Training Yourself to Control Anxiety: 2 Proven Methods to Control Anxiety Attacks

There's no denying it: anxiety attacks are tough to deal with. They affect not only your emotional health, but research shows they can also weaken your immune system, leaving you more susceptible to physical illness. To make matters even worse, studies show that nearly half of all anxiety sufferers have simply given up hope of learning to control their anxiety.

But there are innovative new anxiety control training techniques that can help reduce or even eliminate anxiety attacks, without resorting to potentially harmful prescription drugs. These training techniques offer new hope to many sufferers who have all but given up, and can actually help train sufferers to control their anxiety. Let's take a look at two of the most popular methods.

1. One of the most popular techniques to control anxiety is by using progressive muscle relaxation. This simple technique involves sitting or lying quietly with your eyes closed, alternately tensing and relaxing your muscles. The idea is to begin with your toes and feet, and intentionally tighten up the muscles and then let go, letting the muscles go limp and completely relaxed.

From there, simply progress upward to your calves and thighs, your stomach, chest and back, out through the arms, and finally up to your neck, face, forehead and scalp. Ideally, you should progress at a very slow pace, making sure to spend at least 15 to 30 seconds on each area of the body before moving on.

Progressive muscle relaxation is a very effective anxiety control training technique for many people. As a side benefit, there is evidence it can also help lower both blood pressure and heart rate, improving your overall health. It takes only 5 to 10 minutes a day to do, and over time it trains your body to deeply relax, progressively reducing the symptoms of anxiety. In other words, the more you use this training, the better your results will be.

2. Another popular method of anxiety control training is known as "mental habit replacement," and involves establishing new "thinking habits." This technique takes advantage of the fact that even though habits are notoriously hard to break, they are relatively easy to establish in the first place. And a common habit that many anxiety sufferers share is that of focusing inward (on the "self") more than outward.

Refocusing the bulk of your attention away from your self has proven to be a reliable way of controlling anxiety. Some anxiety training programs like the EasyCalm method use this technique to help establish new and more positive thinking habits which will effectively "block" the old negative ones. While the idea itself is simple, when implemented consistently, it can be quite effective.

The real key to using mental habit replacement is consistency. Research suggests that a new habit can be firmly established in about 21 days. This means that by acting consistently, anxiety sufferers can train themselves to control their anxiety effectively in as little as three weeks.

Both of these popular methods are useful in controlling anxiety and panic attacks. In fact, you might try using both techniques, so that you are approaching the problem from two different points of view. Whatever you do, don't lose hope. These and other anxiety control training techniques can improve the quality of your life if you will follow through and give them a real chance to work.

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