Mental training for anxiety, worry and panic attacks

Description

Programme 1. The anxiety-free future Mental training always begins with clarifying the purpose behind what we do. If you don't know the goal, the paths, techniques and methods remain up in the air. Therefore, it is natural to start this training programme with a programme that addresses the purpose of the training – namely, to achieve an ”anxiety-free existence”. From this step 1 – identifying and setting the goal – the programme moves on to step 2, which involves transforming this intellectual goal into situation-based goals. The third and final step involves programming and integrating these goals.

Programme 2. Relaxation and breathing exercises Ever since the American physician Jacobsson demonstrated in the 1930s that fear, worry and anxiety were incompatible with muscular relaxation, relaxation has been an important ingredient in most psychological methods for treating worry and anxiety. Similarly, breathing exercises have become an important part of these methods, partly because of the link between exhalation and relaxation, and partly because slow, deep breathing can break the negative spiral that often occurs (anxiety – shallow, rapid breathing – increased anxiety, etc.).

Programme 3. The anxiety-free room The voluntary control system does not work well with emotional reactions. Mental Training is instead based on a combination of ”alternative states of consciousness” and ”alternative control systems”, where emotional reactions such as anxiety are controlled through Triggers (conditioned and anxiety-reducing behaviour patterns) and inner images, which are linked to feelings of calm, safety and security. One such alternative state of consciousness, similar to self-hypnosis, is the so-called ”mental room”. In this programme, you will create such an anxiety-free inner room. The room can not only be used to create a state of rest, relaxation, calm and security, but it can also be used to create new and better self-images and for positive programming of the future.

Programme 4. The ABC of Anxiety What is commonly referred to as the ABC of Anxiety is a trilogy, where anxiety is separated from the anxiety-inducing situation (A) by the thoughts (B) that convey A and C. The purpose of this programme is to take control of B in order to prevent anxiety from arising. A basic idea in Mental Training is that we ourselves ”own” our feelings and reactions. No person or external event can make me angry, sad, depressed, etc. unless I give my permission. The problem, however, is that we have not built up control over this intermediate stage, which means that we have undesirable reactions that we attribute to external events (e.g. ”a stressful environment”). In this programme, you will build up control over ”internal processes” in order to replace undesirable reactions with desirable ones.

Programme 5. Attitude change Sometimes fear of anxiety is the ”big villain” and in other cases it is an aggravating factor. In this programme, I therefore introduce a model that I created for sport in the 1970s, a model that I call ORKA. It stands for Observe, Record, Recognise and Accept (but not Evaluate and React). It is linked to a change model that consists of knowing and accepting the starting point and identifying, accepting and programming the goal of the change process.

Programme 6. Farewell to anxious thoughts Visualisation is a frequently used mental process and is also part of mental training. By combining this method with the mental space, the visualisation effect is increased and you can create ”memories of the future”. In this programme, you can try out a few different visualisation techniques to get rid of thoughts that cause worry or anxiety.

Programme 7. Director of your inner films Both Mental Training and NLP include techniques based on the idea that changing your inner image (perception) of a situation can change how you feel about it. For example, by changing the colours and shapes of the image of the situation, or the distance to it, your feelings will change. If you have a complete sequence of events, your feelings can change if the film of the event is played back at different speeds. In this programme, you will get to try out some of these methods.

Programme 8. Mental adrenaline control Visualisation techniques can also be used to influence bodily processes. Back in the 1970s, I demonstrated in several studies how visualising movements gave rise to muscle activity (ideomotor training). I was also able to show how visualisation under hypnosis gave rise to measurable changes in the cardiovascular system. In recent years, together with a Russian research team, I have demonstrated immunological changes through Mental Training. This programme therefore aims to use visualisation in the mental space to achieve a certain degree of control over adrenaline secretion, thereby also developing control mechanisms for the degree of activation and the type of activation (anxiety or arousal).

Programme 9. Rest and/or sleep The ninth and final programme has two completely different purposes. When someone experiences negative emotional reactions, this often affects their sleep. Not only can it be difficult to fall asleep, but deep sleep is also often disturbed. Since it is during the first few hours of deep sleep that the body gets the rest and recovery it so badly needs, the lack of deep sleep will further impair the efficiency of the body's various systems. If the first purpose of this programme has to do with the physiology of sleep, the second purpose relates to the psychological effects of sleep. I am thinking not only of sleep as a spontaneous problem solver and psychological ”cleaner,” but also of how night-time sleep and dreams seem to be able to be used for ”targeted problem solving” and ”goal image processing.” The programme should be taken in conjunction with falling asleep, as it ends by leading you into a deep, pleasant and refreshing sleep.