I have two posts brewing in me and I want to give advance notice of them. One will be regarding anti-depressants and anti-anxiety medications and what I believe to be true. The other will be regarding what I call the “simple state”.
Both of these posts will have some ideas that will help sufferers of anxiety.
I’ll have these up by the end of this week.
Until then, take it easy…………….but take it.
Jacob
Connecting with universal energy (God) is the most important factor when recovering from serious anxiety problems. Connecting with the source of energy is the same as connecting with pure love. We were all born as perfect babies with all of the perfect traits to accomplish our goals here in our flesh form.
In the wilderness, in a field, in a lake, in a river, on a mountain top, holding a pup, holding a baby, holding a kitten. What is better than that? (I guess you could be holding a baby that is holding a pup, that is holding a kitten, while you step out of the forest into a canoe to take down a river, that runs to a prairie, which runs into a lake).
When you find yourself in panics and/or stress it’s important to get away from the city and back into the bosom of nature.
You may be saying, “Aw, not this crap again – is this guy some kind of burnt out hippie …… ewwwwhhh…. hippies”
But think about it for a minute. Has a forest or field ever caused you stress? When you see a lake, a river, or an ocean does it stress you out? Ever looked at a bouquet of flowers and felt a tightness in your chest or abdomen? Not likely.
Stress is born in the minds of developing humans as they are taught what their parents were taught by their parents who took marching orders from their parents. Stress is passed down the gene pool. Without question someone and something in your life taught you that worrying and stressing is the way to live your life.
They taught you this everyday of your life and they did it by example and they did is unconsciously. Even if you rebelled against their negativity and constant worrying, you drank the Koolaid my friend. You have to distance yourself from your negative teachers and embrace positive teachers. Even if they’ve been dead for over 5000 years.
This doesn’t mean making negative people as enemies. Quite the opposite. You need to send all people a silent blessing of love and compassion. This is key. In this universe you think negatively of others it all comes back to poison your own mind, and tarnish your natural connection with love and universal energy.
This is why we’re seeing meditation practices that focus on thinking thoughts of compassion for others. When we exude and think of all others with love, you will naturally recognize the love others are sending to you. This is when you are truly in sync with universal energy, AKA love, AKA God. In this state you cannot be in a state of fear and anxiety.
Some anxiety sufferers will call this bunk. Doctors will tell you that your depression, agoraphobia, or panic attacks are from having a chemical imbalance and they will prescribe medication. This may be a quick way find some relief from your anxiety disorder, and it may be what gives you the chance to study some of the ideas I’ve mentioned here. If so, fine, nut if you truly change the way you look at your life, your life will change. It’s your choice which way you want your emotional compass to swing.
Many anxiety suffers still blame the anti-depressants for stress they’re having 3 years after the medication is long gone out of their system. What the sufferer needs to do is stay on their medication until they learn to stop taking their brain drivel so seriously, and just start being. Just be. be quiet and just be. Once the sufferer has learned enough about how to keep their fear in balance, only then they should ween off their anti-depressants.
If you’ve never started and SSRI or anti-anxiety medication, try and make it though your temporary anxiety by changing the way you look at things.
Something I’ve been doing the last ten years to overcome a mini-anxiety attack, or session of panic, is to “shake it off”.
There is nothing fancy about this idea, but it works very well. In the POEM system the important idea is to “snap yourself out of it” so to speak. With the POEM system you are focusing your attention at the end of a panic attack.
You are treating the end of a panic attack as a moment of opportunity. This moment of opportunity is when you say to yourself, “Wow! That was a drag and no fun, but no big deal. I’m just going to get my body moving, and shake it off.
By “shaking it off” I mean literally shaking your body. Flail your arms and legs out and shake them vigorously. It looks quite ridiculous but it feels good, and it’s gives you a feeling of jolting yourself out of a bad thought, and anxious thought. I’ll post a video example of me doing the shake so you can see what I mean.
You can do this before what seems to be an oncoming panic attack. I’ve stopped a downward spiral into panic and anxiety many times using this shaking. This shaking of your body and limbs can help you when you are in medication withdrawal mode too.
What I do, if I feel some severe anxiety coming on, is stand up right away and shake all my limbs, shake my head and make lip roll sound like I was stepping into a freezer. Sort of shake up and rattle your body to reset your thinking. Like a reboot, so to speak.
Reboot your brain, reboot your thoughts. You are a very special creation – a perfect machine created by universal love and compassion. You have just bought into your own fear, or the fears others (including the media) have pushed upon you. Do a simple reboot of your brain, and when you reboot it, turn off all the needless thinking that is sucking up your resources. Uninstall all the crap programs that are dragging you down, slowing you down, and making you tired. You don’t need fearful and negative programs running in the background of your beautiful, and pure, God-given brain.
Uninstall the newspapers, television news, cranky people, angry people, doom-and-gloom people. Uninstall all your guilt and fear of a bad future. Uninstall all of the negative viruses that have infultrated your thought patterns and your natural processing bus.
Clean and defrag your mental hard drive of all the useless files, folders, and applications of guilt and the past.
If you ever feel frightened, scared stiff, or just plain depressed – SHAKE IT OFF and REBOOT your brain.
It’s not a bad world. You are wonderful person born into a world of love and compassion. Everywhere we look around this world, the vast majority of people are beautiful, loving, caring, kind, compassionate, understanding, and loving. Don’t let the massive amount of negative and worrisome incoming data skewer these truths.
Ever wonder what happened to the bird-flu virus. Hmmmm….where did that go. Every wondered what happened to the imminent terrorist attack that was coming……been a while and we’ve been waiting. Ever wondered what happened to you through all these years of worrying, stress, anxiety, and panic attacks…….you’re still here and you still have a choice to make every day.
Choose to tell yourself that you are going to be just fine. Tell yourself that you will eventually be anxiety free and drug free. Tell yourself that you are going to change the way you look at life and all the other humans sharing your space. Tell yourself that you can control your thinking and change how you feel. Tell yourself that day-by-day you will learn to reboot your brain and shake off anxiety. Tell yourself it’s all going to be OK. You will my friend.
God bless……now let’s go do the shake!!
Jacob
Lets face it….we’re all sensitive human beings and living with people who are shutdown, and completely unconscious is called “asking for trouble”. Allot of trouble my friend.
Choosing a healthy life partner is a key factor for your emotional and physical well being. Your humble narrator has been to hell with one life partner choice, only to discover heaven with my new wife. The untold agony that women and men experience due to a bad living partner could fill the Nile with tears.
If you are in an unhealthy relationship you want to consider finishing it, but you don’t want to do that unless you have taken some personal inventory of yourself. Of course, if your partner is just plain mean spirited, unfaithful, abusive and/or violent, it’s time to pack your bags and get out of dodge.
So in this spirit I give you another tip of the hat to a blog known as Grammology.com. The specific post I’m tipping my hat to is entitled, Who Should We Pick for our Partners, Passion and Stability. This piece is obviously written for women, but the exact same advice rings true for men. I’m in the male category and this article rang true for me big time.
When we finally learn to respect ourselves as much as we respect others, (assuming we have finally learned to that even) then we are on our way to a better day.
I’ve always told my kids, friends, family, and anyone within earshot that I would rather be alone then live with someone who is a major drag. A nasty person, or an indifferent person. The truth is as I see it, is that we are never alone. We are all connected spiritually and physically.
Have you ever been in a bad relationship with someone, and stormed out the “abode” in absolute pain and misery. Everywhere you go – the grocery store, the video store, the bank, and the like…..you always pass by someone who has a smile on their face, a friendly disposition, and a positive aura surrounding them. You are still deep in thought regarding “yet another argument your partner has decided to create”, when a kind person says something like,
“What a great day, look at that beautiful blues sky, and feel the warm wind in your hair”
Sometimes that stranger will give you a passing smile, glance, or friendly wink when they pass you your groceries, your coffee or magazine. When they sit beside you in the subway or on the bus. The sad part is, after your spiteful spouse has sprayed another dose of their wretched stink all over you, you can barely soak up or take in the friendly gestures these kind strangers extend. When every place you go is better than home it’s time to drastically CHANGE home.
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Here at Sane Advice.com we have been recently asked, more and more, to advertise for various other health related web sites. Here we promote our first advertiser from Los Angeles. Their primary product is healthy meal delivery. Here is a quick description of what they have to offer;
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I’ve started a new category called “Tip of the Hat” whereby I will introduce a good post on how to manage stress, anxiety, fatigue, and depression.
My first Tip of the Hat goes out to a post written on the Natural Holistic Health Blog. The post is called Managing Adult Emotions, and I think you will enjoy it.
There are some very good point made here and I would like to highlight them. The focus of the article is understanding your feelings and emotions. As I’ve mentioned in some of my commentary on getting in touch with your inner dialogue, it’s the first step to getting control of life.
So a tip of hat goes to Dr. Dee at the Natural Holistic Health Blog today.
Jacob
I’ve called my anxiety disorder a gift for over a decade now. Those of you reading this who have an anxiety disorder may cringe at the thought of calling your suffering a gift. In fact, you may be still at the stage of “why me” in your recovery.
In time I hope you realize that it is a gift to have a vivid imagination, and to be sensitive. Most gifted artists have these two traits, and lurking inside you is a gifted soul as well.
You won’t likely look at anxiety attacks, panic attacks, fatigue, and depression as a gift, but if you read on I will explain why it is.
Some people go through their whole life taking for granted their good fortune of proportionate stress and limited anxiety. They don’t need to take inventory of their own thoughts and beliefs. They never take a close look at how they process their emotions, and in later life they may have a feeling of “is this it”. If they don’t understand their fears and worries, they may end up being very unhappy and simply “grumpy”. They can end being old, disillusioned, uninspired, and mildly depressed. Unless their unhappiness rises to a peak whereby they are forced to take action and learn something about themselves, and their thought process, they may never get to the mountain top of awakening. They may live out their final days still floundering in the valley of the unconscious.
If you experience intense fear and anxiety you will be forced to take action, learn, investigate, and overcome your negative inner dialogue. You will be forced to look at life with “better lenses”.
If you read all of the scriptures and stories of the most common religions and faiths, you’ll soon discover that the pioneers and leaders of faith suffered greatly prior to their awakening. Before Peter, Jesus, Buddha, Mohammad, Moses, and the like, realized their mission in life and experienced their awakening, they suffered greatly.
Your suffering is an enormous gift, and if you take action you will come out the other end of your horrific journey with a wisdom that most humans never have. Through your recovery you find out how special and unique you are, and you will see how truly beautiful you are inside and out. You will never look at a tree, a blade of grass, an animal, a cloud, or a sunny day the same.
You will likely begin reading inspired works of literature by authors like Eckhart Tolle, Wayne Dyer, Deepak Chopra, Dan Millman, and Elizabeth Gilbert. These readings will inspire you and teach you of the wondrous gift of life, love, and liberty. When inspiration and your connection to universal love and energy become the backdrop of your minds eye, you will walk through life in awe of the beauty that surrounds you every day.
Now don’t you think that perhaps your anxiety disorder and/or depression could possibly be a gift? If you are still in the early stages of discovering what it is you are going, you will have a great deal of trouble excepting this. That’s OK. Just take each day one at a time, and give up trying to control everything around you. Give up on being perfect, other people being perfect, or the world ever being perfect. It’s not yours to control. It’s yours to except.
In all books and writings in the subject of human awakening, gratitude is a common denominator. Having gratitude for ever experience in your life, whether good or bad, is a prerequisite for a healthy and positive state of mind. This is why seeing yourself as a singled out victim has to stop. Self-pity is the worst emotion you can manifest. When you embrace the uncertainty, and embrace the bad moments in life, you are on your way to realizing true gratitude. When you realize true and complete gratitude for everything, everyone, and every experience, you are connected to the universal energy source. The source of all love, compassion, forgiveness and kindness.
When you are connected to love, compassion, forgiveness, and kindness, you will see yourself through the same “lenses of love”, and your healing will quickly manifest. As your healing and recovery grows you feel a very powerful surge growing within you. This is what Jesus meant when he talked about God being within you. You are a piece of God (or universal energy). This is what all of the great sages and teachers of the past were writing and talking about. God is inside of you and your awakening is the realization of this.
When you realize your awakening you will begin to let go of your ego, your mistrust, your anger, and your fears. You won’t see yourself as your job, your physical appearance, or your reputation. You will have found your purpose in life and you will flow like water with the inevitable changes of life. When you flow with life, you no longer fear life. When you no longer fear life, you can no longer be controlled, manipulated, or influenced by negative energy sources.
These negative energy sources are always man made. Only humans decide to bring negative energy into the world and the immediate space around them. As a matter of fact, when you are wearing true “lenses of love” you will witness negative human activity as unimportant and not worthy of your attention. A simple flower moving in the breeze becomes a much more important event than any negative event created by a human or humans.
So yes, your anxiety disorder is a great gift. Now get to work on your recovery and your education. Get to work changing your life and your surrounding. Get to work changing your negative inner thoughts. Get to work paying attention to the beauty of nature and the beauty of yourself. Get to work seeking out professional help. Get to work setting up a doctor appointment or therapist appointment. Get to work reading, and discovering the blessings of your life.
Take action.
Jacob
Having faith is one the best ways battle stress and anxiety. If you truly believe in a higher power, religion, or God, it helps immensely. In my opinion it doesn’t matter which faith it is, as long as you know that your spirit is eternally connected to universal source energy.
You can find some web sites that give you tips and lists using Christian methods of reducing stress. You can find a massive amount of information online regarding the use of faith for stress relief.
I was raised as a Christian do believe that Jesus is the son of God, but I think we are all children of God. It’s just most Christian followers believe that Jesus is a divine son of God. There are allot of different opinions on this one isn’t there?
I’ve found some peace of mind reading scriptures from all religions and faiths. There is a great divide between the followers of the different religions, and it’s too bad. Some believers are adamant that their faith is the only faith, when I believe all faith based religions are reaching to the same universal source of all.
The new age movement is all about the same belief. Buddha was around for thousands of years before Christ, but most of the messages and teachings are the same. Same the Koran and Mohammad. This would spark a furious debate is we were sitting in a room full of followers all these religions. When this world truly starts to unite, it will be when followers of all religions realize they have been worshipping the very same God – the universal energy of love, kindness, compassion, and beauty.
When you use your faith to calm your nerves and calm those around you, you are acting directly in line with source energy. The fine art of forgiveness, and the understanding that all form in the world is simply a visual illusion that we humans see and undertand, then you can relieve allot of worldly stress.
When we tap into our true calling of spirit, and stop looking at ourselves on the basis of form, we can conquer all fear and stress. Eckhart Tolle’s book “A New Earth” is one of the big break through books for believers of the new age movement. I believe that Eckhart’s theories, Deepak Chopra’s theories, and Wayne Dyer’s theories all mirror the same awakening. I think we’ll see many great religions of dogma and guilt begin to collapse over the next 50 years. The true meaning of spiritual connection is upon us now and it’s getting very exciting.
I can see a day when stress, anxiety, depression, and chronic sadness are extremely rare. There will be a day when school curriculum will have a great deal of content regarding peace of mind, spiritual connection, and faith in everything we experience.
I’ll be long gone when the new world is realized, but I think we’ll see far less violence, greed, and anger around the globe. In a few hundred years this earth will be a completely transformed place. Anxiety and fear will almost eradicated. There will some day be a heaven on earth reality.
It’s only us humans are the animals that need to get in touch with spiritual energy as a whole. Animal, plants, and insects are perfectly tuned into source. It’s the great humane experiment that is taking ALLOT of time to develop.
On a personal note, I believe that we have to be our own heroes and trust in our own basic instincts. You want to know what your basic insticts are? When you are helping someone, being kind, helpful, compassionate, forgiving, and loving – you are in sync with universal love and in purpose.
I’m not a huge fan of Oprah, but I believe she is on the right track with all her spiritual work she has been involved with. In her own right, Oprah has become a teacher to millions of people around the world.