How to Overcome Chronic Fear and Anxiety

Thank you for posting such a beautiful solution to such a scary part of experiencing life. I also had a severe episode of fear, anxiety, heart palpitations, and fear of leaving the house. I did not take drugs to mask the symptoms; however, I did the similar things that you prescribed above and I was cured.

Living with fear, anxiety, heart palpitations and fear is no way to live. We should all be living with peace, happiness, courage, joy and good health. I knew in my heart how I wanted to live; but somehow the anxiety and fear crept in and took me over. At my worst symptoms, I would feel that this was going to be my last bit of life as the fear and anxiety took over.

It led into a vicious cycle of all the symptoms of feeling so uncomfortable and fearful to just try to live and to do my everyday errands, never go to work and perform as though I was alright.

So what brings on all these symptoms. I use to think I was sick and that there was nothing to do about them except to accept them as the norm. I would even hold my breath as I waited for the next symptom to appear. And guess what? Just holding my breath to listen and anticipate the next symptom always made way for the symptom to occur. My heart raced, it skipped beats, I breathed too fast in fear, I couldn't walk I straight line because the floor would seize up in front of me. I would have a feeling of panic that I had to get home right away, right away, or else that would be it, I would be a gonner.

That's no way to live. It was torture. I wanted to be well and to live and be happy. I wanted to go places and enjoy life.

So how did I cure myself? And cure myself naturally without any drugs or meds. Ok, I tell you.

This is what I did:

I started training my mind to think only good thoughts, I figured my brain was like a computer and whatever I thought my body would do it. I started repeating to myself : "I am happy, healthy, peaceful and and calm" If another thought that was negative would crept into my head, I would immediately say the word "cancel" and just like giving a computer an instruction I would cancel the negative thought and replace it immediately with the positive thought.

It takes time to retrain the mind to think correctly. And the symptoms will not go away right away. It takes time for the new thought process to kick in.

Also, when the worst of the symptoms would happen, I would learn to not fight them or react to them; instead I would let them try to do their worst to me and I would say to myself, I do not care what you do to me. I think after a while I took the power of fear away from itself and peace became there instead.

Also, it is important I think to keep away from any job that is occupying your time and energy when it is a job that you cannot stand to do. I think it is of major importance to do a job that you love or at least like. Staying in any situation in your life that is not agreeing with your emotional health, means that you need to change your situation and be at a place that you like.

I think we were all meant to live happy and to be joyful and peaceful. I also believe that many people who suffer from fear, anxiety and panic are extremely sensitive people who have a lot of love in them and want to give out alot of that love to the world.

Being creative is also important to be healthy and happy I believe. We all need to express ourselves creatively as an outlet.

Don't forget to exercise as well. I started running and worked up to running a mile every two to three days. I believe exercise and being in a nature setting is crucial to becoming and staying well. Be near the trees, flowers, rocks, sky, ocean, mountains whenever you can. Listen to the sounds of nature and feel the sunrays, or rain drops when they are there to share with you.

Remember to love and to say "I love you" to whomever you love. Love in itself is a great healer. You can even love your pets because they have alot of love to give back.

I believe existence meant for us to be loving and courageous and not to be fearful.

I hope this will help anyone who suffers the way I did. I believe you can be well and will be well. The wellness is just on the other side of a very thin veil that you think you can never get past. But I learned that you can get past it, wellness is closer than you think. Never give up.

Good Luck!!

Dr Kim,

I'm always looking for helpful cutting edge information to pass on to people - such as your website. So in that spirit I offer this:

I have found and been successfully using on myself for a couple of years a tool within the field of energy medicine called EFT-Emotional Freedom Techniques -also referred to as psychological acupuncture - that works quickly to release fear and anxiety. EFT has been expanding in the potential of what it does and is increasingly being used for so many things - from allergies to trauma and PTSD, to chronic physical conditions - by more and more people world wide - by therapists, doctors, teachers, coaches, sports therapists, and as a self-help tool. I've even read of some acupuncturists who have incorporated it into their practices. It's easy to learn. It was developed by Gary Craig. You can Google him for website. (Didn't know if you allowed websites in comments.) There's a video that explains EFT, and a free manual download.

EFT is a system of tapping with fingers on face and parts of body at meridian intersections. It calms down the amygdala and the fear centers - that disruption in the energy system caused by the stored memory/reaction/meaning. It's also been used to release pain. And it works FAST! A few weeks ago I was feeling such anxiety while driving - heart palpations, hyper energy, feeling like I was jumping out of my skin - within a few minutes of tapping, I felt myself calming down. For me - I get a signal, I start yawning when the energy shifts and is moving. I was yawning and yawning.

I've done affirmations for years. It takes lots and lots of repetitions to retrain the brain. EFT works so much faster than affirmations alone because the tapping neutralizes and dissolves the emotional charge in the nervous system and any "Yeah, buts" - the subconscious resistance to the postives you are saying - for example, your conscious mind is saying" I feel calm" but your subconscious is saying "no I don't". And you don't have to believe that it works.

It usually only takes a minute or so to do. Once you get into the habit of using it, your body is retrained and it works faster for you. I was amazed at how successful I've become at using it. Gary Craig has said to try it on everything. There is new information about changes in EEGs after using EFT and also unclumping of blood platelets.

Hope this is helpful.

Thank you for all that you share with us.

Thank you for this article (and for the comment above). It has renewed my belief in the power of visualization. For me it takes a while to come up with a visualization of what I want, I need to feel it in my heart, too...my thoughts are so focused on the pain or anxiety I'm experiencing that it's a challenge to visualize and feel what I actually want. I've found that dreaming helps me to experience what I want and I trust that my dreams will give me the sensations to hold on to so I can visualize things when I meditate. I've started to do that myself in order to create the kind of coaching practice I want and perhaps a life partner, too. And, I know that the visions will manifest themselves.

The mind is pilable and with consistency, it can be shifted. As a Fearless Living Life Coach, I am trained to support people in shifting their thinking by WRITING DOWN gratitudes and self-acknowledgements. Because I have been doing this myself for a few years, I know that writing these things out daily creates drops in the bucket and those drops become an ocean and thinking shifts. You begin to see everything differently, more positively and when you naturally are able to do that, your future experiences shift as well.

Again, thanks for the reminder about the power we all possess to change our circumstances.

I have found diet to have large effect on anxiety. I avoid sugars, anything caffine, bad fats, and try to stay away from processed foods. I try to drink enough water to get rid of the toxins. I also meditate but some people can't so deep breathing is another way.

Obviously there is some past events that effects it also for most people so learning to love, forgive, think positive thoughts, being non judgemental, gratitude. Avoiding tv, movies and rock music usually helps. Movies are the worst I think because watching it you will experience ups and downs more than in the real world.

I also transcended fear and anxiety by changing my thoughts. I started by repeating to myself the following phrase : "I am happy, healthy, peaceful and calm". In the beginning the fear and anxiety would still appear; and I decided to just let it do its worst to me. I stopped caring and reacting to the fear and anxiety and gradually it started to go away. I took its power away when I stopped reacting to it and just allowed it to pass over me. It never did it's worst that you always think it will. Once you take its power away and retrain your brain to only, only think positive thoughts, you begin to heal.
However, I also learned to use the extra energy that might be used by fear and anxiety to exercise instead. Because your energy needs to be used in a positive way also.
Thanks

Dr. Kim your artical is wonderful, touching and inspiring. I cant thank you enough for writing this, I will put it into practice right away.

This article is very helpful and practical. Thank you so much for your website and for your great life advice! I had to laugh to myself because I was listening to classical music while I read it, so I believe I am on my way to peace of mind and anxiety-free living:)

Please check out this. >>>> http://eft.mercola.com/
Awesome technique. I wish I had started practice much earlier.

Just wanted to say that I found the comments as valuable as the article; thanks very much for your experiences and pointers, everyone!

Does this CD have sounds of thunder? I'm looking for rain sounds without thunder to play while veterans with PTSD receive a multi-modality program of massage, acupuncture, etc. because thunder can jar and trigger stress symptoms for hyper-vigilant, hyper-reactive veterans.

I think feedback is really important and id like to say i think the world is a better place for having you in it, thank you for a fabulous article! Understanding how anxiety and fear physically work was extremly helpful to me and then being given tools on top of that information is just a perfect learning and understanding tool that makes so much sense anx has given me hope this morning. Thank you so very very much, i am deeply grateful xo