How to stop panic attacks in their tracks

I was listening to Radio 4 on Sunday.

Once The Archers omnibus edition was finished, up popped Dr Michael Mosley with his ‘Just One Thing’ podcast.

It’s a neat broadcast with tips and tools for improving general health. A lot of it is just the kind of psycho educational self help I’ve been teaching for years, like the twenty minute walk, full spectrum light therapy and breathing techniques.

Today’s episode particularly caught my attention because of the breathing technique he was advocating. For a long time I taught all of my clients 7-11 breathing; breathing in to a count of 7 and out to a count of 11. I favoured that pattern as I had picked it up in my own training with The Human Givens Institute.

However these days I teach 6-out 4-in breathing.

It’s also known a Resonant Frequency Breathing and there’s building evidence it is an optimum breathing pattern because of the way it affects our physiology. When a person breathes at their resonance frequency their respiratory, cardio-vascular and autonomic nervous work can together in a synchronized manner and function more efficiently. The reasons why this happens are very interesting and have to do with the laws of physics and the physiology of homeostasis or the body’s ability to maintain stability under changing conditions.

Breathe Stress Away

In my upcoming video training programme ‘Breathe Stress Away’ it is the 6 out 4 in method I focus on.

The effects can be truly life changing for tackling chronic stress but for so much more too. More of that once the programme has launched.

Meanwhile, my article this week is about Kelly who found that controlling her breathing allowed her to take back control of her panic attacks. I hope it helps...

How a simple breathing technique can stop panic attacks in their tracks

Anxiety can be truly debilitating, having an impact on nearly every part of our lives. However, you can learn how to control anxiety with one easy breathing technique.

Kelly

When Kelly had her first anxiety attack, she was standing in line having her photograph taken for a school photo.

You know the sort, where they take lots of photographs and ‘knit them together’ later on to form one long picture.

It was a very hot day and Kelly began to get dizzy. Her heart started pounding, her hands felt clammy and her legs became weak and wobbly.

Kelly couldn’t understand what was happening. Was it a heart attack brought on by the heat? In any event, she felt sure she would certainly pass out and embarrass herself in front of all her friends.

Led away by a teacher who had spotted her distress, Kelly was taken up to hospital where tests revealed no physical problem. Her doctor thought it was a panic attack. Sure enough, the ‘attacks’ got more frequent and Kelly became more and more distressed about the anxiety symptoms which were now starting to dominate her thoughts and restrict how she lived her life. It seemed she just couldn’t control the anxiety.

Why do panic attacks start?

Kelly eventually went along to a Fusion Therapeutic Coach who was confident she could help.

‘Why did I start getting these?’ said Kelly tearfully. ‘This time last year I didn’t have any problem.’

‘Panic or anxiety attacks often start when you’re feeling stressed.’ said the coach. ‘ What was going on in your life when you had your first attack?’

Kelly thought for a while. ‘I remember it was just after exams, end of term. I needed good results to get to college….and my boyfriend had just dumped me!’

‘That sounds like a lot of what I would call ‘background stress. Explained the coach.

But what do I do about it? I can’t go on like this.’ said Kelly.

‘Have you heard about diaphragmatic breathing?’ asked the coach.

‘No’ said Kelly. What is it?

Learn to control anxiety with diaphragmatic breathing

The coach showed Kelly how to slow her breathing and how to breath from lower down. ‘It’s to do with the relaxation response.’ she said.

‘When you slow your breathing, you calm down the body and the mind and that will control the anxiety.’

Kelly sat with her coach for several minutes with one hand on her chest and the other resting lightly on her diaphragm, noticing how she could allow her breathing to become slower and deeper. After a while, she noticed feeling calmer and more relaxed than she’d been in months.

‘Diaphragmatic breathing really is the short cut to controlling anxiety. Practise this for ten minutes every day and see what happens to the panic attacks.’ suggested the coach.

Kelly returned the following week with good news.

‘None at all this week’, she announced brightly. ‘The anxiety seems to have disappeared.’

‘Looks like you’ve learned how to breathe stress away.’ said the coach. ‘Now, is there anything else I can help you with?’

‘Well, about that boyfriend…’ began Kelly.

The MBMM Skills Certificate

The 45,000 word, 300 page Mindfulness Based Mind Management skills workbook took me more than a year to write but actually draws on more than two decades of professional experience in psychotherapy, coaching, teaching and meditative practice. 

The course is designed to provide a clear blueprint for integrating mindfulness and cutting edge mind management techniques into everyday life. Underpinning research, theory and neuroscience are clearly explained throughout; something missing from standard MBSR courses. 

The workbook has 8 weeks of formal and informal practices, homework diaries and reflective journals. There is also a book of 16 unique meditations and visualisation scripts written to support the embedded theory.

It is now faithfully reproduced for use either as a personal development programme and/or to add Mindfulness Based Mind Management skills to the professional toolbox.

A life changing experience

Either way, if you work in wellbeing, experiencing the programme for yourself, integrating mindfulness into your everyday life over 8 weeks, exploring the science behind it, the evidence for it and completing the questions and exercises that go alongside it, are likely to have both a personal and professional impact.

One coach who led an 8 week group programme wrote:

‘It has been an amazing experience. I knew it would be powerful but I could not have anticipated the depth of impact it has had…

By week three, one woman who had not done mindfulness before, said her life had been transformed through seeing things from a completely different perspective.

Dramatic sleep improvements happened for some who were having difficulties and others began to see how to take control of their thinking and noticed how mindfulness allowed them to feel less stressed in daily life situations…’

Purchase your programme here at the time-limited reduced price of ￡395