When You Need Help NOW!

“I have horrible anxiety and panic attacks. I feel like I am going to die. I feel beat up and my whole body hurts."


I work with creative people. Often these people are out in the world stepping into situations that challenge them on a regular basis.

I typically help clients with five areas to help surrender fear and step into satisfaction.

1. Self awareness (mindfulness)
2. Self soothing
3. Self love (us anxious tend to beat the crap out of ourselves),
4. Self expression
5. habit/ routine.

Anxiety can be physically EXHAUSTING. We use up so much of our precious energy just managing the intensity of the anxious state.


If you are in a state of high anxiety RIGHT NOW here are some basics to smoothing things out:


1. What were some of the thoughts that were going through your head?

A lot of times we globalize doom and gloom. We think the worst and we also think we
are going to die. It is important to get checked out by a doctor, but if it IS anxiety, the
next step is to simply notice the thoughts. This cultivates a witness perspective that can
hold your anxiety so you can start to soothe it.




2. Feel your hands.


A lot of anxious people will go to “my palms are clammy” or “I lose sensations in my
fingers” or “I have pins and needles and MY ARMS ARE GOING TO FALL OFF!!!!”


I know it sounds funny but our anxious mind is scanning to see what is wrong.
Having pins and needles in my hands after being sick from food poisoning sent me to
google to find out if I had a paralytic version or botulism. This kind of self diagnosis isn't
really helpful and I would have been better served to simply feel my hands.


We aren't looking for something wrong here. Instead, we are just looking for physical
sensations. Clammy palms? Great. Zipping tingles around the finger tips? Great! Cool
sensations on the backs of the hands. Great.


If you can keep ten percent of your attention on your hands - just the physical
sensations, I have tested over and over again and found that you will begin to get your
creative energy back.


Physical sensation. Be as descriptive as possible. Keep it super simple.


3. Emphasis on the out breath.


Great! I didn’t learn many of these self soothing techniques ’til grad school! I personally
think that they should be taught in elementary but they just aren’t. So if you are a teacher
do your students a favor and give them these emotional intelligence builders!


So when you are anxious I would bet your chest feels very tight and the tendency is to
breath in and in AND IN!


Focus on your long breaths out.


Notice your state as you count breaths out. This is the type of stuff you will find in most
anxiety relief programs. Breath work. The breath is a powerful tool for transforming your
state.

Btw. If you’re feeling down and out, I suggest breathing out all your air, as much as possible and waiting for the in-breath to kick in. It will show you how your body values life. Please go talk to an awesome therapist though, if you’re feeling depressed.

4. Express.


One thing that is really unique about my perspective is that I believe that SO much about
anxiety is that we are NOT expressing. We block ourselves and the "energy" manifests
physically. Many people feel chocking sensations in their throat or a knot in their belly. The body is holding tensions it can’t process and it manifests as a certain chakra block when it’s really a systems issue.

If
you have been to your doctor and there are no physical reasons for your sensations, explore with me.

Notice, where are you tensing. You likely feel like you’re choking or that you are ill
because you are squeeing your stomach or throat unconsciously. Noticing what feelings
come up and see if you can identify them. No feeling can hurt you. Its just emotion.
Energy in motion. Ask it what is has to say to you. You don’t have to agree with what it
has to say. That part of you gets to have its own voice, and you as your wise self get to
hold it in your awareness.




Be willing to explore the sensations.


Feel them physically.


Feel them emotionally without reacting to them.


Hold them in the loving bowl of your awareness.


Then ask,


What is it that you have to tell me?
What is it that you need?
What do you have to say?


Speak these answers out loud or grab a journal or your computer and write them down.


This is when everything shifted for me. My angst in a breakup became some of my most
wise and intelligent writing. I have tested this time and again and it works! Find a way to
express that is SATISFYING for you. It has to be satisfying for you. For me it meant
writing from my wisdom perspective and sharing it with the world through facebook -
thereby getting support and engaging in conversations. For others it has meant writing a
letter and putting it in the mail or giving a particular person a call. Find what works for
you. If you can’t, I can help you figure out meaningful ways to self express.



For me, I needed to work with another person to do this work. My body simply did not
feel safe enough to work with on my own. This is because I was working with TRAUMA.


If you don’t feel safe in your body, or know that you have a history of trauma, please
reach out to me or another therapist and they can help guide you through this process. It is possible to feel safe
in your body. If you are willing to do the work, you will like reach Post Traumatic Growth,
which is the ability to launch further and faster BECAUSE you were traumatized. It is the
amazing gift that the worst of life’s experiences often allow us to thrive in ways others
simply can’t imagine.


If you are in a place where your body doesn’t feel safe, professional support can
help.

A lot of times when we feel anxious we feel like we are victim to the anxiety. We feel powerless and like we cannot stop the sensations. In a lot of ways we are correct. We have conditioned ourselves so strongly to respond in this way our neural pathways have to change in order for us to feel relief.

This is why mindfulness practices work so well. The stop the conditioned state and LITERALLY rewire the brain.

It is miraculous how malleable our brains are.

If I can do it. You can do it.

The thing is, a lot of people are more committed to their problems than the solutions. Which camp are you in?


Loving you, Elz