How Does One Relax With An Anxiety Attack?

There are several ways to relax with an anxiety attack. An anxiety attack, similar to a panic attack, is characterized by extreme fear or nervousness, shortness of breath, chest pain, butterflies in the stomach, lump in the throat, tingling of the arms and legs, and feeling like you are having a heart attack or asthma attack. There are various ways to relax from an anxiety attack. An effective way to relax is to use imagery and visualization of pleasant and relaxing scenes. Using imagery and visualization of relaxing scenes can help to distract you from negative, maladaptive thinking that may exacerbate and perpetuate to anxiety. Imagery and visualization can help you relax from panic attacks, social anxiety, or from excessive worrying, and to decrease overall anxiety levels. The following script is an example of a beach scene that you can visualize to relax from an anxiety attack:

Imagine you are at Olympic Park in Washington, strolling along the beach. You kick off your shoes and socks, roll up your pants, and start to wade in the water. You hear the roar of the ocean, and you feel the cool wind in your face. You see the rocky coastline, and evergreen trees bordering the beach. You smell the saltiness of the ocean in the air, and you also smell the pine from the forest. You breathe in deeply all that cool, salty ocean air. You feel your lungs slowly expanding; your diaphragm is pulling all that air into the lungs. Now you breathe out; releasing all that stress that has built up. Now you are breathing in again, all that fresh, rejuvenating, cool, and salty ocean air. And with each breath out, you expel more and more of the stress from your body, until the stress completely leaves you. You are rhythmically breathing in and out, and you do not have a care in the world. You also feel the sand on your feet, the grains of sand trickling between your toes, intermittently interrupted by the splash of water from the ocean waves. As you feel the wind on your face, you see the rugged coastline, you hear the ocean roar, you breathe in that fresh ocean air…you feel less tense, and your muscles relax. You feel the sun and wind on different parts of your body, until you have no trace of tension in your muscles…you are completely loose. And as you breathe in all that healthy ocean air, you breathe out all your stress. You are not thinking about anything…you are feeling the sun, wind, and breathing the ocean air. You are relaxed, and you do not have a care in the world. You are in a happy place.

Other ways to relax from an anxiety attack include: playing music, lighting aromatic candles, taking in a movie, taking a hot bath with bath salts, getting a massage, eating a great meal, meditation, progressive muscle relaxation, yoga, tai chi, exercise, martial arts, and diaphragmatic breathing. The various ways to relax from an anxiety attack (or panic attack) are detailed here.

photo credit: Thatched beach umbrellas via photopin (license)