You are listening to this because you are feeling anxious or panicky. You may be frightened right now. You may feel scared and like running away, You may feel like you are going to lose control or make a fool of yourself. Or you may be afraid that you will get hurt or hurt someone else. You may feel sure that something terrible will happen to you. But stop! Listen to me! YOU WILL BE OKAY. YOU WILL BE FINE.
These feeling you are experiencing right now will go away. They’ll go away on their own. With time. You can be assured of that. They have to go away because they are a part of the normal way that the body reacts.
The discomfort will pass. Nothing terrible will happen. No disaster will occur. Slow down and just ask yourself, “What is really happening?” Notice the sensations in your body. These feelings cannot harm you. They cannot harm you because they are a normal part of how the body operates. Whether you may be having difficulty breathing, or you feel pressure in your head, or you feel tightness in your chest, or you feel your heart beating faster, or you feel dizzy or lightheaded, shaky or sweaty, or anything else you feel. These are all normal ways that the body reacts when you feel anxious. These feeling cannot harm you. They may be uncomfortable and unsettling but they will not harm you.
You are safe because your body will not harm you with these sensations. What you are fearing will not happen. It never has and it never will. Your body will take care of itself. You just need to let it.
Now stop and continue to listen. Take a slow breath. It may be a little difficult at first but as you continue to listen to me you can continue to slow down your breathing. Inhale slowly and exhale slowly. As you exhale let the muscles in your shoulders relax, let your shoulders drop and relax.
Soon you will begin to feel better. Don’t try to force it. Just continue to listen to me. Anxiety and panic will pass. It has to. That’s the way the body functions. Whatever you are feeling right now will pass. I know that at some point your body WILL begin to slow down. I am sure of that because that is how your body is designed.
However, for right now just remember that what you are feeling may be intense, but it is a normal stress response. Your body is revving up temporarily but it will slow down. Keep in mind that you are safe. Your body will slow down. You are safe even though you may be uncomfortable. You are perfectly safe.
Continue to take slow breaths. Inhale slowly. Exhale slowly. Continue to listen to what I am saying. Now let the muscles in your neck and shoulders relax. Let your shoulders and your arms drop and relax while you breath slowly.
You know that the fear of these sensations and scary thoughts have controlled your life. They tell you what you can do and what you can’t do. It is unfair that they have controlled you like this and dictated what you can do in your life. You must be so tired of this problem. You don’t want to be controlled and intimidated by fear anymore! Aren’t you angry that the fear of these feelings can control your life like this?
You are fed up with feeling like this. But you are doing something about it. Right now you are listening to me. Right now you are fighting back by learning to tolerate these uncomfortable feelings. And you can do this. You can get through this. It may be unpleasant but you can do this. I know you can!
Now pay attention to what is happening right now. Try to focus outside of yourself. Where are you? What do you see around you? Take a good look and notice the things you see. What are you doing? What is happening? Slow down and pay attention to what is really happening right now. No matter how much you might believe something terrible is going to happen, nothing is really happening right now. You are just feeling these sensations in your body. This discomfort will pass just as it has always passed and you will be okay.
You are choosing something difficult right now. You are choosing to fight back. You are fighting back by learning to tolerate these uncomfortably sensations and to not let them control your life anymore. You are choosing to feel this fear now so that it won’t control you tomorrow. When you are less afraid of feeling this way, this fear won’t have control over you and won’t occur as much or as intensely. No one has ever been harmed by a panic attack. And you won’t be either.
Take a deep breath. Inhale slowly. Exhale slowly. Don’t try to force the breathing or relaxations.
These awful sensations will go away. This experience will soon be over. It has to be. Your body can only maintain these sensations as long as the adrenalin lasts and at some point it will exhaust its ability to feel this way. It will stop. It always has and it always will.
I know it can be very tempting to give up. It is tiring to have to feel this way. Sometimes you may get very discouraged because it is not fair that you have to feel this way and have this problem. Other people may not even recognize what you have to go through just to do the things that you want to or need to do in your life. They may not realize the courage it takes to face this fear but I do. I know that it takes a lot of courage to face this fear down, to tell it “I’m not going to let you control my life anymore!” You have the courage to face down this fear. You know the more you face them, they will lose their control over you. And as it loses its control it will begin to go away.
Now again take a slow breath. Focus on your breathing. Inhale slowly. Exhale slowly. Just breath slowly and let your body do what it knows how to do.
Keep in mind that by continuing to challenge your fear, you are strengthening your ability to control this fear rather than it controlling you. You don’t need to let this problem control your life. You have the courage to face it. You don’t need to let the fear decide what you are able to do in your life. You can decide. You can choose to continue to face this fear down. Even if it means you have to feel uncomfortable for awhile, it’s only temporary and that as you continue to let yourself experience this discomfort you will become more and more in control. You will gain more confidence in yourself to tolerate this discomfort as will as your ability to reduce the sensations.
You are safe. You will be okay. Just let your body do its job. Just continue to breath and relax. You will be okay.