Panic Attack? Do This Right Now

In this video I'll teach you one key thing to use when panic rises. During a panic attack, we often feel shortness of breath, so it's natural to feel you need to continue to draw air in. Let's look at how focusing on the exhale works. I'll mimic a panic attack, so that you can see what to do in real time.

Transcript

Hi I'm Scarlet, Therapist and meditation teacher and in this video today I'm going to help you with what to do during a panic attack, How to soothe the body and how to support yourself. So firstly, I just want to recognize that. If you have ever experienced a panic attack, Regardless of how frequent you experience that, My deepest compassion is with you because it's a really, Really scary thing to experience. And it's, Yeah, It's a horrible experience. So if you're dealing with that, You know, That's a lot you're working through. But what I want to say is that there aren't many ways to support yourself with this and you don't have to just live with this as your norm. So the first thing I want to just address because actually you might not know this and this can be really important for you to actually hear. Is that although you may feel as though when you're having a panic attack because it feels so horrible it feels like you are about to die because you literally can't breathe And so straight away I just want to bust that myth for you, That actually that is not the case, That's not going to happen. It feels like it, But that's not what happens in a panic attack. We're not going to die from a panic attack. So I know that's a tricky thing to obviously kind of talk about but it might be really worth you hearing that information. So once we know that that's not what's happening, Our body is not in actually any danger, That allows us to actually then focus on what do we need to do as the panic attack is happening. You know, I'm not in any danger, My body is actually going to be able to ride this out no matter what. Even if I'm not particularly doing any techniques, I will actually be okay. Then we can focus on what we need to do. There are many tips, Tools, Tricks, Everything in the book that you may have heard that you can do for this. Really my one go-to, And if I was to simplify this completely, Would be to help you to understand that Although you may feel as though you need to breathe in as you're experiencing a panic attack because you're feeling like you can't get enough air in, What you actually need to do and the only thing you need to focus on is actually breathing out. And the more you're able to focus on breathing out and exhaling. The more your body will be able to come back into balance. So it feels like, Because I feel like I can't breathe, I feel like I need to keep breathing in and that makes it worse. And what's needed is to focus on the exhale. Now I'm going to show you that and I'm going to mimic a panic attack so if this would feel triggering for you to watch then please just pause this video or come away from this video but if you feel okay to watch me do that it could be really helpful for you to see this in kind of in real time. Sorry. How the body is going to be feeling is that the breath is going to be pretty high up in the chest. We may feel tingy sensations in the hands, They may feel quite stiff, There could be other sensations in the body. And so what the breath will start to do, And I'm going to start to mimic that, Is the breath will start to. . . It will start to look like that. So I'm going to show you what I'd be doing with my breath in that moment. So my breath is coming in really sharply. My only focus at this point would be to try and get that exhale coming out. So. . . Can you see me focusing on pushing the air out? And as I start to do that more and more. The breathing will start to slow down. I promise you, It will start to slow down. My exhale is getting longer. All I need to do is exhale. If my inhale is going to inhale for me, All I need to do is exhale. And then as time goes on. . . That exhale starts to get so long. That the body comes to a wobbly and shaky okay. So that may have looked quite familiar to you and your own personal experience may be a little bit different but can you see how blocking out of everything around you. We're not panicking over there as best we can. All we need to do is come inwards. And we need to trust that if I start to exhale, I'm going that I'm safe again, I'm okay. I hope that was helpful for you to kind of witness and see and really, Really remembering I'm not in danger. Therefore, All I need to do is I need to come inwards and I just need to focus on getting that exhale going longer, Even though it feels counterintuitive. I'll see you in another meditation and other videos soon.