It is most common for people who suffer from anxiety to be constantly filled with repetitive anxious thoughts.

To eliminate these thoughts we need to first look at how they are powered, and then find a way to quickly eliminate the severity of these thoughts before they transmute into a full blown panic attack.

Whatever the reason an anxious thought enters your mind, the pattern that follows it is usuallty quite a predictable one...

It flashes briefly in your awareness, so straight away you react with that fear as you contemplate the thought. This fearful reaction then sends a shockwave through your nervous system. And you will probably at first feel the the result of that fear in your stomach, as there are more nerve endings there than anywhere else.

It is because of this intense reaction that you then begin to get sucked into the cycle of of examining this anxious thought over and over again. And as you react to this thought more, the 'shock waves' keep getting sent over and over, hence increasing the intensity of the anxious thought, and causing you to think about it again.

This is the typical cycle of a panic attack.

It is not uncommon then to spend the rest of your day thinking about it, and asking yourself questions like, why am i having this feeling, and why cant i make it go away!

Then the more you try and not think about it, the more you do! Like now if i say, don't think about what you had for breakfast, you'll be thinking about what you had for breakfast, right?

So... how can you get rid of these thoughts?!

For starters, when you get these initial thoughts that bring on a panic attack, it is important to not try and force these thoughts away. What you want to do instead is let them in. Sounds strange i know, but you need to learn to become comfortable with them. These thoughts will never completely go away, so what you need to do is learn to change your reaction to them!

And once you can learn to do this, it will not matter anymore when you have them. You will be able to react to them better, and over time, even react positively toward them.

A good way to try and see differently about a potentially anxious thought next time you get one is this...

First you need to look at it as an anxious and nasty though, and observe it for what it is. Don't get caught up in it, but simply look at it objectively and put a label on it. Tell yourself "this is an anxious thought, nothing more (an irrational fear even)". And think of them as just an object, like a cloud passing by, or a car traveling down a quiet road as it disappears off over the hilltop. Play around with this and see what imagery works best for you personally.

Then you need to watch it pass by.... Remember the key is to REMAIN OBJECTIVE. Observe it as an object that you have labelled, and watch it pass.

Then when it passes, divert your focus back to what you were doing before it came on.

If they come back again, repeat the process!

Keep doing this until you are in a better place with this method, and you feel you are making good progress.

And when you are up to it, and feel that you are in a good place with handling this process well, the next step is to actually let one of these thoughts in! Although this is probably the last thing you would want to do, go ahead with it anyway, because in doing so, you will soon realize that YOU are calling the shots, not the thoughts.

And in doing so, you will eliminate the fear that surrounds these anxious thoughts. The fear will discharge when you can face the fear and say "I CAN handle these thoughts".

Fear intensifies if we run away from it. It will dissipate if we take control of it!

Yes this will take practice, but by being the master of your own thoughts, and controlling them, you will be the one that decides what will and won't bother you.

Anxiety is not the boss of you, you are the boss of it. You are ultimately in complete control of your mind, and there is NOTHING that you are not able to call the shots on. If you don't want to let an anxious thought control you, DO NOT LET IT! Let it in and then DECIDE that it is something that's not worth getting worked up about. Dismiss it!

To learn more, visit Panic Away.