ANXIETY SELF-AID TECHNIQUES

2024 Author: Harry Day | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 15:43

Use suggestion formulas aimed at regulating your mental state

I CAN CHANGE MY VIEW OF THE OUTSIDE WORLD, FOR THIS I SHOULD UNDERSTAND: NOBODY IS THREATENING ME AND I HAVE NO ONE TO PROTECT FROM

• Today I realize that my anxiety is turning against myself.
• I don't want to hurt myself anymore.
• Throughout the day, when you feel anxious, say firmly: “At this moment, I want to experience inner balance. I happily discard all negative thoughts and choose serenity."

I AM NOT A VICTIM OF THE ENVIRONMENTAL WORLD

All the ups and downs that take place in the external world take on one color or another, depending on my inner state. I always project into the outside world those thoughts, sensations and feelings that are peculiar to myself. Today I want to see the world in a different way, changing my attitude towards what I see.

Repeat throughout the day in those moments when it seems to you that you are becoming a victim of circumstances: “Everything that is real in this world is my state and my love for the environment. It is from this point of view that I will relate to this situation (concretize for yourself) or to this circumstance (concretize)."

THE ALARM IS UNJUSTIFIED IN ANY FORM

My thoughts may be occupied by fears of the past or dreams of the future, but I can only live in the present. Any moment of the present is unique because it is different from all other moments.

Starting today, if disturbing thoughts about the future come to me, I will remind myself: "I live here and now, and I have nothing to fear."

I CHOOSE SOCIETY

Repeat to yourself whenever it seems to you that someone or something threatens your calmness: "I make a choice - instead of confusion and anxiety, I choose love and peace."

Come up with your suggestion formulas and use them

Support. Technique for training stability

The exercise is performed while standing or sitting. First, try to feel the legs as a support for the body … Legs confidently standing on the ground … creating support both literally and figuratively … Feel, fully feel the contact of the feet with the ground - grounding as a state of not only physical, but also psychological stability and self-sufficiency. Then, as you shift your attention, try to feel the continuation of the support - the spine. Feel it as an extension of your legs (you can visualize a visual image - a tuning fork), as a skeleton hidden inside the body, giving it internal stability, confidence and reliability, as a physical support … on yourself.

Hints: You can use different methods to improve the feeling: stretch your feet with your hands; try to "dig the ground" with your toes. You can imagine how roots grow out of the feet and grow firmly into the floor.

Breath

• Sit comfortably with your feet on the floor and your back with your head supported.
• You can rest your hands on the armrests of the chair or on your knees.
• Check that there is no pain anywhere, no pressure, no pricking, etc.

Pay attention to your breathing. Follow it for a couple of inhalations and exhalations. Notice its characteristics: the depth of inhalation-exhalation, frequency, pause time between entering and exhaling, the muscles involved in the process, sensations in the throat and chest. Now make your breathing deep, even and calm. The main word is even. Breathe in your belly. Do not try to breathe too deeply, here a calm comfortable rhythm and filling the lungs with air are more important.

Tips: Belly breathing or diaphragmatic breathing means that the diaphragm (and not the intercostal muscles) does most of the work of inhalation, which pulls the pleura with it and causes the lower lobes of the lungs to expand, which, like a pump, begin to suck in air. When breathing with the stomach on inhalation, the diaphragm goes down, and the stomach inflates, on exhalation, the diaphragm is pulled back up, and the stomach contracts, pushing the air out of the lungs. For convenience, you can imagine as if the inhalation of the diaphragm comes down to the small pelvis.

Anxiety Review Exercise

To reevaluate your state of anxiety, use the technique of chronological reverse transition from a stressful to a neutral or positive emotional state. To do this, you need to imagine the development of events, as in a movie that is scrolled in reverse order, and ask: “What happened before that? What footage could you have seen before? What frames preceded the moment in question? " As you go back to the climax shot, make sure your breathing is deep and full (don't overdo it!)

To deploy the revision, you must try to be aware of how many frames (slides) will be required, how many time steps or location changes will be required, while you return, move towards the core of the alarm event.

• In the second step, it is necessary to stabilize the dissociation, for which it is necessary to present yourself as if you can see yourself as if from the outside. Think how far is that person from you? Who are you when you look at him? Is there a difference between him and you?
• You should look at “that self” with sympathy, with favor, realizing that in a situation “before the event” (alarming) that person is doing the best he can.
• So, you already know what will happen to him, but he does not yet.

Look at the “that self” from your observer state and determine what he needs to be successful in the next situation. Describe the resources needed (external or internal conditions that contribute to a positive solution to the anxiety situation).

After that, you imagine yourself watching and transfer these resources to "him" (make sure that he can see you well in this frozen frame-slide).

You can clearly visualize his visual image, hear the characteristic features of his voice and, if you deem it necessary, you can mentally reach and touch him (you can even imagine yourself rubbery and able to stretch out to touch him). Continue to observe his changes while you transfer resources to “him” (advice, tips, friendly smiles, or, on the contrary, energy, composure, determination, etc.).

You transfer resources to “him” and continue to observe his changes until you see that, accepting resources, he becomes more and more ready for real action and, finally, reaches a state of complete readiness to act. The following options for transferring resources (help) are possible:

Finally, a target state is achieved, such that "he" is in a state of complete readiness to remove anxiety. You are dissociated, i.e. as if removed from what will happen to "him."

Let the script play frame by frame, and at the same time you continue to provide “him” with some help, transfer the resource, and “he”, receiving them, reaches almost the maximum possible degree of readiness to act successfully in a difficult situation.

After all this, you observe him, carrying out a successful action and reaching the desired state.

Progressive muscle relaxation (performed daily)

First of all, it is necessary to sit or lie down as comfortably as possible, take off or unbutton tight clothes so that nothing interferes and does not distract. Close your eyes, remove all extraneous thoughts from your head and take a few slow, deep breaths. When doing progressive relaxation exercises, it is very important to monitor your feelings. During muscle tension and relaxation, you need to listen to the sensations and compare them with each other. Trembling, tingling, warmth may be felt. Do not strain your muscles to pain.

Leg muscles

• Bend and tighten your toes, gradually straining them more and more, hold in this state for a few seconds, and then relax. Be in a state of complete relaxation for a few seconds without making any movements. Repeat the exercise. Monitor your feelings.
• Pull the socks away from you, strain, fix in a state of tension for a few seconds, then relax.
• Pull the socks towards you, tighten, fix, let them stay in tension and return to their original position, feeling muscle relaxation.
• Tear your legs 15–20 cm off the floor, strain them, and keep them in an extended position. Then lower and relax. Remember to listen to your feelings.

Arm muscles

• Squeeze the right hand into a fist, let it be tense, relax. Do the same with the left hand. Then repeat the exercise with both hands at the same time.
• Bend your right arm at the elbow, tighten your biceps, be in a state of tension, straighten and relax your arm. Repeat the exercise with your left hand. Then repeat the exercise with both hands at the same time. Remember to keep track of your feelings.
• Strain your right arm - wrist, biceps, triceps - by pressing your hand into the floor or armrest of the chair. Stay tense. Relax your hand. Repeat the exercise with the left hand, and then with both hands at the same time.

Abdominal and back muscles

• Take a deep breath, tighten your abdominal muscles, and stay in this position, holding your breath. Exhale and relax your stomach. Repeat. Listen to the sensations.
• Raise your pelvis off the floor using your heels, elbows and shoulders. Stay tense, then lower your pelvis back to the floor and relax.
• Raise the thoracic spine a few centimeters, leaning on the elbows and the back of the head. Fix the body in this position by tensing the muscles. Get down on the floor and relax.

Muscles of the head and face

• Raise your head, direct your chin to your chest.. Tighten your muscles, hold the tension, relax.
• Squeeze the jaws, straining them, stay in this position, relax. Follow the sensations.
• Wrinkle your forehead, fix the state of tension, stay in it for a few seconds, then relax.
• Compress lips tightly, straining the muscles of the mouth, fix the tension, relax.
• Rest the tip of the tongue against the upper palate, tighten the tongue, hold it in this position, and then relax.
• Close your eyes, straining the muscles of the eyelids, fix the state of tension for a few seconds. Relax your muscles.

Final exercise

Now you need to strain all muscle groups at the same time: arms, legs, back, stomach, shoulders, face. Tighten, fix the tension for a few seconds, and then relax the whole body as much as possible. Repeat the exercise several times, achieving complete relaxation. Stay relaxed for a few minutes, inhaling deeply and exhaling air

Exercise "Voltage relief"

Spend two to three minutes several times a day to roughly imagine your unproductive expenditure of muscle energy. Whatever you are doing - work, leisure, socializing, or whatever - freeze in the position in which you do it. Run your inner gaze over your own body and try to find those muscle tensions that are in no way necessary from the point of view of the physical work being performed at the moment. Even the discovery of such tensions can be considered a serious personal victory, and if you manage to relieve these tensions even for a few minutes, it will be simply excellent!