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If you are having a panic attack right now, there are a couple of exercises you can perform that may help you to alleviate the symptoms. When I first started having panic attacks, my friends just could not understand how the fear of having a panic attack was causing me to have a panic attack. The situation is like a snake biting its own tail, and difficult to wrap your head around unless you have been through the experience firsthand. The first technique is designed to break this loop by drawing the mind away from the anticipation of an attack.
Technique #1: Descriptive Analysis
This technique works well with another person in the room, or you can perform it by yourself using an "imaginary friend". You will have the other person shut his or her eyes and you will find something to describe to him or her. You will want to pretend you are describing the object to someone who is completely blind, who perhaps has no conception of color at all. For example, the description may go something like this: I'm staring at a bamboo plant in a glass vase. The plant curls upward, reaching for the ceiling. There are five bamboo shoots total, three small ones and two larger ones. The larger shoots are about three feet tall, and one of them is coiled around the other, resembling a spring or a snake. On and on, you will continue to describe the object in finer and finer detail, distracting your mind from the anticipation of another attack.
Technique #2: Tapping The Meridians.
While the first technique distracted the mind from anticipation of another attack, the second technique attempts to balance the meridians of the body. I'll admit this is more of a "new agey" technique and may not be for everyone, but at the very least it will distract you from the current situation and interrupt your patterns. In fact, for me it does much more. I can actually feel painful emotion melting away when using this technique.
Here are the points you will tap:
- Outside side of the hand, fleshy part below your pinky (while repeating the affirmation).
- Between the eyes (BE).
- Side of the eye (SE).
- Underneath the eye (UE).
- Under the nose (UN).
- On the chin (in the dimple if you have one) (OC).
- Right below the end of the collarbone closest to your neck (CB).
- Lower corner of your thumbnail closest to your other hand (TN).
- Lower corner of your index fingernail closest to your other hand (IN).
- Lower corner of your middle fingernail closest to your other hand (MN).
- ** Skip the Ring Finger **
- Lower corner of your pinky fingernail closest to your other hand (PN).
- On the gamut point: The back of our hand between the bone which extends into the pinky and the bone extending to the ring finger (GT).
Okay, got that? I'm sure it seems like a lot to take in, but after a couple rounds it will be quite natural. You will tap each point 7 times and just do one side of the body, it doesn't matter which side.
Step 1, Identify the Feeling: Where do you feel the anxiety or panic, is it in your chest, your stomach, your throat? How intense is it on a scale of 1-10? If you have to describe this feeling to someone else, what word would you use?
Step 2, Affirmation: Say this to yourself as you are tapping the side of the hand: "Even though I have panic attacks, I deeply and completely accept myself." Repeat this affirmation three times.
Step 3, Tapping the Meridians: Tap each point 7 times, as you tap the point you want to physically bring up the feeling identified in step 1. It is very important to have that feeling in your body so that you can tap away the trapped energy. You may remind yourself of the feeling by just saying "This feeling." Tap BE, SE, UE, UN, OC, CB, TN, IN, MN, and PN 7 times each while reminding yourself of the feeling.
Step 4, Involving the Brain: Stop for a second and ask yourself if the quality of the anxiety has changed. Has it moved to a new part of the body, is it more or less intense? Now this next step may intensify the feeling as we involve the entire brain, we do this before eliminating it for good: Tap the gamut point, close your eyes, open them, close them again, open them again. Look hard down to the right, look hard down to the left. Roll your eyes clockwise and then counter-clockwise. Hum a tune, then count to 5, then hum a tune again.
Step 5, Final Elimination: Repeat step 3 to wipe out the feeling altogether.
For particularly intense attacks, you may need to perform the above 5 steps a total of 3 times. Make sure you take breaks for deep abdominal breathing and also for water. Once you have done this a few times, you can do 3 rounds of the above steps in about 10 minutes.
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