Many anxious people worry and when they worry, they think about the future and not about the moment they are in. They feel overwhelmed and controlled by their body, which often mandates they constantly seek out their panic signs. They do not factor in that they can control their body and stop panic by managing what they focus on and what they do not focus on. The fact is, if a person can change their focus, they can reduce the chances of another panic episode. Featured below is a beautiful effective strategy for managing panic attacks using mindfulness. It is a two-step method, which needs to be repeated multiple times.
1. Breath in and out and shut your eyes. Pay attention to all the feelings of your body including the experience of breathing, filling your lungs, and emptying your lungs, the feeling of your heartbeat, the feeling of your skin, and all the sensations of your body.
2. While keeping your eyes shut, make the conscious move to change your sensory focus from the physical feelings you are experiencing in your body to everything you can listen to, sense through your nose or sense using your skin, that is around you.
Through changing our senses from what is happening with your body to what is happening around you, you will develop skill sets and knowledge that through your physical nature you will be able manage the components of the world you pay attention to through internal and external monitoring. This method grants a person internal control focus skill sets that they can use to not pay attention of overwhelming body warning signs and in turn stop asserting devastating assessments the create waves of panic or consternation or fear. This is a straight-forward strategy that permits a person to have a sense of being calm while they continue to be aware of what is going on now versus impending doom in the future.