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Overcoming Anxiety

Recognizing Anxiety

Anxiety can be described as any or a combination of feelings that all have their roots in some type of fear, including unease, worry, apprehension, dread, powerlessness or a sense of impending danger – real or imagined. Symptoms can be wide-ranging: the mind goes blank or other cognitive functions are lost, obsessive thoughts, phobias, chronic worry, ongoing unease, sweaty palms, tension headaches, trembling, difficulty breathing, dizziness, panic attacks, increased heart rate and palpitations. Anxiety disorders such as panic attacks may result from certain physiological conditions, most notably heart arrhythmias, and anyone who experiences this should seek immediate advice to make sure the cause of the attacks is not physical.

According to the National Institute of Mental Health, 40 million American adults – that’s 18% of the population – have anxiety disorders, which often begin in childhood. Social phobia alone, when people become overwhelmingly anxious and excessively self-conscious in everyday social situations, affects 15 million adults, and specific phobias, an intense fear of something that poses little or no actual danger, affects 19.2 million adults in the U.S. (See our Recommendations)


When anger takes control, it is nearly impossible to focus on anything except that which has made us angry. Feelings of anger might dissipate after a few moments, linger for a day or take hold for months or years. Sadly, many people lead lives of one volatile encounter after another and don’t know why or how to overcome anger.


"Worry is a thin stream of fear trickling through the mind. If encouraged, it cuts a channel into which all other thoughts are drained."

– Arthur Somers Roche, American journalist, writer, 1883-1935


Anxiety is a feeling, a type of emotion. Some anxiety such as fight or flight is encoded in our genetic makeup and is a normal human response to many of life’s uncertainties, among them nervousness over an impending test or a sought-after job, uneasiness in a relationship or concern over the health of a loved one, speaking or performing in public, or worry in the workplace for a variety of reasons, one of the most common being the employee performance review. It is when anxiety becomes exaggerated, when our caring about ourselves, others, social issues, etc., turns into "overcare" that this otherwise natural human emotion can threaten our well-being.


"As the turbulence of anxiety churns in the subconscious and plays out in your thoughts and actions … it can cause fatigue, sleep disorders, hormone imbalances, health problems and premature aging."

– Transforming Anxiety, Childre, Rozman, 2004

Recommended

Learn scientifically validated tools and techniques for overcoming anxiety with the emTech™ Media e-booklet or audio file Eliminating Axiety.

Years of research by the Institute of HeartMath has shown you can achieve a healthy balance in your emotions, learn to stop feeding anxious feelings and create new emotional patterns and behaviors to replace the negative ones that have been draining your energy and spirit. HeartMath scientific research and controlled studies have shown your own "heart intelligence" holds the key to this transformation. By achieving coherence in your heart, mind and spirit you can maintain a calm, balanced, yet alert state at home, school, work and play.

Recommended

A HeartMath Tip: You’ll be amazed at how much calmer and relaxed you feel after trying these three quick steps adapted from the HeartMath Notice and Ease® tool, which has helped so many reduce their anxiety. The emTech™ Media e-booklet Eliminating Anxiety contains a complete discussion about this simple, but powerful tool. Also available in audio program.

  • Notice and admit what you are feeling.
  • Try to name the feeling.
  • Tell yourself to ease as you gently focus in your heart, relax as you breathe, and ease the stress out.

Benefits of Reducing Anxiety

  • Stress hormones decrease, energy level increases, feel better
  • Stronger, more satisfying relationships
  • Quality of life increases, feeling of empowerment
  • Reduce "overwhelm" – time pressure, information and stimulation overload, mentally scattered feeling, impatience
  • Decrease projections of worst-case scenarios, negative thinking
  • Improved memory, cognitive functions

Recommended

Tools for Overcoming Anxiety

  • Transforming Anxiety: Childre, Rozman, 2006. This enlightening HeartMath book gives an in-depth look at why anxiety is plaguing so many in today’s fast-paced world and how you can use the HeartMath System to overcome your fears and worries and create more serenity in your life. Includes a complete discussion of the Notice and Ease tool.

  • emWave®2: Regular use of this entertaining and scientifically validated, heart-rate monitor has helps you build resilience – a state of poise and readiness for effectively with stressful feelings that can deplete your mental, emotional and physical systems. Easy to use and noninvasive, you can use it as a handheld or connect to your computer to review past sessions or play any of the resilience building games.

  • emWave® Desktop for Mac and PC†: The emWave Desktop turns your computer into an advanced heart-rate monitor. When combined with HeartMath’s widely acclaimed resilience and coherence building techniques, you’ll soon learn how easily you can create an optimal state in which your heart, mind and emotions are more in-sync and balanced. In this balanced state, individuals tend to experience more energy, focus and mental clarity. With practice of the HeartMath System can help you begin feeling healthier and happier and start living life more fully.

    † Formerly known as Freeze-Framer®


(Note: Use the emWave2 or emWave Desktop for Mac and PC to help regulate your emotions in preparation for events you know may trigger your stress response and to help you recover from stressful episodes and get back on an even keel fast.)


Learn more…

  • Reducing Test Anxiety and Improving Test Performance in America’s Schools: Click to view or download the executive summary of this eight-state, U.S. Department of Education-funded study that researched test anxiety and effective solutions. Click here for the full 372 page e-Book version of the study report. Parents and teachers, learn how TestEdge® can help your students improve their learning, test performance and overall well being as they progress through their education.
  • Truth of Your Feelings Life: A HeartMath Energy Saver – IHM newsletter, spring 2006, page 7. "Jenny felt constantly drained and stressed out. She couldn’t figure out why. Things seemed to be going pretty well; nothing disastrous was happening." Then she began examining her feelings and identifying what came up.
  • Stress, Anxiety and Anxiety Disorders in the Workplace: A survey by the Anxiety Disorders Association of America, published in The HeartMath Report, Nov. 9, 2006. The majority of working Americans experience stress or anxiety in their daily lives, a fact that is hardly revealing, but the Anxiety Association found that "close to half of U.S. employees report experiencing persistent stress or excessive anxiety in their daily lives. And while only 9 percent of the respondents have been diagnosed with an anxiety disorder, 30 percent with everyday stress have taken prescription medication to manage stress and other emotional problems". Every month you’ll find interesting articles about our mental, physical and emotional health in The HeartMath Report.
  • Effects of Heart-Rate Variability Biofeedback Training and Emotional Regulation on Music Performance Anxiety in University Students. Student musicians were recruited to participate in an experimental repeated-measures study to identify effects of heart-rate-variability, biofeedback training and emotional self-regulation techniques on music performance anxiety and music performance.

Take me to the HeartMath Store now to learn more about IHM’s life-changing tools, training programs and other resources, or call us: (800) 711-6221.