Anxiety, Panic and Obsessive Thoughts
Some of the common anxiety based practices I teach are:
Learning about the brain and how the fight, flight, freeze and fawn responses are at the root of anxiety.
Mindfulness as a tool for training your mind to catch itself worrying and come back to the present moment, non-judgmentally.
Identifying and diffusing unhelpful thoughts patterns
Focusing on goals and not letting fears or worries stop you from achieving your goals (this means doing the things that scare you, even when they feel scary!)
Many people experience the physical feelings of anxiety like tightening in their chest or nausea. Others its the cognitive experience of their "mind racing" or being unable to get certain fears off their mind that keep them awake at night. And for some its the behaviors linked to anxiety that bring them in for help- like avoiding places or people, over-controlling the world around then or seeking reassurance from others too often. These are just some of the common symptoms of anxiety and all of them can improve or even disappear all together with the right treatment.
I find the principals and strategies from Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (pronounced ACT) to fit really well for my clients and they are a big part of what I find myself using in my own mind as well. If you’d like to learn more about ACT I suggest starting HERE for a quick overview and seeing what you think!
Often what we fear is simply fear itself…