Anxiety Control Through Physiological Changes
There is an existing misconception about anxiety.
Most people believe that anxiety is harmful.
This notion probably comes from an awareness of different disorders related to anxiety.
While it is true that anxiety disorders and neurosis are potentially dangerous conditions, normal anxiety is not a cause for concern.
On the contrary, anxiety is a natural emotion and a biological reaction of the body to certain stressful external conditions.
It is a mechanism that the body adopts in order to cope with and protect oneself from possible threats.
As with other natural emotions, anxiety can also be used creatively to our advantage.
Because it is conceived as dangerous, people try to repress anxiety.
This act in itself is potentially harmful and may result in various complications.
Firstly, attempting to relax when one is anxious often represses the anxiety instead of curbing it.
Repressed anxiety builds up to manifest itself in the form of panic attacks.
Fear, anxiety and panic then form a vicious circle, chasing each other and leading into each other.
This tense situation is very difficult to break out from.
On the other hand, it isn't true that one must never try to get rid of anxiety.
Regular anxiety attacks are harmful and a sure indication of psychological or physiological imbalance.
There is a particular way of treating such bouts of anxiety, however.
As children, we were alien to the emotional states of anxiety and fear.
Environmental condition during our formative years have taught us to resort to anxiety to counteract threat - and this has become a pattern that social conditioning has ingrained in the way we behave.
The simplest way to break out of this pattern is to change another habitual behavioral pattern we're used to - the pattern of breathing.
You must have noticed how the way we breathe changes with corresponding changes in our emotional states.
Anger makes us breathe forcefully whereas sexual arousal quickens our breathing.
When we are anxious our breaths become very shallow.
If we consciously change this pattern of breathing, we can successfully change our anxiety patterns as well and break out of the circle of fear and anxiety.
The human body and the human mind are interdependent and reflect each other.
Changes in our physiology affect our psychology, and vice versa.
This is why changing our pattern of breathing (breathing being a physiological function of the body) can have a direct desirous affect on our minds and help control anxiety.
Most people believe that anxiety is harmful.
This notion probably comes from an awareness of different disorders related to anxiety.
While it is true that anxiety disorders and neurosis are potentially dangerous conditions, normal anxiety is not a cause for concern.
On the contrary, anxiety is a natural emotion and a biological reaction of the body to certain stressful external conditions.
It is a mechanism that the body adopts in order to cope with and protect oneself from possible threats.
As with other natural emotions, anxiety can also be used creatively to our advantage.
Because it is conceived as dangerous, people try to repress anxiety.
This act in itself is potentially harmful and may result in various complications.
Firstly, attempting to relax when one is anxious often represses the anxiety instead of curbing it.
Repressed anxiety builds up to manifest itself in the form of panic attacks.
Fear, anxiety and panic then form a vicious circle, chasing each other and leading into each other.
This tense situation is very difficult to break out from.
On the other hand, it isn't true that one must never try to get rid of anxiety.
Regular anxiety attacks are harmful and a sure indication of psychological or physiological imbalance.
There is a particular way of treating such bouts of anxiety, however.
As children, we were alien to the emotional states of anxiety and fear.
Environmental condition during our formative years have taught us to resort to anxiety to counteract threat - and this has become a pattern that social conditioning has ingrained in the way we behave.
The simplest way to break out of this pattern is to change another habitual behavioral pattern we're used to - the pattern of breathing.
You must have noticed how the way we breathe changes with corresponding changes in our emotional states.
Anger makes us breathe forcefully whereas sexual arousal quickens our breathing.
When we are anxious our breaths become very shallow.
If we consciously change this pattern of breathing, we can successfully change our anxiety patterns as well and break out of the circle of fear and anxiety.
The human body and the human mind are interdependent and reflect each other.
Changes in our physiology affect our psychology, and vice versa.
This is why changing our pattern of breathing (breathing being a physiological function of the body) can have a direct desirous affect on our minds and help control anxiety.
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