . . let it go . . . now let go of your legs and feel that wave of calm flowing down, down, soothing, calming, relaxing . . . (still counting backwards, still with that awareness of that specific point) all the way down through each lower leg, into your feet . . . filling each foot up with this wonderful wave of peace and calm . . . every bone, every muscle, every tissue, every piece of skin . . . and let it feel good to be there feeling this relaxed right now . . . no-one wants anything from you – nothing is expected from you other than to just let go, relax and allow each breath to become slower and deeper . . . slower and deeper . . . deeper and slower . . .

Now imagine you are in front of a lovely house in its own grounds . . . perhaps a mansion house . . . with some stone steps leading down to a beautiful garden. Just a short flight of 5 stone steps which you begin to descend now . . . from the top, 5 . . . taking a step down, 4 . . . noticing how peaceful it is here . . . another step down, 3 . . . your breathing becoming even slower, even deeper . . . down again, 2 . . . the fresh sweet air the perfect temperature for you . . . 1 . . . and zero . . . you’re at the bottom of the steps standing in the garden.

You notice the beautiful flowers, all the vibrant colours . . . perhaps even able to smell the various fragrances . . . hearing the birds tweeting as they flit from tree to tree. It’s all very peaceful and safe here and you can be here for as long as you want because a long time here is only a few moments in your real time . . . so you really can relax and enjoy the peace in this garden and why not? Just walk along a little way and settle down on a bench along the path, which is surprisingly comfortable! It’s as though each curve was made to fit your body perfectly and as you lean back you almost sink into it as you would a soft pillow. You look up to the sky and the few fluffy clouds passing by . . . feeling the warmth of the sun on your skin . . . feeling so much more relaxed than you can remember being for ages . . . it’s a nice feeling isn’t it . . . and you can know now that you can come here anytime you wish to rest and relax and re-energise in safety and calm . . . and you can feel more able to go back into the fray feeling refreshed and re-energised – with calm and clarity to see things in a new light.

Because after all, you do have the ability and the capability to handle all that you need to, even that which you are afraid of . . . because you do have all the resources you need already inside you . . . you could choose to reach out for help or support. That is the wise and strong thing to do because giving way to tension and overwhelm is the weak thing . . . You do have all the strength that you need and – just as the tiny roots of the flowers around you now can manage to push through the hard clods of earth – or those tiny birds fly thousands of miles to spend the winter months in the sun – or the grey clouds pass into blue skies – you can find your way through too.

You can choose to give your power of your mind to solutions and finding new ways to handle challenges or create new positive things . . . you can choose to give attention to what does serve you rather than doubts and fears and problems that keep you stuck. You can choose to come to this garden whenever things get a bit tough . . . even just for a few moments . . . to remind yourself of this feeling of calm and empowerment.

And as you let these thoughts wander through your mind, you might like to sink even deeper into that oh-so comfortable bench and let go completely, filling your mind with lovely images of how you do want to be, filling yourself completely with this lovely sense of peace and calm, feeling lightness in your body and in your mind . . .

And just when it feels right, let these feelings settle deep inside, bring them up through your body into the forefront of your mind, to keep hold of this calm space . . . and just gently come back to the room and time you are in, open your eyes, and take a deep, relaxed breath . . .

Does that feel better now? Keep hold of these garden images and feelings, take a deep breath and go back to your day feeling calm and able.

How you can stop panic attacks for good

The solution is to take back command of your Rats and move next door in your own head to your Palace Mind – and then – most important of all – learn to really value yourself and like yourself so you can effortlessly stay in your Palace mind, where anxiety and panic attacks can’t exist.

Remember you have your deepest fear and compensating life-driving energy from your Enneagram personality that it would help to shift too. If you don’t already know which you are, go to Part One, chapter one first. If, or when, you do know, go to Part One, chapter eleven and work on shifting your deepest underlying negative core. Give yourself permission to be your higher self and cultivate your best qualities.

You can also be mindful of the energy you are in and learn to master being in charge of how you feel. (See Part One, chapter ten).

The biggest gift you can give to yourself to address all of the above is to cultivate your self worth and self-love. The truth is you were born a perfect little baby, innately worthy and deserving, loving and lovable and perfectly good enough. You just learnt differently along the way, so you need to unlearn it and get back to that truth!

When you can feel good about yourself, comfortable in your own skin, full of self-worth, selfesteem and self-confidence, not only are you in your Palace mind so won’t have panic attacks, you are able to handle life-challenges so much more easily; actually find that you no longer seem to even have many of your issues; and you can enjoy life so much more!

All of this – how to handle your Rats, take back command, live in your Palace Mind and feel good about you – (and never have a panic attack) is in Part One of this book.

Imagine if you chose to shift your focus to reading and learning and implementing all that would solve panic attacks and a whole host of other things for your benefit, rather than keep giving your attention to this unwanted horrible Rats’ Den way of being?

If you were going to do this, when do you think you could start? How much is your wellbeing worth to you?

Know you can do this and feel calmly good about you, your life and your future!