Meditation For Managing Panic Attacks

Based on concepts derived from mindfulness meditation, this course will teach you four complementary strategies that will assist you with managing your panic attacks.

You will learn what to do before, during and after the attack, as well as how to stop them from occurring in the first place.

The four strategies you will learn:
1) Acknowledge and Accept
- Fighting/worrying/fearing a panic attack just makes it worse. You will learn why this happens and what to do instead.

2) Present State Awareness Meditation
- What can you feel in this exact moment? Focusing on your senses is an amazing technique for getting out of your head and into the present moment.

3) Mindfulness Meditation
By training your ability to focus on the present moment, you will be able to detach yourself from troubling thoughts, and therefore not be as impacted by them.

4) Stretch and Breathe
- The mind and body are completely interconnected, with the mind taking cues about the environment from the posture and breathing patterns of the body. Change the body, change the mind.

Lección 1: Strategy 1: Acknowledge & Accept

In this video, we cover the first core strategy for managing panic attacks: acknowledge and accept.

Panic gets worse when you fear it, fight it, or spiral around the symptoms. Acceptance helps break that cycle and reduces the power and duration of the attack.

A simple inner script I use is:
“This is a panic attack. I recognise these symptoms. It will pass. I know it will pass because every panic attack I have ever had has passed.”

Lección 2: Strategy 2: Present State Awareness

In this video, we cover present state awareness as an in-the-moment panic management tool.

By feeling your feet, noticing sensations, and engaging your senses, you bring attention out of fearful thoughts and back into the present. You can move through all five senses or focus on just one.

Lección 3: Guided Present State Awareness Meditaiton

This video is a guided present state awareness meditation. You will be gently led through your five senses to help ground attention in the here and now.

This practice can be used during a panic attack or as a regular exercise to build calm and stability. Save this video so you can return to it whenever you need support.

Lección 4: Mindfulness Meditation

In this video, we explore mindfulness meditation as a long-term strategy for reducing panic attacks.

Mindfulness is the practice of bringing gentle, non-judgmental awareness to present-moment experience. By training attention in this way, you become less caught in fearful thoughts and physical sensations when panic arises.

Lección 5: Slow Breathing, Posture, Stretching & Relaxation

In this video, we explore how slow breathing, posture, stretching, and relaxation can help reduce panic in the moment.

When the body is tense, collapsed, or breathing rapidly, the mind often reads that as danger. By slowing the breath, adjusting posture, and releasing tension through gentle stretching, you help send the body a different message. As the body settles, the mind can begin to settle too.

Lección 6: Conclusion

In this conclusion, we briefly recap the key strategies from the class: acknowledging and accepting panic, grounding in present state awareness, building a mindfulness meditation practice, and using slow breathing, posture, stretching, and relaxation to calm the body.

Most importantly, remember that panic often loses power when you stop fighting it. Acknowledgement and acceptance create the foundation that allows all the other skills to work more effectively.