6 Ways To Manage Anxiety And Process Emotions.

Clients come to me for help with anxiety. They may have experienced a panic attack and now live in fear of the next one, or find themselves avoiding social situations, not speaking up at work or in school, overthinking,  lying awake at night worrying or  struggling through the day trying to appear ‘normal’ while inside their chest is tight, stomach is churning,  heart is pounding and they have a feeling of impending doom. There is often a common thread of self-criticism and fear of judgement by others. I experienced anxiety myself for many years so the things they describe are all too familiar to me.
I teach my clients how to manage their anxiety and process their emotions in a healthy adaptive way.  This process is accelerated by the use of Hypnosis and EFT. Understanding the internal emotional process is part of this.    
What are Emotions?
Emotions can be thought of as instinctive responses to life experiences which we have the power to modulate, but often don’t know how.
Emotions can be triggered by

• Our senses: Things we see, hear, smell, touch
• Drives/Instincts: Eg the drive to approach we perceive as good vs the drive to escape something we perceive as bad
• Response sets: These are responses which prepare us to take action. When this response is maladaptive the end result may be Anxiety Symptoms. 

Are emotions the same for everyone?
Just as some people are sensitive to allergens, some people are more sensitive to emotional triggers, they may also experience emotions with greater intensity and have more difficulty self soothing. People with higher sensitivity are more prone to anxiety disorders, self-doubt, depression, shyness and negative feelings.
How do our emotions make us different from other animals?

• Humans are the only animals that are self-conscious i.e. we can recognise that we’re feeling fear and make a judgement about how appropriate it is.
• We’re aware that other people may be able to see our emotional responses and this can make us feel vulnerable. 
• This tri-level awareness shapes and re-shapes how we experience emotions e.g. a humiliating experience may result in a more heightened response the next time we’re faced with a similar situation.

How do we experience our emotions:
Emotions are experienced between 3 levels of the self:

1. Public self : This is what we think others see of us.
2. Private self: This is the interpreter trying to interpret what’s being experienced and then regulate and process our core emotions accordingly. 
3. Experiential self (core emotions — primitive and designed to prime you for action which can feel overwhelming)

When the private self becomes overwhelmed it may resort to suppressing the emotions it doesn’t have the available resources to deal with. The private self can become stuck in this state of overwhelm and default to an increasingly self-critical, filtered interpretation of events experienced (I’m so stupid, It’s all my fault, nobody likes me) resulting in a glut of suppressed emotions. The longer a person is stuck in this state the more mental energy is required to continue keeping a lid on the build up of emotions. 
This then has a knock on effect of making the experiential self feel disregarded, invalidated, wounded and judged so a toxic internal conflict occurs. 
People who are sensitive to begin with are more likely to fall into this trap because their negative feelings require more resources to process. 
People in this state of overwhelm are often described as ‘bottling things up,' and this bottling up can lead to a build up in pressure resulting in an explosion or anxiety attack. 
6 Ways to safely process emotions and manage anxiety:

1. Understand how emotions work and are processed between the Public, private and experiential self. This gives the symptoms of anxiety meaning, and this meaning makes the anxiety more manageable.
2. Learn to tune in to your emotions and build a relationship with them. Your emotions are trying to tell you something about a need, value or goal of yours that is either being met (e.g. happiness) or disrupted (e.g. anger, shame, sadness, fear). Stop and listen to the message and use it to help you learn about your self and resolve the issue it relates to if necessary.
3. Name and acknowledge the feeling, tune in to what it’s communicating to you and why, notice where you feel the feeling in your body.
4. If an action response is triggered (adrenaline, feeling like you need to get away, sweating, shaky, trembling, tight chest, pounding heart etc). 
   • Acknowledge the anxiety symptoms and if you are not in physical danger acknowledge that “it’s ok, I know what’s been triggered, these feelings are not going to harm me, and I don’t need to take any physical action”.
   • Take slow deep breaths and slow down your thoughts.
   • Take a walk if you can.
   • Ground yourself by noticing 5 things you can see, 5 things you can hear, 5 things smell.     
5. Understand it’s human to feel emotions and that the thoughts you have in relation to it are just attempts at interpreting it, they are not facts.
   • Ask is this thought helpful? What is the evidence to support it?
6. When you’ve learned what you need too learn from the emotion, keep the lesson and acknowledge that the emotion has served its purpose and may now be released. When you let go of the emotion you free all the energy associated with it and that energy is then available to replenish your overall energy reserves.

If you would like to find out more about how I can help you overcome anxiety and overwhelming emotions please feel free to contact me using this form, you will also find more information on Anxiety Disorders and Anxiety Symptoms on this page, alternatively you can call me on 0435 923 817 for a chat.  If you would like to go ahead an book an appointment to come and see me you can do so at this link.