4 Techniques to Reduce Acute Anxiety - your anxiety first aid!

Hi there, my name's Caroline Cavanagh and I'm an anxiety specialist. I'm here today to share with you 4 tips, 4 techniques that you can use in those times where anxiety just hits those really high intense levels. Now the last video that I did, which you can find on Facebook or up on my YouTube channel, it was all about 6 techniques that you can use where anxiety is actually prolonged. So a bit like within the pandemic situation that we're in currently, or perhaps you might be in a job or a relationship situation that you can't easily resolve. This is different. This is for when there's like that real high, things just peak and it's really, really intense. And there's 4 techniques and we're going to use them actually in order. What happens is when you get into that real intense level anxiety, is within your mind, the subconscious part of the brain, which is here at the back of your mind, overrides any conscious thought. It goes into what we call the fight-or-flight mechanism. And in that fight-or-flight mechanism, any conscious thoughts really are not an option at that point. You're just into absolute pure survival mode. And what these techniques are here to do is to take you back out of that survival mode Into a point where your conscious mind can then start bringing in some of the more remedial actions. So this is what I term my first aid. It's not gonna be a cure to intense anxiety. It's there to bring you down to a level where other techniques can then help you get back on an even keel. So let's get on with technique number 1. This is breathing. Now I know it may sound flippin' easy, you know, obvious, we're all breathing, Caroline. Yeah. But when you're in that fight-or-flight response, when a chemical called adrenaline is flooding your system, one of the purposes of adrenaline is to get your body prepared to either run or fight, in which case you breathe much more rapidly to pump your muscles full of oxygen. You can, however, override that. If there's a particular breathing technique that you're used to, maybe, you know, you do yoga, Pilates, anything like that, brilliant, use it. But the one that I particularly love is because it's simple, and let's face it, if you're in a high level of anxiety, you want easy. And do it with me now. All I'd love you to do is to imagine that you've got a little candle with a flame on, and you're just gonna make that flame flicker. It's not about blowing it out, it's just a very gentle— And you keep blowing out until there is literally no air left, and you'll then automatically breathe back in. And once you breathe in, Do it again. And what will start to happen is the more you breathe out, the deeper your in-breath becomes. The more you can breathe out, the deeper your in-breath becomes. And rather than that breathing being really rapid, elongates out. And in that mode, your brain function will start to change. And that brings us on to tip number 2. Tip number 2 is all about how you can use your body, because actually these things, they're not separated. What one's doing affects the other and vice versa. So you can actually use your body to change your thought patterns, your anxiety levels. Now I go into schools quite a lot and I work with kids teaching them about how to use their mind. And one of the games that I do with them is I get them to kind of play. So play along with me. Why not? No one knows you're here. I would like you to imagine that you're really down, really depressed. And when anyone does that, they kind of withdraw, their body slumps in, their shoulders come down, head drops. And in holding that slumped position, try and have happy thoughts. It's really quite difficult, isn't it? Brilliant, okay. Now I'd love you to do the opposite. Ladies, you know, we can take the old Wonder Woman pose. Guys, you've got loads of superhumans, so just pick one of them. And grounded feet, head up, shoulders back. That helps you deep breathe anyway. And if you can, then start to move. You can have a little boogie, brilliant. Hi there, Fran, lovely to see you again. Whilst you're moving, again, try and have really negative thoughts. It's really, really hard to do. So even by changing your body position, it gives you access to different feelings, different thoughts. So when you become aware that you're withdrawn, even just by changing your body— now I appreciate if you're in really high levels of anxiety, doing a bit of a boogie may not be an option, but you can change how you stand. And then if you are into that almost ready-to-dance mode, it brings us into number 3. Now hearing is one of the first senses to develop when we're in utero, and it's also the last one to stop just before we check out of this planet. It is very, very strongly linked to all of our feelings and really good access to memories. So the thing that I would love you to do— this takes a little bit of pre-prep— is on your phone put together a playlist, even if it's only got 2 or 3 songs in it, but they're tunes that whenever you hear them create a good feeling. So one of the top ones on mine is The Time Warp from The Rocky Horror Show, because how can you listen to that and not Start to kind of go, oh, there's a jump to the left! I've also got a couple that take me back to very lovely memories, and personally I love salsa music, so whenever I hear salsa, I just gotta start doing a little bit of a bop. So I've got, I think, 10, 12 on my playlist, and I choose to leave on shuffle, and I find it absolutely incredible that whenever I do put that playlist on, the The song that plays first is uncannily accurate to the one I really need to leave— to hear in that moment. So as I said, whether you've got 2 or 3, or whether you can boost even more, brilliant. Make it easily accessible so that once you've changed your breathing, once you've changed your posture, tune in to that. You love Queen and Wham! Queen, yeah. Wham! Not quite sure. Whatever rings your boats, Fran, that's fantastic. And what I also advise is even if you pick up a tune on the radio and you go, oh, I love this! Think playlist and just slowly keep building this list. It can get as big as you want to. And the wonderful thing is you've always got then a tune, a playlist in your pocket that whenever you need to, you're just listening into, is going to take you up to a higher level of happiness. A lower level of anxiety. So these are my ABC: change your breathing, change your posture, listen to music. As I say, it's not a full remedial, it's— but it's bringing you down to a level where the conscious mind can then come back into play. You're out of fight-or-flight mode, and you can start bringing in some of the other techniques. But there is one more that I would love to share with you today, and that's very simple. Get more hugs. Now, it's one of the things at the moment with the current COVID restrictions, we can't hug people as much. I'm a very tactile person, and I didn't realise just how much I love hugging other people, and to feel— to meet people and not be able to hug them, I'm really, really struggling with. And I'm not on my own. I did a bit of research on social media recently and found out that a lot of other people are struggling with exactly the same thing. Because when we hug someone, in the brain 2 chemicals are released: serotonin and dopamine. They're the happy drugs. And when you've got this change in blood chemistry, you will feel differently. So we're going to use serotonin and dopamine to reduce that adrenaline level, adrenaline being the fight or flight. So whatever you can do to get more hugs, don't wait for someone to ask, you ask. Hopefully you've got partners, perhaps children, even a pet. Hugging a pet will still have a positive impact on releasing serotonin and dopamine into your bloodstream. So get hugging, because the more you have those chemicals in your bloodstream anyway, the less acute those panic levels are going to be. So just to bring it all together for you, my 4 techniques to use in times of really high, really intense anxiety. Change your breathing. We spoke about a technique there. Change your physiology, because how your body is being held will change how your mind is operating too. Listen to those 2, 3, however many wonderful songs in your playlist that will take you back to happier times, happier places. And get hugging! So thank you very much for listening. If you'd like to take a look at any of the other videos, you can find them on Facebook, but they're also on my YouTube channel as well. That's Caroline Cavanagh. And there's lots of free downloads that you can access on the website, carolinecavanagh.co.uk. And if you go to the resources page, please take a look at anything and download it with my absolute pleasure. But for now, Thank you very much to all of those of you who've been watching live. If you're playing it on playback, all of you, I would love to know, of these techniques, are there any of them that have surprised you? Are there any that you can think, yeah, I've never really thought of doing that? Remembering breathing, physiology, music— ABC of your first aid in anxiety to get you to a level where more help can then come in to reduce Your anxiety right the way down. So please share with me, what do you think? How can you use this? I'd love to hear from you. But bye for now. See you soon, and thank you very much for watching. Take care.