How To Cope With Anxiety, Panic And Fear

Worried about money, anxiety over job security, worried about children, afraid of personal security, obsessed by feelings of inadequacy – such are the distractions that entertain the normal mind. Sadly, psychology has confirmed time and time again that the normal mind is plagued by negative thought. This negativity is entrenched in the subconscious – that part of our mind that was inculcated with this form of negative thinking during our childhood years – and is fed by the prevalence of bad news, negative coverage and the horror stories on which the media thrives. We are surrounded – from within and without – by negativity.

For many, that negativity leads to anxiety – we become anxious about everything that we don’t want to befall us. Anxiety often leads to fear – again, fearful of the things that we don’t want to happen. And, for some, that anxiety can lead to outright panic – and that panic sometimes overwhelms us when we least expect it.

The first thing that you need to appreciate is that, if you’re feeling anxious, fearful or panicked, it’s got nothing to do with the real you – it is the product of your over-enthusiastic personality. Your personality – who you think you are – is a fiction based on all the psychological pictures that you ‘snapped’ when you were young and impressionable. You ’snapped’ events that made an impression on you at that time and, now, your subconscious mind is using those snapshots to create what you perceive to be your reality. And, because your subconscious automatically invests your energy into these negative emotions, you generally end up proving yourself correct – you were right to worry, right to be anxious, right to be fearful – your life turns into a self-fulfilling prophecy.

Research tells us that we are only able to perceive and experience what we expect to perceive and experience. In other words, if we change our expectations, our life will actually change. This, however, is easier said than done because, as I have already said, not only is your subconscious mind occupied by the long-term squatters of negative thought, you are surrounded by other people who are similarly minded. It is hard to believe that life could be completely different.

What you have to do is start re-building your naturaly ability to ignore useless, 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 moment might just be your last – you had better get on with experiencing, living and capitalizing upon the reality of the here and now. The now is a place where anxiety, fear and panic are simply not. It is a place where real action is taken – action that can move your life in the right direction. It is a place where you meet life’s challenges head on – without anxiety or fear.

However, try telling this to someone who is desperate. Try telling this to someone who has given up on succeeding. Try telling someone who is in the throes of panic that it isn’t 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, straight away, take five minutes to simply sit down 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 will take you.

Are You Plagued By Anxiety, Worry, Stress?

Are you feeling tense or anxious? Do you regularly worry? Do you suffer from your nerves? Do you get easily flustered? Do you get stressed out? If you perceive yourself to be suffering from any of these afflictions, then you’re letting your mind play tricks on you. The inner you cannot be nervous, anxious, stressed or uncertain. The real you is incapable of suffering from stress or worry. All these issues are symptoms of an over-active personality – when you feel that you’re suffering from them, it’s only your personality trying to trip you up.

What you must realize is that your personality – from the Latin persona, meaning a mask – is nothing more than a mask that not only conceals the real you from everyone else, it has misled you into thinking that it is, in fact, who you are. But, psychology tells us that your personality is a series of snapshots of people and events that impressed you when you were a young child – what we normally call our formative years. You snapped photos of these things because they were important enough to make you feel good or bad about yourself at that time. Unfortunately, psychology also tells us that the normal person is much more disposed to dwell on the negative rather than the positive photographs.

And your subconscious mind is currently obsessed with those snapshots and it is this obsession that creates your personality. Essentially, your personality is not real – it may have got you to where you are and you may really like it – but take care that you don’t fall in love with an illusion.

To rid your daily life of the afflictions from which only your illusory personality can suffer – worry, stress, anxiety, self-doubt, fear, frustration – you need to go beyond that personality, your perceived strengths and weaknesses. You’ve to go in search of the real you because not only does it not know worry, stress, doubt, not only is the inner you fearless, the real you is capable of achieving effortless success and happiness. The great news is that you won’t have to look to hard to find the inner you – it’s crying out to be discovered. You’ll uncover the real you in the quiet of a reflective moment, in the experience of one of those wonderful “natural high” moments that we experience at some point in our lives – where peace and contentment reign.

However, you shouldn’t wait for the next peak moment to get over the illusions of worry, stress and all the rest. You can do that right now by doing some meditation. When you meditate you will start to experience that stress, worry and fear are simply poisonous thoughts and that a clear and focused mind (the real you) simply has not time for such rubbish – it has much more pressing things to do.