Anxiety Needs A Consistant Approach 

Advice on managing Anxiety from Ivory Online Magazine

“Anxiety needs a consistent approach. In order to make the most of your body’s anxiety safety valve, otherwise known as breath control, you have to practise. And not in the moment of stress you’re trying to alleviate.
Not during those episodes of emotional overwhelm – the frightening, somatic sensations like heart pounding, loss of breath and a variety of other unpleasantness. The truth is, meditation works to reduce stress only when you practice while not stressed out.
A marked characteristic of these experiences is a loss of self-control. Time and space seemingly warp to ensure that our entrapment in this microcosm of hell is elongated. Fun! At worst, an individual can have extreme panic attacks that literally feel like death. For myself, this time warp can make my sense of time and space speed up, so that the expletive I verbally fling at someone seems to come from nowhere and is beyond my control.

Anxiety..

My friend described her anxiety as being most difficult to manage when she’s alone. The hand motion was actually one of a rabid thing trying to gnaw at her face. Yeah, I get that! When she’s alone, all those creepy, icky feelings are amplified by the lack of noise and distraction. I asked, “So how do you handle it? Have you devised a strategy?”
She said she tries to remain in a rational and logical mindset while taking deep breaths. Woohoo! She’s listened to an instinct that resides in all of us, but is not necessarily that easy for all of us to hear or follow. Awesome as this is, the benefit feels limited. The feeling of calm is short-lived and the anxiety returns, or it just doesn’t work at all.

Breathing..

Try taking two minutes to just focus on your breath without your mind chasing its own tail. This is really hard to do, even if you’re in a comfortable and safe environment. So if it’s hard to meditate (or just try to consistently focus your awareness on one thing) when you aren’t being triggered, how are you supposed to get this stress-reducing tool to work for you when you’ve got your boss/spouse/kid in your face?
Unless you’re the Dalai Lama chances are you fail to keep cool in the face of a stressful stimulus. But if you take the time, while as unstressed as possible, to stay grounded and somatically aware of your breathing and even practice manipulating it, you begin to change your brain function as well.
Remaining steadily aware in this way keeps the brain’s activity in the pre-frontal cortex and decreases activity in the limbic system (executive functioning vs. primal emotions). In essence, taking back control of your physical experience, not being overwhelmed by nasty sensations of anxiety and creating an internal, mental space in which you can make better choices that go beyond reactionary assaults.
Obviously, the more you practice this skill the better you get at being able to use it when it’s most necessary. Doing it by yourself, while in final relaxation at the end of your weekly yoga class is not enough. Doing it by yourself, every day is the way to go, even if it’s just two minutes. Consistency is key.”

Categorised in: Choir, Health and Wellbeing, Singing