W.I.F.T.S.
29-06-06, 12:00
I'm reading a great book 'Anxiety Toolbox' by Gloria Thomas and it's coming up with loads of things that no other anxiety books have touched on before.
I'm up to a point where she's talking about 'Anchors': we experience things and the way we react is then anchored into our behaviour, so that when we experience them again we react automatically. I suppose it's like Pavlov's dogs in the famous experiment- if they do one thing they are rewarded and if they do something else they are punished. Pretty soon they learn to do the thing that sees them rewarded.
I guess with our anxiety we might have had a bad experience of something- I nearly drowned when I was younger and I've never been especially keen of water ever since- so it's anchored into our behaviour that that thing is bad, scary or dangerous and we do our best to avoid it.
We keep creating anchors all the time they can be associated with any of our senses: putting on 'going out' clothes might instantly make us feel energised and excited, the smell of the sea might make us think of holidays, a certain tone of voice might remind us of a teacher or overbearing parent. So, when we have a panic attack in the supermarket that place is entered into our minds as traumatic and when we go back there we might feel instantly anxious because that anchor is creating an automatic response. That can spread to other areas of life and we become highly sensitised and our panic alarm goes off all the time, shrinking our comfort zone further and further.
I believe the way to create positive anchors is through visualisation. Get comfortable and imagine yourself going into that supermarket and being relaxed, confident and purposeful. Make the experience really vivid in your mind, so that all the colours, sights and sounds are really sharp. Feel exactly how you feel in your imagination. At the peak of that experience press your thumb and middle finger together for 5-15 seconds only and then open your eyes and return to the room.
The next time you go the the supermarket, press your thumb and finger together again and those confident feelings should come flooding back. It's supposed to take 21 days to create a new habit such as this.
Ships in harbour are safe..but that's not what ships were built for.
I'm up to a point where she's talking about 'Anchors': we experience things and the way we react is then anchored into our behaviour, so that when we experience them again we react automatically. I suppose it's like Pavlov's dogs in the famous experiment- if they do one thing they are rewarded and if they do something else they are punished. Pretty soon they learn to do the thing that sees them rewarded.
I guess with our anxiety we might have had a bad experience of something- I nearly drowned when I was younger and I've never been especially keen of water ever since- so it's anchored into our behaviour that that thing is bad, scary or dangerous and we do our best to avoid it.
We keep creating anchors all the time they can be associated with any of our senses: putting on 'going out' clothes might instantly make us feel energised and excited, the smell of the sea might make us think of holidays, a certain tone of voice might remind us of a teacher or overbearing parent. So, when we have a panic attack in the supermarket that place is entered into our minds as traumatic and when we go back there we might feel instantly anxious because that anchor is creating an automatic response. That can spread to other areas of life and we become highly sensitised and our panic alarm goes off all the time, shrinking our comfort zone further and further.
I believe the way to create positive anchors is through visualisation. Get comfortable and imagine yourself going into that supermarket and being relaxed, confident and purposeful. Make the experience really vivid in your mind, so that all the colours, sights and sounds are really sharp. Feel exactly how you feel in your imagination. At the peak of that experience press your thumb and middle finger together for 5-15 seconds only and then open your eyes and return to the room.
The next time you go the the supermarket, press your thumb and finger together again and those confident feelings should come flooding back. It's supposed to take 21 days to create a new habit such as this.
Ships in harbour are safe..but that's not what ships were built for.