Relaxation Techniques

Here are several relaxation techniques you can practice to fight panic attacks. You might want to try each of the relaxation techniques at least once to determine which one works best for you. The relaxation techniques we'll cover are: abdominal breathing, guided visualization, and pacing.

The first relaxation technique is abdominal breathing. Shallow, chest-level breathing is a common symptom of anxiety and also an aggravating factor in it. When you breathe from your chest, you have a tendency to slip into one of two anxiety-producing breathing patterns: under breathing or over breathing.

By contrast, abdominal breathing is a relaxation technique that fosters a sense of calm. It activates your parasympathetic nervous system, which in turn sends an all-is-well message to the rest of your body. Abdominal breathing is the most rapid and direct technique you can use to offset anxiety and relax.

Another relaxation technique is guided visualization which is a method of deliberately using mental imagery to modify your behavior, the way you feel, and even your internal physiological state. You can consciously create visualizations as a preventative measure against anxiety.

When you practice guided visualization as relaxation technique, you will close your eyes and imagine yourself in a calming scene. Taking on this new role in a mental movie designed to induce serenity rather than suspense can go a long way to reduce your anxiety symptoms.

The final relaxation technique is pacing. Like many anxiety sufferers, you may set too fast a pace for yourself and allow outside influences, such as societal pressure to achieve, to dictate the rate at which you live. Another common pitfall is looking to others to determine how busy you should be. Using other people's output or activity level as benchmark for what you should accomplish is akin to buying a suit according to someone else's measurements and expecting a tailored fit.

Pacing means living at your optimal rate. Routinely cramming in more activity than your body can handle leads to exhaustion, stress, and possibly illness, while doing too little yields boredom and self-absorption. Achieving your optimal pace requires listening to your body's cues to determine how many activities you should take on a given day.

Acknowledging and respecting your body's need for rest and rejuvenation will help you live at the speed best suited to you. In a society that encourages competition and reveres accomplishment, it's easy to become deaf to your body's signals that it needs rest. Paying closer attention to these signals will enhance your overall sense of relaxation.