Text/Bufanjie
Recently, I often hear people around me complaining that they feel anxious or even in a bad mood throughout the day.
For this reason, I also came up with a lot of ideas. It even pointed out some positive aspects of anxiety (
Today I would like to share with you two techniques that can control anxiety (or panic) or change insomnia through training.
These two methods are to solve the problem through training and strengthening exercises. Anxiety or panic problems may follow.
- Unconscious Programming Memory Control Panic Training
- "5-4-3-2-1" Exercises
Use these two methods to train the part of our brain that is not troubled by stress. Automatically stop panic.
I originally wanted to train my brain to deal with sudden panic events and turn it into a part of the body's unconscious program. However, after trying it for a few nights, I actually fell asleep. This really helped me fall asleep recently. Difficult Questions .
These two method tips come from the book Panic Free by Captain Tom Bunn, LCSW.
Tom is an airline pilot and author who has spent 30 years developing treatments for fear of flying. method of disease. In his research, he found:
- In a state of panic, it is usually impossible to prevent a panic attack.
- But the panic can disappear on its own. The parasympathetic nervous system , thereby preventing the accumulation of stress.
Many people may have questions, is there anything we can do when panic occurs?
For example, if you have an anxiety disorder, you are particularly prone to panic or anxiety; Or maybe a speech or important speech is approaching, and you are a person who is not good at public performances. Can you imagine all kinds of panic and anxiety when that moment comes? What can you do at this time?
Unfortunately, when panic occurs, there is nothing we can do except instinctive reactions or habitual thinking.
Know that panic is caused by an imbalance between the sympathetic nervous system and the parasympathetic nervous system .
When a person panics, the brain stops functioning and the body freezes.
Although people have a strong urge to change, they may be filled with various feelings of powerlessness.
years ago, Australian Claire Weekes pointed out in "Self-Help for Anxiety Disorders" that once a panic or anxiety attack occurs, the best way to get rid of it is to let nature take its course.
She suggested that people with panic and anxiety should not resist and let panic and anxiety occur naturally.
Because resistance—because it increases overwhelm—makes the feeling of panic last longer.
So, in a state of panic, people seem to be frozen. When you begin to thaw, any attempt to end the pain will only prolong the panic attack.
However, this does not seem to be a solution, so is there a better way (at least than doing nothing) to deal with panic? There are still
.
Tom believes that instead of hoping panic won't happen or being indifferent when panic occurs, we should train our minds to deal with panic.
1. Training unconscious procedural memory
Although the thinking part of the brain is incapacitated by panic, another part can function well under stress. It is called "unconscious procedural memory" .
Unconscious procedural memory is a huge storage area under your cortex, a mechanism for remembering things you do repeatedly. Once it memorizes these mechanics, it can guide you through these tasks as if you were on autopilot.
gives an example.
When you first learn to drive, you will appear to be focused and attentive. As you gradually become an experienced driver, you can make phone calls while driving.
While the conscious part of your mind is doing the talking, the unconscious procedural memory is driving your car.
Therefore, when stress begins to accumulate, trains unconscious procedural memory by activating the parasympathetic nervous system to help oneself stop panicking, and the steps of training are also quite simple.
- Think of someone you feel comfortable with, someone who doesn’t judge or criticize you.
- When stress increases, activate your parasympathetic nervous system as follows:
- Pretend you see this friend walk in.
- Imagine hearing your friend say hello to you;
- Imagine your friend coming over and giving you a big hug (or other physical contact appropriate to your relationship).
By repeating these steps, your unconscious procedural memory will learn to activate your parasympathetic nervous system for you.
Like Tom claims, if you have been able to calm down consistently enough within the first 18 months, then your unconscious procedural memory already has the mechanisms needed to activate your calming system (the parasympathetic nervous system). But about 60 percent of us can do it consistently, which is enough to train unconscious procedural memory. However, about 40% of people are not always calm enough to establish anti-anxiety and anti-panic mechanisms in our unconscious programming memory.
Therefore, this requires us to train more and observe and experience the changes in our body.
2. "5-4-3-2-1 Exercise"
This exercise was originally a technique to help people fall asleep .
Captain Tom later repurposed it and named it "5-4-3-2-1 Exercise".
The purpose is to get those who are afraid of flying out of a vicious cycle in which Medium – Anxious thoughts trigger the release of stress hormones, which causes the person to focus on the anxious thoughts, which in turn releases more stress hormones, and so on.
The "5-4-3-2-1 Exercise" can help control these anxiety and panic, and it is this method that helped me overcome the problem of difficulty falling asleep.
The key point of this technique is that we need to focus all our attention on non-threatening things around us, and control anxiety by blocking the thoughts that cause anxiety.
This method is like a band-aid for emotional regulation. It is not used to treat anxiety or panic disorder , but is a quick way to eliminate anxiety and panic and achieve a relief effect, similar to a concentration exercise.
Here are the steps
Phase One
Sit or lie down comfortably.
Focus on an object in front of you.
Stay focused throughout the exercise.
If your eyes wander away, remember to take them back quickly.
Then, try it silently. See which experience below would be more suitable for you.
- says "I see " and says something within your visual range. For example, "I saw a chair." Then say "I see" a pot of flowers. Until five different things are said.
- Say "I hear" and say the sound you hear, for example "I hear a car outside". Then, say "I heard the door slam." Until you name five different descriptions. (If you don't hear five different things, repeat what you said earlier.)
- Say "I feel" and say what you feel physically, not emotionally, such as "I feel like I arms on legs." Keep feeling until you have named five different feelings.
is a complete cycle.
requires a high degree of our attention, which is exactly what we need. As long as you focus on something that is not threatening, you will become more relaxed when stress disappears instead of being replaced.
The second stage
If you can train to say five descriptions every time, you can try to do this exercise without concentration.
At this time, your mind may return to some disturbing thoughts.
In order to focus, instead of saying the five descriptions at this time, say the content of the four descriptions .
Then, in the third stage of , say the three described contents .
In the fourth stage of , say two descriptions .
In the last stage, just say a description .
The things you are thinking about here can be the same or different, just say whatever comes to mind.
If you lose count, that's also good because it means you're relaxed at the moment.
But remember not to practice this while driving or walking, it is very dangerous!
But when you feel tired and want to relax, stop and practice this.
When you want to relax more or want to fall asleep, you can try starting with the "5-4-3-2-1" exercise.
Finally, as a special reminder, using "5-4-3-2-1" early can prevent panic attacks.
This also means that one must be aware of when one is in a state of panic.
But not everyone can do this.
If "5-4-3-2-1" is used too late, it may still cause panic.
Reference: Tom Bunn. "Panic Free"
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HI, I am Sister Bufan
Psychological counselor
Marriage and family counselor
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