There's an old saying that the present moment is called the present because it's a gift. This moment now is the place from which you can launch the next phase of your life. You can use it to change your mind about something old and stuck that no longer serves you well. You can use it to reflect on where you are and where you want to go next.

The gift of the present moment is that when you meet and connect with this moment right here, right now. You can begin to craft and create the life you want to live. You can pause and breathe and choose. And that's so much healthier and self-supporting that reacting on automatic pilot because you missed the moment and time travelled to a past hurt or future concern.

What was then is done and what you do now affects what's yet to come...

Seize the moment and choose with full awareness and self respect what you can do right now that will help you move your life forward with increased calm and confidence.

Some tools that can help you enter the moment:

Yoga Nidra audio download

Silent Witness Breathing

photo by Bug-a-Lug

Anxiety can cloud your thinking and make everything seem dark and dreadful. When your mind is overrun with worries, it's easy to fall into the trap of anticipating negative outcomes. You might dread any event, journey, or social occasion because you're scared of what might go wrong.

The official tag for this kind of thinking is "cognitive distortion" simply put, it's the wonky thinking of a mind on red alert for stress or danger. Why does your mind do this? Usually it's trying to protect you by urging you to avoid anything that it thinks might cause you extreme discomfort. And it's there that we find a clue to handling anxious thoughts, if your mind is perceiving danger, one way to address that is to ask yourself some quick questions.

Any time you feel stressed or anxious try the following questions to help you round up your thoughts and start getting your head straight:

What exactly is it about this that's worrying me?

Is it really likely to happen, or am I allowing myself t think the worst?

Is there a more practical or positive way I could look at this?

Is there something I could change that would make it easier?

Finally, if a friend was having these worrying thoughts, ask yourself what advice would I give them?

Write your answers down in a notepad or journal and then sit back with a warm drink and take some deep breaths while you reflect on your words if the situation really is too much for you then you've allowed yourself the time and space to self-reflect and get clear on it. Sometimes anxiety speaks to us for a good reason, asking these questions gives you the chance to honour your intuition and step back from areas that might cause you more stress. It also gives you the clarity to pinpoint what's really worrying you if your anxiety is due to a negative thought pattern and from there you can look at what you can change to make things more comfortable.

For self help anxiety tools to help you increase your personal sense of calm and security we invite you to sample our anxiety relief downloads.

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Photo by @boetter

When anxiety has your brain in it's grip you might look at other people and wonder how it is that they look so calm and in control while your head is in complete and utter turmoil.

Sometimes it's helpful to look really closely at others and see if you can pick up any tips. Since the experts tell us that it's not the stress or anxiety that counts but how we respond to it. There's a lot we can learn from people who cope well with stress, anxiety, and adversity.

Here are 3 Healthy Thoughts that Can Help You Control Anxiety:

1. I have the power to improve my life

Know that whatever you are going through there are choices you can make to help you cope. You can seek support professionally, or from friends. You can read the inspiring stories of others who have triumphed through tough times. You can cut back on disturbing TV, movies, news, or music and replace them with more gentle and soothing entertainment.

2. I can make changes today that will make tomorrow brighter

It's easy to get stuck in a negative mindset when you're suffering from anxiety. Thinking the worst and predicting negative outcomes are all part of the anxiety problem, plus anxiety feels so awful and all encompassing that it can drain your sense of hope. But you can make changes now that will brighten your immediate future.

You could view them as seeds of change. Little actions that you can adopt and grow to help you take the load off your nervous system and rest your mind. You could start with one simple anxiety breathing exercise and try it every day for a week. Journal your experience with that one technique and then look back and see how much it has helped you.

3. There is help available

Believe it. There are people in the world who've conquered their anxiety. I'm one of them and that's why I'm writing this blog. Do I still get anxious sometimes? Yes. We all do. But anxiety isn't ruining my life anymore and you can find ways to make that be the case for you too. Look for company that's calm and positive. Learn from people who've mastered their anxiety, find out what worked for them and be open to trying it.

Be aware of who you're hanging out with too. If support groups are giving you real support that's great but if you find yourself in a support room where empathy develops into a competition of who's suffering the most - look elsewhere. If you want financial advice you don't go to people who are broke. If you want support with anxiety don't go where there's drama, go where people know how to help you and are happy to do so.

In conclusion

Remind yourself every day that you:

- have the power to improve your life

- can start making changes that will make things better

- can find help

One of the worst things about anxiety attacks is the feeling of loss of control. Along with a racing heart and the awful feeling of being short of breath your mind can easily spiral out of control with "what if" thoughts of the worst possible outcome. Your mind might start panicking about passing out, not being able to breathe, or even dying. These thoughts are all hot wired in to your head as a result of an over taxed nervous system experiencing some awful symptoms as a result of it's sensitised state.

Knowing how to control and calm that state is they key to relief. It's a powerful and liberating act of self care to learn a trick or three to help you calm your heart rate and ease your way out of anxiety. Knowing what to do to help yourself calm down is crucial in anxiety recovery and embracing and consciously appreciating that knowledge is crucial too.

When our kids learn a new skill we praise them. Our positive feedback validates their learning experience so they remember what they learned. They also remember that it got a good reaction and they feel good about it, which helps them learn new stuff in the future.

With anxiety you can help yourself by acknowledging your new found skills as you would encourage a child or a friend who figured out something new. You can talk to yourself, keep a journal, or reward yourself, do whatever works for you: but do acknowledge your success.

Why is this so important?

Because anxiety will happen again and when it does you need to know what worked so you can swing into action with your fire fighting techniques confident that what helped you before will help you again.

When we learn to ride bikes we fall off them a lot. But we keep going and eventually we succeed. When learning to control anxiety we need to keep going to. So cheer yourself on for the smallest successes and keep going and you will soon learn to master your mind and calm your heart.

Some kids learn to ride a bike in a couple of days, some may take longer. That's OK, once they've learned they never forget. Some people can learn to master their anxiety quickly, others may find relief over time. The main thing is to keep playing with the skills and tools that can help and get to know them so well that you have them at the ready for any situation when you want to feel calm and in control.

Related resources:

The Quick Anxiety Stopper

New here? Let's Connect.

Thanks for stopping by. If you enjoyed this post we invite you to subscribe so you can receive our new articles and podcasts as soon as we publish them...

 Get email updates |  Subscribe via RSS |  Follow us on Twitter |   join us on facebook

Photo by infomaniac

Anxiety can cloud your thinking and make everything seem dark and dreadful. When your mind is overrun with worries it's easy to fall into the trap of anticipating negative outcomes. You might dread any event, journey, or social occasion because you're scared of what might go wrong.

The official tag for this kind of thinking is "cognitive distortions". Simply put it's the wonky thinking of a mind on red alert for stress or danger.

Why does your mind do this? Usually it's trying to protect you by avoiding anything that it thinks might cause you extreme discomfort.

And it's there that we find the clue to handling anxious thoughts. If your mind is perceiving danger one way to help reign it in is to get specific and ask yourself the following questions:

Ask yourself:

what exactly is it about this that's scaring me? is it really likely to happen, or am I allowing myself to think the worst?

is there a more practical or positive way I could look at this?

is there something I could change that would make it easier?

if a friend was having these worrying thoughts, what advice would I give them?

Time to Reflect

Write your answers down, then sit back with a warm drink and take some deep breaths while you reflect on your words. If the situation really is too much for you, then you've allowed yourself the time and self-respect to get clear on it. Sometimes anxiety speaks to us for a good reason. Asking questions gives you the chance to honour your intuition and step back from areas that will cause you more stress. It also gives you the clarity to pin point what's really worrying you and the space to see what you can change to make things more comfortable if your anxiety is due to a negative thought pattern.

For self help anxiety tools to help you increase your personal sense of calm and security, we invite you to sample our anxiety relief mp3s at the Anxiety Sayer Store.

Related Resources:

The Quick Anxiety Stopper

Breathing Calm

New here? Let's Connect.

Thanks for stopping by. If you enjoyed this post we invite you to subscribe so you can receive our new articles and podcasts as soon as we publish them...

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Photo credit: fontplaydotcom

For years my friend 'Jenn Moonbear' has been sharing magical stories about her Shaman teachings and the sweat lodge ceremonies she is passionate about. I was invited to join her and experience my first sweat lodge healing and the alchemy of a lodge pouring ceremony. A new dance chief would be pouring her first lodge and Jennifer was assembling an intimate group to honor the new leaders first official ceremony.

Before participating in the ceremony I prepared my body by fasting for the day and drinking a lot of water. I prepared my mind by planning to show up without any expectations. The rich metaphor of this transformational experience rocked my world.

Shann shares a quick and easy way to use your breath to reduce tension and start feeling calmer.

Listen to her guide you through the exercise and try it for yourself, it only takes five minutes and it’s something you can take with you anywhere once you know how do it.

 photo by {Salt of the Earth}

Paul had been suffering from night time panic attacks for about six months when he had his first daytime experience of panic. When he called me he was upset and worried because he didn't want panic to rear it's head when he might be at work or out with friends. "It's bad enough at night" he told me "but at least then it's private and I've got my routine to cope with it. Actually it's been a bit better lately and I really don't understand why I should suddenly feel like a panic attack's coming on in the day when it never has before."

I asked him what he was doing when he started to feel the symptoms of a panic attack and he began telling me about helping a friend move an old TV out of their house. It was big and heavy and as he was lifting it into his van he noticed his heart was beating fast and from there feelings of panic instantly washed over him. He felt hot, and breathless and he just wanted to escape.

In early January I took a deep breath and hit the "publish to iTunes button" from our PodBean podcasting service; we had been publishing podcasts since October when Shann and I first teamed up, but we let things grow quietly for a while as we gathered topics we wanted to discuss and share.

One month later we have over 2,000 listeners, and today I noticed the Anxiety Slayer Podcast featured in new releases under the Self Help category in the iTunes store.  That's very exciting for me as iTunes has over 150,000 podcasts listed with hundreds of new ones being added every week.

Ananga answers a question from her inbox: “I’m stressed and I know I would benefit from relaxation, but I feel too tense to start. Whenever I try to slow down things seem too slow and I feel frustrated. How can I find a way to try relaxation and get used to the feeling?” 

Photo "I sleep with clenched fists" by Jaime de la Cruz~

If you can you relate to this podcast, please share your thoughts by leaving a comment