Anxiety Control Center

Continuation for yesterdays post on creating the state of mind your desire.

I welcome your feedback and questions, and will write more on specific issues you send in.  To contact me with your questions click here.

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claim your 2 powerful mind calming exercises.

The formula for Life Changing Mantras

Quite simply, mantras are the things we tell ourselves. For example, on the golf course if you felt annoyed because of a badly played hole, it wouldn’t be a problem if you were able to start fresh on the next hole.  But when one negative thought leads to the next, it can destroy your focus for the rest of the game, and even follow you after you leave the course. In this case you have a negative mantra that is playing havoc with your state of mind.  There are 7 steps you can put into play to stop this disabling habit of negative mantras.

When people think of mantras they usually think about those used in eastern religions for positive spiritual change.  And although you might not have such a fancy name for it, the chances are that you probably use positive mantras yourself, everyday.    A mantra could be what you say to yourself to get psyched up for a big meeting,  a golf tournament or going out to a social event.  Or what you tell yourself in order to stay positive when life is getting you down. When mantras are positive and constructive, they can help us enjoy our lives and achieve our goals.  But the negative things we tell ourselves can also act as mantras, leading us in an undesired direction.

Negatives mantras “playing in the back of your mind” can cause. . .   more to come tomorrow.

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Sorry for the delay in this post. Some family issues came up.  Luckily my family members are familiar with many of  the stress relief exercises I teach and they told me how much it helped to have them ready to  use in their “stress relief tool box.”  Happily things are fine with my family now.

There are many ways to reduce stress.  In the  following exercise we will be changing negative  thoughts and images to change the anxiety/stress  cycle.    By making changes using the conscious part of your mind,  you can begin to re-program your reactions.   The beauty of this exercise is that it can help change old patterns of thinking, without your having to do deep change work on the unconscious level.  The down part is that it does take work to change a habit on the conscious level, but you will find it is well worth your time.

The exercise I am describing today stops the stress cycle at the cognitive level  by changing scary  “thoughts”  into equally possible images that will serve to create calm instead of fear.  There are other exercises to release anxiety at the physical and emotional part of the stress cycle which use hypnotic techniques to get to unconscious information at the root of the problem.

It is important to understand that your own thoughts create physical reactions.  Even a quick thought can generate a physical reaction in the body.  For example, when you  imagine biting into a lemon your body creates a puckering in your mouth as you “taste” the lemon.  Your thoughts touch off and trigger a physical reaction.  Although there wasn’t a “real” lemon, the reaction was the same “as if” there was.  If one never had tasted a lemon, there would be no reaction..

Thinking about someone you love will create a very different reaction or vibration in the body than thinking of a situation that caused upset.    What you think has an impact on the “vibrations” that go through your  body.

Therefore the way you use your mind can lead to positive vibrations, which lead to feelings of happiness, joy and contentment.   Or to uncomfortable vibrations which lead to feelings of anger, upset, hurt or anxiety.

Use this exercise to change thought patterns.  Whenever an old unwanted thought pops up,  change it to a more positive image and then  “steps into” the new desired image, as if it were real.  You are already good at this if you have created anxiety using your thoughts, we are just using your thoughts in a way that will work better for your health and well begin.    The more you use this technique (by stepping into the positive image)  the more power the image will feel.

Using your imagination to “be in the positive future image” works in a number of ways.  It not only changes the negative image – it also actually begins to creates a new “memory.”  The mind stores the new image, as if it had already happened.  For this type of technique to be effective, the new positive image needs to be just as strong as the old “scary” image.  There are  hypnotic ways of creating powerful images that you can also learn,  they will be more powerful and work more quickly than just using the conscious part of your mind,  but this is a good place to start.

In my next post I will give a detailed worksheet for using this method of changing negative thought to positive ones.  It is called the “2 for 1 Exercise” because you will need to create 2 positive thoughts for each negative you.

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Have you ever been watching your child at play, feeling love and joy and all of a sudden find your thoughts spinning off into all sorts of worry? Has one worrisome thought ever brought on a terrible cycle of more fearful thoughts?  If this has happened you are not alone.

Sometimes worry is a fleeting feeling of concern which is just a part of being a parent, trying to protect a child. But, for parents of children who have special needs it is understandable that worry can take on a whole new meaning. The reality is, that your child has to overcome additional hardships and you are now dealing with the additional stress that comes with loving and caring about your child.  Wanting to protect your child and at times feeling helpless not knowing what the future will hold.   When we create thoughts about possible negative future concerns, ones that are outside of anyone’s control these types of worry serve no positive purpose.  And these are the ones we will talk about changing because they can create great pain that mixes in with the joy and love of your child.

Before I talk about techniques to stop worry in its tracks, let’s look at the positive purpose of worry.  It can alert you to things that need to be taken care of, or of consequences of certain actions.  Worry can keep you watchful for symptoms that indicate a possible life-threatening problem, or it can motivate you to take care of something that needs to be done.  But when worry starts to cycle into all sorts of negative, scary future possibilities over which you have no control it stops serving a positive purpose.

So, why are some people more prone to worry than others? The reason people react differently is rooted in what they experience in childhood.  Children learn patterns to deal with stress that serve a positive purpose at the time, but many times these patterns are no longer useful for the adult.  Children also form beliefs in childhood continue to run in adulthood.  I had a client who believed that worrying about someone meant that she cared.  You can see how difficult it would be for her to stop worrying about those she cared about, until she was able to change that old belief.  I had another client who felt that if she didn’t worry something bad would happen.  She had an number of experiences in her very traumatic childhood where she learned that just it wasn’t safe to just be, she had to run every possible consequence through her mind to keep her safe from her alcoholic parent.  She learned that worry protected her, so that even as an adult, she found it difficult to let go of the old belief that if you don’t worry something bad will happen.  There are techniques to change these types of patterns and beliefs, which are best done with someone trained in Transformation System techniques.  There are also techniques to use your own thoughts to change patterns, and that is what I will share with you today.

It may surprise you to learn that you can get relief from even the most painful feelings. These techniques are easy to learn and with practice they can become part of a new way of reacting to worry

If you feel anxiety, worry, sadness or even anger, you already have the secret of changing these feeling. It does require knowing how your mind works which gives us information that can be used to change old patterns.  More on this in my next post tomorrow.

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Question:  Are there different techniques that can be used to get relief from worry?
There are many different ways to stop negative thoughts that results in  stress and worry.  We can break the stress cycle in three different areas.  There are techniques that work on the thought or cognitive part of the worry cycle.  I will give an example of something you can put to use right away for this part of the worry cycle.

There are also techniques that are easy to learn for the physical part (that includes the reactions of your body).  One technique is designed to change the breathing pattern and is called the HAAA breath.

And there are very advanced techniques that be used on emotional part of the cycle.  These usually involve the help of someone trained in techniques of hypnotherapy, time line and vibrational healing.  These techniques go to the root of where reactions come from and heal them there.  After doing this type of work people say that is feels like a weight is lifted off of them

The technique I will share today breaks the worry cycle by changing thoughts that create stress.

The secret to getting relief from worry.
You have a special gift inside of your own mind, just waiting to be opened.  It is one you can learn to use to stay in control of your state of mind, no matter what is going on around you.

This secret is what Viktor Frankl used, that allowed him to survive the holocaust and maintain his mental balance.   It is what author Napoleon Hill weaves into his famous advice on achieving financial success in “Think and Grow Rich.” And it is something that you have within yourself right now, like a gift, all wrapped up waiting for you to unwrap and put into immediate use.

Anyone can learn to use this gift.  And the really amazing thing about this gift is that it never gets used up. The more you use it the more powerful it becomes.

There are 2 things you need to open and use this wonderful gift to control your emotional state at will.  The first is an understanding of how the mind works, both on the conscious and unconscious level. And the second is the step-by-step method of creating what you want in your life, instead of what you don’t want.

To understand the way your mind works, it’s important to know the two major ways that people create negative, uncomfortable feelings.

1) Thinking about upsetting past events.
2) Thinking about awful things that might happen in the future

When you concentrate on all the possible negative scenarios that have happened in the past or might come about in the future, the thoughts, pictures and memories that move through your mind trigger feelings of worry, sadness, overwhelm, fear and insecurity. Thoughts can even create pain in the body. Sometimes you are aware of the thoughts, and at other times you are completely unaware.

The good news is that you can get relief from even the most painful feelings by learning to change thought patterns that bring them about.   More on this in my post tomorrow

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Changing the Breathing Pattern

The calming “HA” Breath for relaxation and beginning self-hypnosis

START with the calming  “HAAA BREATH.”
It is the easiest way to begin changing the stress response.

The calming HAAA Breath is the beginning step in the process of
gaining relaxation when you want it.

It is one of the easiest skills to use.  The only effort required
is to learn proper breathing patterns.

This new pattern changes the message in the brain from,
send more adrenaline to things are safe, no more adrenaline is needed.

This breath leads to a settling down feeling in the body
as the body again seeks balance.

DIRECTIONS: HAAA Breath, the 60 Second Instant Relaxer

1.  Start this exercise with a short 2-second inhalation.

2.  Hold your breath for the count of 4.

3. Next you exhale with your mouth open, making a soft “HAAAA” sound for the count of at least eight seconds. The longer you exhale, the better this exercise will work for you.

An important part of this exercise, is to
make a sound like you are saying a soft “HAAAA”

4.  When you have released as much breath as you think you can, push out a little bit more.

5.  Then, inhale gently for the count of 6 to 8.

6.  Hold for the count of 4.

7.  Continue with step #3 (exhale).

8.  Repeat two more times.

A complete breath consists of three full repetitions
that are done at least 3 times a day:
1.  Upon arising
2.  At lunchtime
3. When going to sleep
4.  In addition, do the HAAA breath in times of stress

This exercise is an excerpt from the book
Power of Thought – Untold Secrets of the Unconscious Mind.
by Dr. Audrey Sussman

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10 ESSENTIAL REMINDERS TO REDUCE STRESS

1. Inner peace is possible, even in the midst of a stressful event.

2. Stress originates in the way you think about things and what you say to yourself.

3. The experience of stress is the result of thought.

4.  It is your mind you can use it to your benefit.

5.  You can reprogram thoughts so they are enhancing and inspiring.

6.  Use the anchoring technique to create a state of excellence with the resources you already have.

7.  When you start to tap into your inner creative potential, you will feel uplifted and empowered.

8.   Even when you can’t change the situation, you can change the way you think about it.

9.   Stress is not something that happens to you, but rather something that develops because of the thoughts you have.

10. To begin to reprogram negative thinking.  Stop for a moment, and create two possible positive thoughts for each negative one.

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