Anxiety

I’ve established that your imagination can scare you silly. Anxiety is that dreaded feeling that “oh my God, something bad is going to happen.” Several studies have shown that the brain does not know the difference between what it is thinking internally and what it is experiencing in its external environment. Imagined threats to your personal or social well-being send danger signals to the most primitive part of your brain setting off the fight-or-flight response the same way it does when the threat is real. Anxiety is the result of your imagination continually imagining the worst.

Fifty to seventy-five percent of all visits to primary-care doctors in the United States are intimately related to anxiety or unresolved emotional upset. Anxiety is recognized as a significant risk factor for heart disease, stroke, high blood pressure, autoimmune disease, fibromyalgia, chronic pain syndromes, irritable bowel syndrome, insomnia, and asthma, among many other illnesses too numerous to name.

You have three options: One, continue living in anxiety. Two, change your situation and three, change your reaction. Let’s look at changing your reaction.

Anxiety
Read Becoming the Greatest Expression of You

Calm down

Staying in fear and anxiety is optional. Most people have never been taught to skillfully use their imagination. They get stuck in the default position, which is to worry needlessly, habitually, and ineffectually.

But, how do you calm down when the world seems to be coming down around you? Unless you are literally in this moment being chased by a saber toothed tiger, you can stop imagining the worst.

Do this:

  • Scan your body and notice your overall level of anxiety.
  • Rank your anxiety level on a scale of 1 – 10. (1 is peaceful and 10 is off the chart horrible)
  • Wiggle your toes. Wiggle your butt. Take a deep breath in through your nose and let it out through your mouth.
  • Notice that in this moment you are OK. There may be lots of stressors in your life, but right now you are OK. You are safe. You have breath.
  • Take a moment right now and use your imagination to go to the most peaceful happiest place that you have ever been. Notice what you see, hear, smell and feel.
  • Now bring to mind The Greatest Expression of You and Mentally Rehearse being your Best Self in the situation that you used to generate anxiety. Notice the outcome that you create by doing this.
  • Express your Gratitude for being The Greatest Expression of You in this situation.
  • Rank your anxiety level on a scale of 1 – 10. Notice the improvement from just a few moments ago. You did this with your imagination.

 

I am excited!

There are times where being calm and relaxed may not be the most useful for your situation. It’s often said that fear and excitement are two sides of the same coin. When you really think about it, the initial feelings of fear and anxiety aren’t that different than the experience of excitement.

The anxiety that you experience if you are about to give a speech, musical performance, play on a sports team or take an exam can be paralyzing. But, being totally calm and relaxed lying on a beach may not be the best alternative for pre-performance anxiety.

You want to get a grip on your nerves but you also want your thoughts to be focused and your body to be energized. Research has shown that people who reappraise pre-performance anxiety as excitement develop an opportunity mind-set as opposed to a threat mind-set.

Do this:

  • Bring to mind an upcoming event such as a speech, musical performance, sporting event or exam.
  • Notice your thoughts, emotions and physical sensations within your body.
  • Rank your level of anxiety on the scale of 1 – 10.
  • In the privacy of your mind, imagine throwing your arms into the air and jumping up three times shouting “I’m excited! I’m excited! I’m excited! (Better yet, actually jump up and do this and shout at the top of your lungs).
  • Bring to mind The Greatest Expression of You and Mentally Rehearse being your Best Self in the event. Notice the outcome that you create by doing this.
  • Express your Gratitude for being The Greatest Expression of You in this situation.
  • Now notice your thoughts, emotions and physical sensations within your body have shifted.
  • Your anxiety level should be low and your ability to use focused energy should have risen.
  • Now go be your best!
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The 3 Magical Words You Should Say Next Time You're Anxious

Most people have the same instinctive reaction when they’re anxious: Take a deep breath and try to calm down. But research shows that’s the wrong move for many of us. Instead, tell yourself “I am excited” over and over, and eventually you’ll probably start to feel that way. (Anxiety and excitement have much more in common than you think!) Watch The Atlantic’s Olga Khazan test out this theory with her most anxiety-inducing experience: karaoke.

Your Hypnosis Health Info Hypnotic Suggestion for today:

I am excited! I am excited! I am excited!

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