The initial answer against fear and panic would be psychological stress. Typically, this reaction causes anxiety, wakes up panic and lost of self-confidence. In this post I’ll list 10 tips to deal with panic and stress. Fear and panic have their roots in circumstances and settings which we feel are no longer under our control. When we are dealing with a lot of variables simultaneously, the mind tends to flood with negative thoughts regarding our fears about not being able to handle the situation willingly. All humans have instincts, and we all share most of them in different stages. Stress, therefore, is a state of the body and mind reacting to a perceived danger. Ideally, such alert state would wake up reflexes for coping with danger and problems. However, when the alert becomes too big (for internal or external reasons), it has an opposite, paralyzing and unhealthy effect. Now, why did that happen? Think of your mind as a computer disk. You store all your information there, but some processes have allowed it to receive garbage information. You have to remove such garbage from your disk, and restore it to its original state.

For the time being, the following tips to deal with panic and stress may prove useful:

1. Rest. Sit down. Go to a bed (not necessarily go to bed 😉 ). Let time go by. Perhaps your head will be full of diverse thoughts. Let them be. They are only thoughts. Stay quiet. Take about 50 deep and slow breaths.
2. Please remember that what you are feeling is only an exaggeration of the normal reactions to stress.
3. Don’t add further alarming thoughts about what is happening nor about what could happen in the future.
4. Concentrate in what your body is feeling right now, not in what you are afraid that may occur. Remind that 90% of our worries never materialize.
5. Wait and let the fear to vanish. Don’t fight against it. Accept it and cope with it. To face the fear right now is an excellent opportunity to become stronger. Remember, when you stop thinking about alarming things, the fear will extinguish by itself.
6. The panic you may be feeling is not harmful nor dangerous, but simply a bother. Nothing worse can happen.
7. Think in the progress you have made so far, in spite of adversities. Think of the satisfaction you will feel when the panic yields.
8. When you begin feeling better, look around you, and start thinking about the things you may do later. Think of new directions and plans. Think of your goals. Give yourself positive messages and choices if you still feel caged. Look forward to growing in other aspects of your life, not just the things producing your stress. Think of family, friends, vacations, spiritual interests, hobbies, and so on.
9. From now on, protect yourself from negative or toxic people. Such negative people (and relationships) survive by stealing others’ energy. Take good care of yourself.
10. When you are ready to continue, start slowly, relaxed. You don’t need to run or rush. Little by little.

Once you have regained calm, recognize that you are stronger. Life is a big adventure. Get ready to be the main star of the lot of forthcoming episodes 🙂