The Anxiety/Panic Attack Journal

When was the last time you worried about something, and the exact thing you worried about actually happened? In all likelihood, the answer is “never.” Or at least not very often. The fact is, most of the things we worry and feel anxiety over never come to pass. It’s a strange irony of life that we tend to worry so much about things that don’t occur; but the bad things that DO happen in life are almost always things we never see coming.

This is good to keep in mind if you are worry-prone, especially for hypochondriacs and obsessive thinkers. Ask yourself, “when was the last time one of my anxious predictions came true?” Really think about it. I’ll bet your fears have been wrong a lot more than they’ve been right; and many people (like me) have NEVER had one of there anxious worries come true (at least not that I can remember).

So if the things we worry about almost never come to pass, what does that tell us? It’s actually quite encouraging. It means that once we have started worrying about something, the odds of that thing actually happening go down to around zero. That’s right…zero. Now tell me that’s not good news…

Personally, I’ve worried about thousands of different eventualities in my life, but I cannot think of a single time the thing I worried about came to pass. And even if a few of my anxiety-fueled predictions had come true, so what? They would still have been wrong a hell of a lot more than right. Put it like this: It’s a good thing I didn’t bet hard-earned money that my worries and fears would turn out to be true — I’d be broke today.

The bottom line: the things we worry about tend to be things that never happen. Let that give you some comfort the next time your imagination takes off on an anxiety trip. When we cross examine our fears and anxieties they tend to disappear like mist in the wind. Completely insubstantial and harmless.
~Jon

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Anxiety attack symptoms come in many different “flavors.” Some people experience shortness of breath. Others have “pins and needles” type sensations in their arms or legs. Still others have chest pains, obsessive yawning or an upset stomach. Symptoms of anxiety attacks can take on many different forms, but they all have something in common: they represent an imbalance in lifestyle and personal habits.

 The fact is, anxiety attacks are not a “condition” exactly. Anxiety (and the many different anxiety attack symptoms that they produce) is a clear signal that our lives have gotten out of balance. I’m not talking about some new age type of “balance,” but rather, that plain old common-sense type of balance that keeps us healthy and in good spirits.

For example, if you begin eating a diet of sugary sweets on a daily basis, this habit will have very real physical affects on your body, and you will soon notice “symptoms” like weight gain, poor complexion, trouble sleeping, etc. In the same way, if your develop unhealthy “thinking habits,” you may begin to notice anxiety attack symptoms like those mentioned above.

We all know that practicing healthy eating habits is important in order to stay healthy, but many times we forget that practicing healthy  thinking habits is just as important to stay emotionally healthy. When we fill our mind with “toxins” like worry, drama, and conflict, we are simply inviting anxiety attack symptoms to flare up.

Watch the free NO-anxiety video at EasyCalm.com

And while it is true that some degree of worry, drama and conflict is inherently a part of life, the truth is, most of us add additional (and unnecessary) stress in our lives by watching high-drama fueled television shows, reading depressing books, and even by listening to deafest and dis-empowering music.

Right about now, you may be thinking, “yeah but Jon, everyone watches those TV shows and reads those books and listens to that music. How bad can it be when everyone I know is doing it, and most of them seem to be getting along just fine?”

To this question, I would have to answer, “there’s a very good chance most of them aren’t getting along just fine.” Anxiety attack symptoms are something very few people are willing to talk about openly–even to close friends and family. I cannot count the number of people who have emailed me about anxiety symptoms who admitted they have never told another living soul about the problem.

The “official” statistics indicate that anxiety attacks are a HUGE public health issue; nearly an epidemic. But the “official” statistics only tell a small part of the story. With so many people hiding their anxiety from the world, we may never know the true numbers or what percentage of society actually suffers with anxiety attacks. Some experts speculate that it is well above 50%! Think about that for a moment…

Anxiety attack symptoms are often confusing and misdiagnosed. And the fact that so many people hide them only make the problem worse, and cause suffers to feel alone, isolated, “weird” or inferior. And it is all so unnecessary.

Anxiety attacks can be lessened and overcome altogether by following a straight-forward plan of gradually changing your daily thinking habits. It is not an overnight solution (it can take a few weeks or even a month to see good results), but it is the ONLY way I personally have found to make lasting change and overcome this nonsense once and for all. The EasyCalm Series explains all these points in great detail, but for now I want to leave you with 3 simple “lifestyle” tips that will help lesson the frequency and severity of anxiety attacks symptoms:

1. Turn off the TV, or at least the high-drama and conflict shows (yes, I know they are exciting, but they are NOT good for your state of mind).

2. DO NOT (under any circumstances) watch the news or read a newspaper every day. Once a week is enough to stay informed, and even then, DO NOT get bogged down with horrible or depressing stories.

3. Practice gratitude as a way of life. Make it a point to think about what you are grateful for every day. This trains your mind to work in a different way, to focus on what you want, NOT what you don’t want (like anxiety attacks). The effects of this simple practice are accumulative, and can change your life significanly for the better. If you’re skeptical, that’s fine. Just try it for 3 weeks and then email me and tell me if your life got better or worse as a result (I already know the answer to that one).

Take Care!
Jon

Jon Mercer
Personal Development Coach
www.easycalm.com

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