Stop Anxiety Attacks With A Simple Morning Trick

The question I get asked more than any other is this: How do I stop anxiety attacks? And it’s a question I used to ask a lot myself until a couple of years ago, when I successfully overcame my 17 year battle with panic and anxiety.

So in response to this question, I’d like to share one of the best ideas I stumbled across, which you can start using right away, and which I believe has the power to stop anxiety attacks, if you stick with it.

It’s all to do with how you get up in the morning.

I firmly believe that your first few minutes after you wake up set the tone for your entire day. If you start the day right you can have a far better day than if you start the day wrong.

The number one rule I set for myself a few years ago, when I started looking for ways to “start my day right,” was to get up the moment I woke up.

No lying in bed worrying, dreading the day ahead, reliving yesterday’s mistakes. I made a rule that within 60 seconds of waking up or my alarm clock ringing, I had to be up out of bed.

So that was rule #1.

Rule #2 was this: I would always have something that needed my attention, or something that I needed to do, within the first few minutes of getting up. This could be something as simple as not ironing the clothes I would be wearing that day. In that example, I would immediately get up when my alarm rang, and I would immediately go and iron my clothes.

The important thing was, I gave myself something to do right after I got up. This is like an extension to the “not lying in bed” rule. It starts your day off right by not allowing your mind time to wander anywhere bad.

So give yourself something to do: maybe you need to take the trash out, so stop doing it the night before and let it be what you do as soon as you get up. Maybe you have a pet you have to let out, and you normally make it wait until you’ve been up long enough for your head to clear.

Well, from now on, make letting your pet out a priority that you do the moment you’ve got some clothes on. It can be anything - just make it something that you really have to do as soon as you get up.

These 2 rules are a fantastic way to get your mind functioning healthily from the moment you wake up, and it’s a great way to stop anxiety attacks that might have struck you later in the day.

Anxiety Attack Treatment The Albert Einstein Way

If you’re trying to find a good anxiety attack treatment - one that’s effective enough to make a real difference to your current situation - then you should immediately start to use the power of your imagination.

That might sound like a strange thing to say, but I’m about to explain why your imagination could be your most powerful and effective tool in overcoming your panic and anxiety.

Let’s talk about Albert Einstein for a moment.

He was a pretty smart guy, right? Albert Einstein once said that imagination was more important than intelligence. He believed that without the ability to imagine an outcome, no amount of intelligence would be enough to achieve major breakthroughs.

And he believed this to be true in all areas of life, not just his own areas of expertise.

Recently I realised that this idea of imagination being more important than intelligence was also true for panic and anxiety attack treatment. I realised that if we didn’t use our power of imagination to its full potential that we were short-changing ourselves and decreasing our chances of ever achieving our goals.

Don’t underestimate what our imaginations can help us to achieve.

We have the power to imagine something that doesn’t exist yet. We have the power to imagine a better version of ourselves that isn’t here yet. Aren’t those incredible abilities? And yet we take them for granted.

Think about this: Every single person who has dramatically improved the quality of their life imagined that better quality of life before they achieved it. Only things that we imagine can we achieve.

Once you grasp this concept you’ll be a hundred steps on from where right now.

Start using the power of your imagination today, and every day. Imagine your life how you want it to be. Imagine a life free from panic and anxiety. Imagine a life full of calm and joy, a life filled with everything you dream of.

Nothing happens that hasn’t been imagined first. That one concept is perhaps the best anxiety attack treatment I can share with you.

Anxiety and Panic Attacks - Can You Sleep Them Away?

Have your anxiety and panic attacks ever left you unable to sleep at night? Maybe they stop you from ever getting to sleep. Maybe they wake you up during the night. However your anxiety and panic attacks are affecting your sleep, you can be sure it’s doing you no favours at all.

This is all very familiar to me. I suffered with severe panic and anxiety for years, and it used to play havoc with my sleep. I would have entire weeks where I didn’t sleep. And even when things were going well I would find myself awake for half the night, lying in the dark with my heart racing, feeling as if I might never be able to sleep again.

My sleep situation got so bad that I actually started researching sleep. I thought if I understood it better that I might be able to get the high quality sleep I knew I desperately needed.

A lot of the books I read were no help at all - many of them were like reading books on science and biology, and I just couldn’t understand them. But there was one good book that I really enjoyed, which I got a lot from, and I’d like to recommend that one to you now if you’re having the same kind of sleeping problems I had for so many years.

It’s called “The Insomnia Solution,” and it’s written by Michael Krugman. He offers a basic overview of sleep, and some basic, quick tips on how to get more quality sleep. But he also explains his “mini-moves” concept - a unique and subtle method for lulling yourself to sleep.

I think this approach and this book could really help you, so if your anxiety and panic attacks are messing with your sleep, give it a try and see if it works as well for you.

Panic Attack Causes - How to Uncover Them

I spent years and years searching for my number one panic attack cause. Actually, it was 17 years that I suffered with panic attacks, and a whole host of panic disorders too. And during that time, the one thing I wanted to know, more than anything else, was what was causing my attacks, and how to stop them.

For a long time, I found nothing concrete. I looked at emotions, and fear, and diet, and exercise. Pretty much everything. I certainly discovered some useful things on my search, and I’m sure a lot of those discoveries played a part in my recovery, but one of my biggest breakthroughs came when I read a book called “Blink.”

It’s written by a man called Malcolm Gladwell.

This book is all about the subconscious mind, and the role it plays in our day-to-day lives. It takes a long and interesting look at the way we think (even those thoughts we are never aware we are having), the way these thoughts affect us, and perhaps most importantly, how we can learn to control them.

I also learned a lot from the author’s look at our snap judgements, out first impressions, and our responses to negative things such as depression, anxiety, violence, worry, and so on. He goes into detail about how our minds work when we react to things in those first 2 or 3 seconds. I realised a lot of my panic attacks started with these 2 and 3 second snap judgements/first impressions.

I may even go as far as saying these initial reactions I was having turned out to be my number one panic attack cause, so this really is an area that is worth your time. So check out the book “Blink” when you get a chance. I think it’ll help.

How To Deal With Panic Attacks

If you’d like to know how to deal with panic attacks, then I’d highly recommend you start focusing on your emotions. This was an area I overlooked when I was trying to solve my own panic and anxiety related problems for more than 17 years.

I did what most people do: I saw my doctor (more times than I could count), I saw psychiatrists and psychologists, I took anxiety medications. And I even spent time learning about my mind and how it works (learning how your mind works is definitely worth your time. It helped me a lot). But when it came to the specific subject of emotions, I was completely ignorant.

It wasn’t even something I realised you could learn about. I always thought of emotions as these uncontrollable things that just happened to you.

But then I was lucky enough to stumble across a book called Emotional Intelligence, written by Daniel Goleman. It’s a really interesting book, and I’d recommend it to you if you’re trying to find out how to deal with panic attacks.

In the book, Daniel Goleman explains why he thinks emotional intelligence is much more important than what we traditionally think of as “intelligence.” He goes on to talk about how improving your emotional intelligence can lead to greater happiness and joy in life, and decreased depression and anxiety, amongst other benefits.

The great thing is, this is a book written for “normal” people like you and me, not some psychology student who wants to understand the complex inner-workings of the brain.

I think we all neglect our emotions to some degree, and most of us (myself included until a year or two ago) aren’t aware that we can learn to take control and manipulate them.

So start paying more attention to your emotions, and maybe pick up a copy of Emotional Intelligence. It will definitely help you when you need to know how to deal with panic attacks.

Stop Panic Attacks Starting Right Now

After living with anxiety and panic for 17 years, I know what it’s like when you desperately want to stop panic attacks. And I’d like to share a quick idea with you that I discovered a couple of years back. It’s something I used as part of my efforts to get over my severe anxiety, and if it worked for me, perhaps it can work for you too.

It’s all about focusing your attention on other people who have the same goal - to stop panic attacks.

I found great inspiration to see other people winning their own battles with these kinds of problems, and I’m sure it played a part in my eventual recovery.

One of the best ways I found for doing this was to find videos on the various video sharing sites. Quite a few people who suffer with panic attacks and severe anxiety seem to like to make little video diaries, or video blogs, where they talk about their own experiences, the progress they’re making, and the approaches they’ve taken that have worked.

Another great thing about these video sharing sites is that you can leave comments under the video, or in some cases even contact the creator of the video directly. I met a couple of people this way who turned into good friends, and we all learned a lot from each other about our various panic disorders.

So if this is something you haven’t tried, why not visit a couple of video sharing sites, take a look around, watch some videos, and see what it inspires in you? If it proves to be even half as effective as it was for me, you might just find that it plays a big part in helping to stop panic attacks completely.

Treat Panic Disorder By Creating Your Very Own Masterplan

Back when I was trying to treat panic disorder I was a little lost. I didn’t know where to turn, or what to try. Some things I gave a shot, and I made a little progress. Other things I tried and made none. But my biggest problem was that I had no real plan of attack. I didn’t know what I was trying to achieve.

So when I realised this I started developing something that I’d like to share with you today, and I think if you make use of this idea you’ll have a great new way to treat panic disorder.

I called it my “masterplan.”

It was a combination of short-term goals, and long-term goals, and a way to track them.

I think it’s vital to have a long-term goal that you’d like to achieve (your ultimate goal), and many short-term goals (little baby steps you’d like to achieve along the way.). And just as important as those goals is an effective way to track them.

So first of all, decide on your long-term goal and write it down. Then plot out all the baby step goals that will take you from where you are now to your ultimate goal. When you see an entire plan laid out like this ic can be very inspiring, because it makes your long-term goal suddenly seem so easy to reach.

When you’ve got all your goals written down, start monitoring your progress towards them in a daily journal. You can either do this in a little diary, or maybe even an online blog. Nothing fancy - just a quick note of the progress you made that day, and if you’ve achieved or got nearer to any of your short-term, or baby step, goals.

Having a masterplan like this can produce incredible results, and I think if you stick with it you will have a great new weapon in your arsenal to treat panic disorder.

Overcoming Panic Disorder With The 3 Steps I Used

Overcoming panic disorder is impossible to achieve, in my opinion, without 3 things. Those things are hope, optimism, and modelling. Without these 3 things, I would never have overcome my own problems with panic disorder.

In fact, for many years I tried everything I could think of to help myself, and absolutely nothing I tried worked. It was only when I focused all of my efforts and attention on hope, optimism, and modelling that I finally started to make good progress.

The great thing is, you can learn from my years of mistakes, because through all my efforts I stumbled across an approach that I passionately believe can work for you too.

And the approach I’d like to share with you is based solely on the third vital aspect I mentioned a moment ago - modelling.

Modelling, in case the idea is one you’ve never come across before, is essentially choosing someone who has achieved something you would like to achieve, and “modelling” your life and your behaviour on them. If you do this well enough, and for long enough, then you should achieve the same goals they’ve achieved.

So this comes down to focusing all your effort and attention on people who’ve had some form of panic disorder and overcome it. Find a handful of these people, find out what they did, and copy it.

The best way I know to do this is to find books written by people who once had problems with anxiety and panic disorders. There are lots of these books around, and a few minutes spent searching online will turn up more than you could ever need.

Simply by going through these books, and being exposed to people who’ve beaten anxiety and panic, you’ll rediscover your hope and optimism (the first two things I said you’ll need if overcoming panic disorders is your goal). And the third thing you’ll need (the modelling) will come from focusing your attention on one or two of the authors of these books, finding out what they did to stop their anxiety and panic, and doing the same things in your own life.

This three-pronged approach to overcoming panic disorders is one I really believe in, and if you give it a try and stick with it, I think it could really help you.

Panic Disorder Help -Are You Using Mindfulness Meditation?

When you’re looking for panic disorder help it can be hard to know where to turn. So many of the traditional approaches fail to work for the majority of people, so you can end up feeling as if there’s no hope.

This is kind of where I was a few years ago. I’d tried the normal things - doctors, psychiatrists, psychologists, medication, cognitive behavioural therapy. None of them had helped me at all. In fact, apart from the cognitive behavioural therapy, I’d say the other approaches had actually left me worse off than before I’d tried them.

Because all these methods had failed me so miserably, I started trying less obvious things in an effort to help myself. One of them I’d like to recommend to you today, because it played a big part in my eventual recovery.

It’s mindfulness meditation.

Mindfulness meditation is a form of meditation that requires you to become hyper-aware of yourself, your body, your breathing, and your thoughts. By doing this, you form an incredible link between your mind and your body, and for me this turned out to be some of the best panic disorder help I found.

There are lots of great free resources on the subject online, so take a moment to look through the websites and free videos out there. This will let you sample mindfulness mediation first-hand before you invest in any audio CDs or DVDs.

So if, like I was a few years ago, you’re really struggling to find some effective, simple panic disorder help, take a closer look at mindfulness meditation and see what it can do for you.

Control Panic Attacks - Anti-Anxiety Breathing Could Be The Answer

One of the very best ways to control panic attacks is to change the way you breathe.

This “retraining” of your breathing can lead to many positive effects if you currently live with anxiety or panic disorders, including the elimination of unpleasant physical symptoms, decreased nervousness, decreased depression, and even complete elimination of panic attacks.

So, why can changing one little thing like breathing help in so many different ways?

There are a couple of reasons. First, you will correct the oxygen/carbon dioxide imbalance you probably have at the moment (most people with severe anxiety suffer this imbalance due to years of shallow breathing - a result of being nervous and on the edge of panic for so long). And the second reason that this breathing change can have so many benefits is because correct breathing leads to increased calmness and relaxation.

So, let’s get to the good stuff. How do you “retrain” yourself to breathe correctly?

It’s simple.

A few times a day, you’re going to force yourself to breathe correctly (I’ll tell you how in a moment). To begin with, this will feel awkward and you’ll have to concentrate to get it right. But after a few days of doing this your body will begin to develop a “breathing memory,” and even when you’re not doing the retraining exercises you will be breathing as you should be.

Here’s the exercise for you to do, a few times each day.

Sit upright in a chair. Place your hand on your stomach. Breathe in for 4 seconds. While you breathe in, slowly press your stomach out against your hand. Now breathe out for 4 seconds. While you breathe out, let your stomach flatten again under your hand. Do this for 3 to 5 minutes, a few times a day.

This is how you are supposed to breathe, but most people with anxiety don’t breathe like this. Soon, you will retrain your body to breathe this way even when you’re not doing the exercise.

This will reduce your day-to-day anxiety greatly, and as a bonus, it’s one of the very best ways to control panic attacks. Give this exercise a try!

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