| Here's a surprise. Your mind is not trying to kill you | | | | wash through me. My unconscious mind immediately |
| when it throws you into the hell of a panic attack. It is | | | | took that as a new learning and dropped ALL the |
| actually trying to protect you! The problem is that you | | | | aspects of the panic attack. I was as right at rain |
| have not explained to it what it is doing wrong. | | | | within 15 seconds! |
| I know that sounds like I'm casting the blame for your | | | | I don't tell you this to blow my own trumpet. I tell you |
| woes back on you, but I am definitely not. I know what | | | | because it made me aware of the incredible |
| the nightmare of sudden panic attack is like. Now listen | | | | invasiveness of panic attacks and panic disorder. I had |
| to this. I am a stress management expert and have | | | | taught hundreds of people how to communicate with |
| been for twenty years. When I had my first panic | | | | their unconscious mind and negotiate a better deal on |
| attack I had been working in clinical practise for 9 | | | | such protective mechanisms that your mind uses. But I |
| years and I didn't recognize what it was at the time. In | | | | had never realized how subtle the effect of high |
| fact I was in the middle of my third attack in two | | | | anxiety situations is on inducing new problems.o First, |
| weeks and had been to hospital twice, when the light | | | | the panic attacks you may be having in your life are |
| finally came on. And what I realized was that a life | | | | only reactions to something in memory that re-trigger |
| threatening event some five months earlier had | | | | under certain circumstances.o Second, your |
| triggered the first panic attack when my mind was | | | | unconscious mind is purely a reactive mechanism. It is |
| trying to keep me out of trouble. | | | | not there to harm you, but to protect you. It just has |
| The event was a serious life threatening attack by a | | | | not become aware that the strategies it has been |
| water born bug in a country 9600 miles from my | | | | given by nature to protect you are inappropriate in the |
| home. I really thought I was going to die. But I did get | | | | current circumstances. Those natural mechanisms are |
| home and went back to sort of normal living, given that | | | | the "flight or fight" response and the "shock" response. |
| it took a total of 12 months to recover completely. But | | | | The feelings of a panic attack are directly related to |
| what I realized was that certain locations and | | | | the physical reactions of these two "protective" |
| surroundings were triggering the panic attacks. The | | | | responses.o Third, you can learn to negotiate a better |
| first was a dark room at night. In Venezuela I had been | | | | deal by understanding the mechanism you mind uses |
| in a dark room most of the time I thought I was going | | | | to communicate with YOU. Once you have done that |
| to die. The second was when I was in a car heading | | | | you can turn off the onset of a panic attack like a light |
| into heavy traffic where I would not be able to get out. | | | | switch and in doing so teach you mind new |
| In Venezuela, just after I became aware of the | | | | understanding. Once it understands it will NEVER give |
| seriousness of the illness I was in heavy traffic. The | | | | you a panic attack again. |
| third triggered when I went to a darkened office | | | | Try this. Next time to have any unpleasant feeling |
| surrounded by black marble. In Venezuela I first | | | | become aware of the method your mind uses to |
| became ill when I was in the black marble bathroom of | | | | produce it, rather than the actual content of the feeling. |
| a lawyers office. | | | | For instance, when you are angry, where do you feel |
| Are you getting the picture? That black marble gave | | | | anger? Is it in your head or your chest or your |
| me the clue and I immediately went into negotiation | | | | stomach? Is it heavy or light? Is it dark, black, red, blue? |
| with my unconscious mind. You see, it thought IT WAS | | | | If you knew, and I know you do, how does it present |
| HELPING ME by getting me out of situations it had | | | | itself to you? Once you know just one aspect of it, |
| registered as being potentially fatal. It didn't understand | | | | deliberately move it's location in your body and change |
| that I was not really in danger and that the behavior | | | | its color, temperature or weight. You will notice the |
| was not appropriate under the new circumstances. | | | | anger is no longer there. |
| So how did I beat it? I concentrated on what was | | | | And so it is with panic and anxiety. Your unconscious |
| giving me that awful feeling of dizziness and found a | | | | mind will take such a change as instruction and drop |
| grey darkness surrounding my vision. I deliberately | | | | the original behavior! You will be staggered at how |
| changed my awareness of the color to light blue, let it | | | | simple it is to communicate with your unconscious mind. |