Anxiety is the most common mental health condition IN THE WORLD today. That’s a statement that warrants reading again. And here comes another bombshell: most of us will experience AT LEAST ONE acute anxiety attack in our lives. Those are frightening statistics.
For most, they will roll off like water off a duck’s back. But for those who have been confronted with this frightening and debilitating condition, it won’t.
For those souls, it’s a statistic that’s real and a part of everyday life. For these brave people, it’s a battle they fight from the moment they open their eyes in the morning. And they fight this battle until they close their eyes at night – IF they close their eyes at night.
And, it gets worse. If anxiety is left to run wild, as it is in so many people’s lives, it can and will cause complete havoc.
- It can and will ruin your health.
- It can and will ruin your career
- It can and will ruin your relationships
- It can and will ruin your finances
- It can and will ruin whatever’s left of your life
That’s not an exaggeration. It happens to millions of people around the world every day. Anxiety is a nasty parasite. It works its malevolent alchemy to find a foothold in your life. It will use any situation or setback it can to gain access to your psyche.
Then, it will wait.
It will wait for another setback, or another perceived failure, or a moment when your self-esteem isn’t up to scratch. And that’s the moment it will strike.
At first, it will be insidious.
- You’ll feel tense, restless, and nervous.
- Out of nowhere, you’ll have an impending sense of doom. It will feel like you’re staring over the edge of the abyss of panic, and as if that abyss is staring back at you.
- Your heart will thud against the walls of your chest like it’s trying to escape.
- You’ll breathe like oxygen is running out in the world. Your chest will heave and heave, and still, you’ll feel like you’re suffocating.
- You’ll sweat like you’ve just run a marathon.
- You’ll shake like a reed in a gusty wind.
- Your energy will flow out of you – quite literally. You’ll suddenly feel like you haven’t slept for a week.
- Your concentration will be shot. No focus. Nothing constructive.
- Sleep will become a distant memory.
And then, as suddenly as it appeared, the anxiety will let you go. But it’s planted the seed. Now you’re aware of it and scared. Because this thing inside you is there – or is it? You’re not sure. But, if it is there, it can come back.
And, unfortunately, more often than not, if it got you properly the first time, it will come again to feed on your fear and discomfort. And again, and again.
Can you see how anxiety can lead to mind-numbing, debilitating depression? And can you see why it is SO important to deal with it right when it starts to poke its ugly head out?
It’s the one monster that you don’t want alive and well in your life. EVER!
Can Positive Affirmations Work For Anxiety?
When a book has more than 5 million copies in circulation and has been translated into more than a dozen languages other than English, you can be sure the author has said something that touches the minds and hearts of people around the world.
Norman Vincent Peale did just that. His life story is worth ready, btw. The book that made him famous, is The Power of Positive Thinking, and it really should feature on everyone’s reading list.
The best-known line from the book is: Change your thoughts and you can change your world.
And this is really true, especially when anxiety threatens to cry havoc and let slip the dogs of war!
Positive affirmations for anxiety? What the heck!
Whoa there, cowboy, hold your horses. It really works. And it works well!
Quite simply, an affirmation is a phrase you repeat over and over again. It serves two purposes.
- Firstly, it helps to distract attention from the maelstrom of anxious thoughts. That’s a HUGE plus that makes you feel better in a hurry. Remember, what you focus on, persists.
- Secondly, and this is even more important, it helps to reprogram your brain – and this we’re going to stand still within a moment.
- Thirdly, an affirmation starts with conscious action. And then it becomes a subconscious habit – and once it’s a habit, you’ll get the effects without having to make an effort again.
How do positive affirmations for anxiety reprogram your brain?
To understand this, you first need to understand the basics of how the brain works.
Good ‘ol Sigmund Freud was the first to incorporate the conscious mind into his psychoanalytic theory of personality. And his description was so good, it still stands 120 years later.
In short, according to Freud and the others that followed him, the conscious mind consists of everything we’re aware of in any given moment. It includes fantasies, feelings, memories, perceptions, and physical sensations.
Then, you have the subconscious mind. It is the powerful system that runs your life – even if you’re not aware of it. It’s a magnificent data bank, filled with your beliefs, your skills, your previous experiences, and your memories.
The subconscious mind also acts as your guidance system. It scans ALL the information that comes from the conscious mind for both opportunities and dangers.
If you have a look at what these two parts of your mind do, you can understand how critical it is that you stimulate the best imaginable communication between the two – between the conscious and subconscious parts of your mind. If you do this, you’ll:
- Constantly and consciously receive information about dangers AN OPPORTUNITIES from this vast database that is you;
- You’ll be able to make conscious impressions on your subconscious mind to change the way you think and act;
- You’ll be able to “feel” your instinct – that gut feeling with which the subconscious communicates – better
Yes, but where do affirmations come in?
An affirmation is a phrase or a mantra you say over and over again. That “saying” of it happens in your conscious mind. Your subconscious mind picks up on the fact that this is happening frequently, especially if you say the phrase with feeling and conviction.
Once your subconscious mind picks up on this, it deems it important. The next step is – it incorporates in the way it governs your life.
Can you see the INCREDIBLE power that’s locked up in that?
And anxiety?
It’s all about replacing the patterns in your conscious and subconscious minds that lead to anxiety attacks, with patterns that create feelings of well-being instead.
For instance – when you feel as if the entire world and everything in it are threatening to the extreme. Don’t laugh. If you’ve never had an anxiety attack, this is exactly what it feels like.
If you have had an anxiety attack, no further explanation is necessary.
So, back to business. Let’s say you’re feeling this inhuman threat I just referred to.
Simply repeat this phrase:
I am 100% safe and there is no threat whatsoever from the world
By repeating it over and over, almost in a trance-like state, you’re making powerful impressions on your subconscious mind. You’re actually telling it how you want to feel instead. You’ll feel better, and next time, the anxiety attack may be less severe. Wash, rinse, repeat.
I’m pretty sure you get the picture.
Okay, I get it. Give me another example …
Sure thing. Anxiety is really a conditioned response. Mostly, anxiety is driven by things that had happened to you before. When you’re confronted with a situation or environment that matches something you’d experienced as threatening in the past, no matter how seemingly insignificant, your subconscious will flash this up into your consciousness as a red flag.
This, in turn, will be a danger signal for your conscious mind, and it will push you into a state of anxiety; a state of extreme tension where you’re ready to fight or flee.
You see, when the danger signal is presented to the conscious mind by the subconscious mind, it ALWAYS takes it seriously. It’s survival, after all. The conscious mind doesn’t stand still to reason or to judge or figure out if the danger really exists. The mere fact that the subconscious mind recognized it as danger, is enough.
As you breathe as rhythmically and slowly as possible, say the following affirmation over and over again – with as much passion as you can muster:
I breathe pure, relaxing energy in, and I breathe anxiety out.
As you do this often and with conviction, you will teach your subconscious mind that there is no real danger in this situation after all. And, you will consequently teach your conscious mind that a state of anxiety is a complete overreaction to the given realities of the event.
The Power Of This To Change Your Life
Now that you’re beginning to understand the power of your mind to eliminate negative and destructive experiences, imagine how you can change your life for the better.
Imagine with me, just for a moment:
- Complete financial abundance – never experiencing lack again – EVER!
- A state of brilliant, energetic health – ALL THE TIME!
- Complete peace and happiness – EVERY MOMENT OF EVERY DAY!
- The quiet knowledge that YOU are in control of your life – NOBODY ELSE!
Well, you can – and all you need is a little guidance about where to start. That’s something we all needed at some point or another.
Luckily, there are a bunch of folks who do just that – they stand at the ready to reach out and lend a hand to get others on the right path; the path to making their dreams real.
Manifestation Miracle is such a starting point. It’s the number one technique to manifest health, wealth, love, and happiness by using this incredible mind you were blessed with.
The technique is easy to understand, and there’s a wonderful community around it that stands ready to answer your questions, make you aware of the pitfalls, and guide you to happiness and peace.
For most, this technique begins to pay dividends within a few days. But it’s all up to you. Remember, you’ve been stuck in old ways of thinking and old ways of doing for a lifetime.
Isn’t it time to start doing something else?
I’m going to leave you with this thought. It’s from the BRILLIANT, philosophical mind of one of my great heroes – Albert Einstein. Bet you thought he was only a physicist, right?! No, he was also a great philosopher.
Einstein said:
We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.
Don’t you think it’s time for some new thinking?