By Alice Coppens, layout Emma calanca
Do you have a big control in a few days and you feel like you didn't hold anything, a job interview that you particularly care about or your heart is packed by seeing too many negative videos or posts?
Don't worry about this kind of event often causes a feeling of anxiety, and this is normal.
First of all, you need to be reassured on one point: when you have a crisis of anxiety you often feel that it is seen a lot, you feel your limbs trembling a bit and you think that everyone sees only that, you get hot you feel like you're all red, you breathe a little stronger than normal and you think everyone notices it. Don't worry, it's once again your brain that takes its role as a very serious warning launcher, but all this is not visible.
As we said in our previous article, sometimes our brain sends signals of imminent danger to our body and this is manifested by the heart that beats harder, the hands moist, the difficulty of breathing and a slight sense of loss of control. This may seem insurmountable, especially when it's the first time this has happened to us, but the best way to pass an anxiety crisis is to act because anxiety is nourished by inaction!
Thanks to three quick exercises, we will make sure to help you anchor again in the moment.
Are you ready to feel better? Then let's go!
Having short breath, or conversely hyperventilating, gives a feeling of loss of control. In these cases, you have to get to regulating your breathingBut how? First, we must take into account Where you are, if it is in class, at work or in a public place. If you can get out, do it and position yourself back to a wall, fix a point before you, put a hand on your belly and Inhale through the nose for 5 seconds and expire for 5 secondsThis is what we call "heart consistency". It is advisable to practice cardiac consistency 3 times a day for 5 minutes (morning, noon and evening).
If you have to stay where you are and want to calm your nervous system in another way, you can also Put your hand on your belly inspired by the nose for 4 seconds, hold your breath for 2 seconds and exhale through the mouth for 6 seconds.
These exercises will allow you to do slow your heart, to refocus you and help you spend this bad time. Putting your hand on your belly allows you to feel the movements of your body and focus on something other than anxiety.
You did the breathing exercises but you still feel a little overwhelmed by anxiety? No worries we have more than one lap in our bag and we will give you another quick exercise to do and that can actually be done anywhere.
This exercise will allow you to Reconnect to your environment with basic elements: the five senses. Often when we are in a state of alert we completely forget what surrounds us, and even though we feel that this is what is distressing us, we must learn to consider these elements as our allies and not our enemies.
To do this we will use the 5-4-3-2-1 technique:
You'll have to find out:
👀5 things you see (e.g. pen, student, kit, window and gum)
👂4 sounds you hear (e.g. chalk on the painting, a bird in the courtyard, the teacher speaking and a page turning)
👏3 things you can touch (for example: your jeans, table and hair)
👃 2 smells you smell (for example: smell of your sweater and the scent of your neighbour/neighbour)
🍬 1 thing you can feel to taste (e.g. chewing gum or water)
You've managed to reconnect to the moment, but in your head your thoughts make a marathon when you didn't ask for anything? This is often the case, in fact the previous exercises mainly allow to calm the heart and body but your brain continues to turn, and fortunately! But we agree it can be tiring, we want to move on quickly and for what better than a mantra?
A mantra It's a phrase, or an affirmation, that will be a coach to your brain, it will lead to thinking positively when everything seems to collapse and it has decided that nothing is right. But How to choose your mantra? Some of the statements made can allow you to get used to yourself. Repeat a sentence to calm your thoughts For example, "Everything is going to be okay", "This is just a passenger" or "I'm safe". Personally one of my favorite mantras during a crisis of anxiety remains this: "Everything is fine, we've already been there and nothing has happened to us".
You can also repeat yourself a sentence you care about, a song word or an expression you're used to saying with your loved ones, the principle of mantra exercise is to "force" your brain to think of something else to break the circle of negative thoughts. Don't worry if thoughts don't calm down right away, you may need several attempts to find the sentence that suits you. If you can not hesitate to whisper this sentence, otherwise simply move your lips as if you were talking in order to deceive your brain.
We hope that these tools will allow you to build a small backup kit if you need it, and we will soon do an article to give you new items to add to this kit.
Do not hesitate to write to us to tell us your favorite mantra or the tricks you have to calm your anxiety!
