by gg3 » Mon 20 Dec 2004, 02:02:23
Mindfarkk, what you described fits precisely the definition of a panic attack. The person's adrenal system goes on overdrive, they get flooded with fight-or-flight hormones, it feels like they are about to be eaten alive by alligators, and there is a tendency to simply freeze up like a rabbit caught in the gaze of a hungry wolf.
Not that there aren't sufficient causes to feel anxious, given what we know about the future.
But it's important to recognize the causes, recognize the body's tendency to respond to survival-threats with fight-or-flight reactions, and then *recognize that you are not facing immediate death at close range, so you have time to reason, time to get centered, time to plan your responses and put them into effect.*
Shift your focus of attention from being "inside" of the feeling of panic, to being an *observer* of it, as if you're watching yourself on video. And then reflect on what you think you should be doing in the video, and then direct yourself to do it.
Concentrative meditation, and mindfulness meditation, each done for ten minutes in the morning and ten minutes in the evening, are excellent exercises for strengthening the "rationality muscles" and the "decision-making muscles" and a range of other cognitive capabilities that people all too often allow to get out of shape. We need all the mental musclepower we can get, in order to make it through the transitions ahead.