We all experience the world and people around us through our six senses. Two things that we can do no matter where we are to calm ourselves down when feeling significantly restless, anxious, and/or panicked...is to shut our eyes (if possible) and start breathing more slowly and more deeply. As I have mentioned countless times before in my blog, when you can inhale through your nose with your mouth shut for a count of at least 4-5 seconds...and then exhale out your mouth for a count of at least 5-6 seconds, you are practicing to create your own single "breath cycle" that lasts at least 10 seconds. Six or fewer breath cycles per minute for 3-5 minutes is your guarantee that you WILL feel "better" and less anxious or panicky as you breathe in this way.
Of course, there's always a catch to pursuing a practice that we have not yet made into a habit, let alone a "good" habit. Have you noticed this? I sure have. We generally won't do something without putting our own unique "spin" on what is being suggested to us. Breathing techniques vary greatly. If you are seriously wanting to change your breathing habits for the better so as to avoid problems with panic attacks and/or anxiety that keeps getting worse and worse...you need to research deep breathing techniques online to practice and then discover what most appeals to y-o-u. Not me, not that guy over there, not your neighbor across the street. You figure out what you are most comfortable doing so as to breathe more deeply and more slowly...and then do it. It is that simple. If you can slow down your own breathing in-and-out "cycle" to last 10 seconds at a minimum (which means "6" cycles of breathing in-and-out within every minute of time)...I GUARANTEE you will slay your anxiety and panic when you can breathe like that for 3-5 minutes whenever you are struggling. When your brain and body are calmed down by your breathing in this way....your anxiety-based thoughts and feelings cannot help but abate as well!
Other than our breathing, we can calm, relax, and comfort ourselves through our six senses. What are our six senses? What we SEE, what we HEAR, what we SMELL, what we TOUCH, what we TASTE, and what we SPIRITUALLY discern to encourage, inspire, and motivate ourselves in a "right" versus a "wrong" way...
The proverbial "sixth sense" to do with our spirituality and spiritual condition cannot be overstated. What you believe to be absolutely true (or not true!) about yourself DOES have a significant and long-lasting impact on how you treat yourself generally speaking---as well as others.
Your spiritual condition also guides your choices, your life's path, and your relational dynamics with others. In this way, our spiritual condition can authentically work to help us heal from the inside out---or continue to rot us from the inside out. It's your choice, as it's always been. Pick one.
Do you want to truly get better and be set free from the shackles of chronic and intense anxiety---or not? Spirituality is not "religion" by the way. Anyone can "religiously" do anything and still be rotting from the inside out every single day. Spirituality is allowing yourself to be connected and experience, on a personal level, The One who created you, from the inside out, so you can be salt and light to the world around you. That's so much more than just saying the words "Namaste" or going to yoga seven days a week. If you genuinely want to experience inner peace, which cannot be faked, you better get connected to the spiritual side of your human being status. There are eternal lessons for all of us, but if we keep ignoring them or remain too shutdown or too angry to even notice them...our prognosis will remain grim. Note to self: wake up this part of you that has been dead or asleep for far too long.
As tools to help us better manage our intense and chronic anxiety, our remaining five senses do need to be stimulated in order to help us bring ourselves back to the "here and now" in a more helpful than harmful way. Bringing ourselves back merely means getting back to the "now" of your life instead of remaining all caught up in your fearful/anxious/panicked thoughts and feelings when you are stuck there. I have had clients in my office talk and talk about upcoming events as if they were about to be led to a firing squad if and when they go! "I can't go! I can't do it! I'd rather get in a car wreck so I don't have to go!" Huh!? Yeah, like that! Instead of fixating on the fear and anticipatory anxiety that leads this type of thinking...stimulating our five senses can really help to get us back to the here and now without perpetuating this insane line of thinking.
When we are successful enough at it, we find that we can more sooner than later move on mentally to something else more productive. Eventually, our anxious thoughts which drive our anxious feelings become less and less intense because we "know" what to do to calm ourselves down on demand without the help of weed, booze, food, gambling, sex, or whatever other personal vices we use to numb ourselves out to our dysfunctional thoughts and feelings. Oh, and we can't forget codependency either as a dysfunctional "tool" we use to take us away from our anxious thoughts and feelings. "I don't have time to think about my crap; I have to go babysit my 23 grandkids today!" :-P
Of course there are thousands of "ideas" as to how we can incorporate what we see, hear, smell, touch, taste and spiritually pursue to help us calm ourselves. The question becomes, "What works for you?" With "taste", for example, many of my clients have responded very well to a super sour warhead candy or sour bubblegum popped into their mouth when highly anxious. Others, a drop of Frank's hot sauce on the tip of one's tongue works best. Others still prefer biting into a piece of fresh lemon or lime. It's all up to you what you prefer in this regard, so long as it takes you out of your head and back into the "now" of your current real life reality. (Wow! My rear end really is NOT on fire, I'm just driving along I-94 to Eastern Market and it's a beautiful sunny day!)
Regarding "touch", walking barefoot on a cold sidewalk for as long as necessary can be enough to "redirect" oneself through physical touch back to the here and now when they find themselves especially anxious or otherwise distressed. Same is true when we hose ourselves down with the cold water outside in summer...take a cold shower....stick our hands in a bowl of ice water for as long as we can stand....walk barefoot in snow....and/or cover ourselves in a weighted and heated blanket. Again, what works best for you may be different for me or that guy over there. The key is discovering whether the controlled use of "hot" versus "cold" or a combination of the two works best for you! For some, just petting an animal or having favorite fabrics against one's skin is enough in this regard.
What we "hear" that helps varies greatly. Some people love the silence and will wear noise cancelling headphones all day long when "out" in public. Others do not. I use Alexa at home like my musical butler; "Alexa, play Grace Potter.." "Alexa, play William Orbit.." and on I go. Some prefer to use their earbuds to listen to the spoken word or favorite audiobook. Whatever works for you when you discover it, will work for you; what you choose to hear matters to take your mind away from your anxious thoughts and feelings!
If you haven't already guessed, our "inputs" to our senses can definitely work against us just as they can work for us. If you wake up to the sounds of your neighbors fighting upstairs, as you smell something nasty that you can't identify, as you open your eyes to see your cat staring at you with a dead bird in its mouth, AND feel the bile in your gut coming up into your mouth at these same moments...how's that going to work to help you feel GOOD today? Not at all actually! Think about that. Many of us choose a crappy lifestyle we don't even know we are smack dab in the middle of until someone ELSE points it out to us---and we finally understand them! In this example, noise cancelling "everything" set up in bedroom...scented candles available/room spray/diffuser "on" or quickly accessible...no cat access in or outside of home while you are sleeping! Either in room or out of room as you wake up! And finally, if reflux is a "thing", don't eat so late at night before bed---or have your Tums/Prilosec on nightstand with water nearby. Done!
We actually do have control over our chosen inputs each day which stimulates one or more of our six senses. The tragedy is when that combination of stimulants we have become comfortable with...work to exacerbate our chronic and intense feelings of anxiety---and we don't even notice!
I can remember as a college student how one of my professors had classical music playing in his office pretty much "always" whenever one of us walked into his office. I finally asked him one time why he never had anything else on but "classical". His answer was simple and to the point: "It makes me feel calm in an otherwise chaotic environment." Touche. That's what we all seek...or at least I hope it is!
Untl next post....