It is an age old story. A small child wakes up in the middle of the night terrified. The parent rushes to calm their child, but it is an uphill battle. The child has imagined a monster in their closet.
No matter how hard the parent tries to quell the fear or prove that there is no real monster, it is very hard for the child to fight their scared and anxious feelings.
At that moment, the child’s feelings of fright are overpowering their normally rational thought process. Their feelings are telling their mind to keep imagining the worst.
Any other time, the child would never be afraid. In the morning, they would think nothing of opening the closet to take out their favorite toy. They would know the monster is not real, because their mind is in charge instead of their emotions.
Your Monster Is Not Real Either
That is it in a nutshell. The monster that causes your acute anxiety symptoms is not real. When you think about it, can you ever remember a time when you were actually harmed during an anxiety attack? Never, no matter how scared you were in your worst panic attack, you never actually got hurt.
When you walk into a crowded room or busy grocery store and your anxiety begins to build, there is nothing that will truly harm you. You are not going to be attacked.
Nothing is going to physically push you around or intimidate you. People are not actually laughing at you; in fact they are probably not noticing your problem at all.
You are safe. This is the thought that you have to let dominate all other thoughts and emotions. You are safe and you are going to come out of your anxiety okay.
Learning Mind over Emotion
Just like that small child afraid of the monster in the closet, when your acute anxiety begins your emotions are going to try to run the show. Your emotions will try to keep your mind imagining the worst.
Your scared feeling wants to remain, so it will do what it can to stay in control of your thoughts and keep you afraid.
This is when you reach a critical juncture. You can give in to your feelings. You can let your emotions take over or you can let your logic and reason stay in charge.
You have let your emotions be in control before and you know how that will end. If you do not want to repeat that viscous cycle, try to teach your mind to stay in control over your emotions.
A good way to keep your emotions in check is to separate fact from fiction. Facts are what is actually occurring and fiction is what your imagination is making you feel. Try to remember what the unchangeable facts are in the situation. For example, you may be a crowded room but you should take a look around.
Is there anything actually scary? No, there is not. Is anyone laughing at you or seeming to talk about you? No, everyone is acting perfectly normal. You are in a situation that has just as much chance of being the best experience in your life as it does being bad.
Those are the facts. If you focus on those facts, your imagination will have nothing to react to. If you embrace the situation, your anxiety will have no power.
Embracing the situation and focusing on facts will take some skill to learn, but you can do it. In The Panic Puzzle Program, you will learn several techniques to keep your thoughts in control and not your emotions. You will be shown tools for acute moments of anxiety and for living in ease full time. The book will teach you other improvements you can make in your life that will also cure your anxiety.
You do not have to fear your monster in the closet any longer. It is not real and you are safe. If you can learn to empower your mind with that one thought, your emotions will never be in control again.
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