Panic attacks and how to deal with them

Worrying about finances, being anxious about job security, worried about relationships, fearful of personal security, feeling inadequate – such are the thoughts that occupy the normal mind. Unfortunately, psychology proves time and time again that the normal mind is actually obsessed with negative thought. This negativity is entrenched in the subconscious – that part of the mind that was inculcated with this way of thinking during our childhood years – and it is now nurtured by the ubiquity of bad news, negative coverage and the horror stories on which the media thrives. We are surrounded – from within and without – by negativity.

For some, that negativity results in anxiety – we become anxious about all the things that we don’t want to befall us. Anxiety often leads to fear – again, we fear the things that we don’t want to happen. And, for some, that anxiety can lead to outright panic – and that panic often overtakes us without any prior warning.

For starters, you have to understand is that, if you’re feeling anxious, panicked or fearful, it’s got nothing to do with the real you – it is the product of an over-enthusiastic personality. Your personality – the person that you think you are – is a fiction comprised of all the psychological pictures that you ‘snapped’ when you were young and impressionable. You ’snapped’ events that impressed you at the time but, now, your subconscious mind is using those photographs to create what you think of as your reality. And, because your subconscious automatically invests your energy into these negative emotions, you pretty much end up proving yourself right – you were right to worry, right to be anxious, right to be fearful – your life becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy.

Research tells us that we can only perceive and experience what we our personality expects to perceive and experience. So, if we change our expectations, our experience of life will change. This, however, is easier said than done because, as I’ve already noted, not only is your subconscious mind occupied by the resident evil of negative thought, you are surrounded by so-called normal people who are stuck in the same nightmare. It is a challenge to believe that life could be so different.

So, you’ve got to start re-building your innate ability to ignore destructive, self-sabotaging and negative thought by redirecting your attention to what is real. Reality is awaiting your undivided attention in this present moment. To be blunt, this day could be your last – you had better get busy experiencing, living and capitalizing upon the wonder of the here and now. The real here and now is a place where fear, anxiety and panic are simply not. It is a place where you take real action – action that will move your life in the perfect direction. It is a place where you meet life’s challenges head on – without fear or anxiety.

But try telling this to someone who is desperate. Try explaining this to someone who has thrown in the towel. Try telling someone who is in the throes of panic that it’s not real. You’ve got to cultivate your ability to experience, appreciate and live in the here and now when it doesn’t matter so that you can be fully focused, fully alert, fully armed, when it does matter. So, right now, take a few minutes to sit and pay attention to what your senses are telling you – not what your fictional personality thinks that they are telling you. Root out that imposter – out of your life – and see where life takes you.