How to regain calm when anxiety hijacks your brain

#505: Anxiety frequently hijacks our thinking with a fearful narrative. For example: “what if” thoughts or worst-case scenarios. The body responds as if those fearful thoughts are true—because it doesn’t know the difference between a real threat and imagined scenarios. When the body reacts it makes the mind more disturbed and we get caught in this fear cycle that feels frightening and completely takes over our body and mind.   Here’s what happens:   Anxiety starts with a trigger, a symptom or sensation, a message, or news item - something that strikes a vulnerable place in us.   The mind zooms in on it and instantly creates an anxious narrative. A story around the trigger that makes it instantly more solid, or a potential threat.   As soon as the mind creates its story, and it can happen in an instant, the body reacts. Our heart beats faster, our breathing becomes shallow, we might feel lightheaded, or shaky. And these sensations in the body feedback into our mind and further disturb the mind.   This repeats and builds into a fear cycle that feels very real and very hard to bear.  Until we know how to stop it.   A mind in balance can respond calmly to incoming information, but a mind that’s already challenged by anxiety will react rather than respond. It lacks the resilience to process the incoming information and respond in a self-supporting way.   The good news is that we can change this. We can learn to break the fear cycle. Listen in to learn more.   For help with calming heightened anxiety, you can join Ananga for a new Guided Tapping Session video on Patreon at patreon.com/anxietyslayer 

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