Stres Free Living With Five Effective Steps for Handling Anxiety

Have you ever been in a situation that brought on sweats, rapid heartbeat and shortness of breath? You probably weren’t having a heart attack but an anxiety attack. If you suffer from anxiety disorders, learning to manage it is the first step to overcoming it.

Anxiety is characterized as extreme reactions to fearful situations. When someone follows you into a dark alley, those anxious feelings of a racing heartbeat and sweaty palms gives way to heightened senses and a rush of adrenalin that can save your life. This is the fight or flight syndrome.

Everyone experiences panic or anxiety in small ways. Like the fight or flight example, it can save your life. In new situations, we get panicky but when the outcome we fear fails to materialize, the anxiety stops. For someone with chronic anxiety, this is not the case.

Every situation that brings anxiety is not life-threatening. More than likely it is an extremely stressful situation that has brought on the anxiety as a way of dealing with it. Unchecked anxiety of this type can lead to depression.

If you suffer from anxiety attacks on occasion or a more frequent anxiety disorder, there are steps you can take to keep your anxiety under control.

1. Get a good night’s sleep. During the sleep cycle, your body repairs itself. You feel more rested after several hours of restorative sleep, reaching the REM stage. Most people need eight hours a night which varies within an hour or two each way.
2. Exercise on a consistent basis. Exercise helps you to use oxygen more efficiently. It helps to get more oxygen to the brain. It also increases focus which may help you see solutions to problems rather than simply worrying about them.
3. Meditate. Meditation is more than chanting mantras. Yoga is an exercise that involves quieting the mind and controlling your breathing. Simple mediation such as taking 5 minutes to clear your mind everyday can work wonders in the fight against anxiety.
4. Manage the worry. When you feel your pulse start to quicken, count backwards from ten. As you count, focus on the situation. What has actually happened? Resist the urge to read anything more into the situation.
5. Find some relaxing activities. Stress can rob you of your energy. On a regular basis, do something you like such as gardening, painting, reading or listening to music.

Anxiety can come into your life at any time. It’s normal. When the anxiety becomes frequent you could be at risk for more serious conditions There is no need to suffer this terrible condition in silence.

How To De-Stress and Prevent Anxiety with Power Breathing

Stress can cause you to have panic attacks.  If you are the type of person that intensely worries about things, then you could be at risk.  Panic attacks are born out of fear that something bad will happen.  You start to stress out more than you normally would.

When you feel you’re having a panic attack, you start to feel dizzy and your heart will accelerate.

Other signs that you may be having a panic attack include:Nausea

• Numb
• Feeling of paralysis (can’t move)
• Breathing difficulties
• Sweaty hand and palms
• Increased Tension

Some things you can do to deal with panic attacks and anxiety include:

• Try to remain calm and relaxed; this can help to minimize the effects of panic attacks.
• Face the panic attacks head on; if you avoid them, it will be more difficult to deal with them in the future.
• Get a mindset of not letting the panic attacks get to you; meditate on words that can help you relieve your problems.
• Find some people that can depend on for support.  You need people that have your back and will rally around you when the going gets tough.

If you have these symptoms consistently, you should consult with your physician to find out what’s going on.  More than likely, it can be due to stress levels that increase in intensity.

Now that we’ve covered the symptoms of anxiety what can be done about it – Power Breathing – When you’re feeling stressed, your breathing becomes faster and shallower.  And as a result the body reacts by less oxygen reaching the bloodstream, your blood vessels constrictand less oxygen reaching your brain.  You feel light headed shaky and more tense.  You probably think of breathing as a way of getting air into your lungs.  However, in times past breathing was elevated to a more important status.  If you remember your Bible, the book of Genesis says that when when God created Adam, he “breathed into his nostrils the breath of life’ and man became a living soul.”  Full deep breaths are important to the breath of life

To de-stress and prevent anxiety  try power breathing.

• Take in a deep breath through your nostrils. Do this without exertion.
• Hold it for a second
• Slowly breathe out, through your lips
• Repeat a few times so there is a seamless inflow and outflow of air.
• As you breath out feel the tension melting from your body into the floor.  As the breathing becomes more automatic, concentrate on the tension passing from your body, through the soles of your feet or through the skin of our back into the floor