Panic Attacks: The Mindfulness Therapy Approach to Anxiety

Panic attacks and panic disorder affect a growing number of people in the US and Western Europe. Those who do not suffer from panic attacks have a hard time understanding how unbearably painful panic anxiety is for those who experience ongoing panic attacks. To the victims of panic disorder, the experience is very visceral; it is a full-blown fight or flight type reaction that can cause the heart rate to increase dramatically and produce profuse sweating and many other physiological and biochemical changes. Imagine walking along a trail and suddenly encountering a mountain lion; that is how it feels for those suffering from panic anxiety – and sometimes much worse.

Panic anxiety is certainly not just “in the mind” as some people might think, but comes from an integrated reaction that involves both mind and body; each supporting the reactive process. However, ultimately it is what happens in the mind that triggers the emotional and physiological processes that produce a full-blown panic attack. Many panic anxiety sufferers are looking for methods to change the underlying mental process that produces anxiety. Many turn to some form of counseling or talk therapy, others prefer a more direct process of therapy such as CBT or Mindfulness Therapy because these attempt to change the internal mechanism that creates the emotional reaction that then triggers the bodily reactions.

At the core of panic disorders you will inevitably find some form of reactive thinking that triggers the panic attacks, and of course the theory behind CBT is that if you can change these habitual patterns of negative thinking and negative beliefs then you can diffuse the panic attacks. In the Mindfulness Therapy approach, we take this a step further, because we realize that the problem is not simply with the content of the thoughts or beliefs or memories, but with the emotional energy that is infused into these particular thought forms. It is this emotional charge that gives such power to negative thoughts, beliefs or traumatic memories. This is why two people can think the same thought but react completely differently – because the emotional charge is different for different people. Therefore, in Mindfulness Therapy the emphasis is on finding ways to change this emotional energy, allowing it to discharge and resolve itself. Then all that remains is an “empty thought” which ceases to have any particular meaning or power to cause anxiety or suffering. Sound Healing benefits