However, once I give some thought to where stress exists, or
is experienced, and the sequence of events leading to the
physiology of stress, a body full of hormones and
neurotransmitters more appropriate to combating an attack
than the board room or the living room, I can recognize that
there are some interventions I can work on to change the
chemistry inside my body.

I can change my thoughts, which will change my feelings,
which will give me more time to make choices about my
behavior.

And according to Dr. Daniel Amen, relaxation actually
activates the higher perceptual centers of my brain for
better decision making.

That is a good payoff for learning a stress management
technique.

Perhaps the most important stress management technique to
learn is that my thoughts, my interpretations of sensory
data, are what brings the chemistry of stress into my body.

And that process happens very fast, about twice as fast as I
can blink my eyes.

And one stressful thought can bring on another and another,
and before a second has elapsed, (that is right, one second)
I may have generated a sequence of thoughts that leave me
filled with enough adrenalin and cortisol to move me into
distress rather than eustress, and then I can keep myself
there long enough to begin to impact my brain fitness, my
heart fitness, and the rest of my body too.

My first really successful stress management technique was
to say the phrase; “Gratitude is the attitude” to myself,
and that worked, because someone always has it worse off
than I do, but the relief I felt when saying that phrase to
myself was short lived.

Somewhere I had picked up the idea that I was supposed to
have long periods of contentment, sort of like a drug
experience, and that is not how your body normally works.

In other words, I need to practice gratitude frequently,
starting with thoughts (and/or breathing) and my body will
eventually follow along and learn that the physiology of
contentment is what I want it to learn, and stay near.

In my early days of seeking a seeking a stress management
technique, I looked at many different tools, and there are a
lot of good meditative and cognitive tools out there,
including Open Focus, Transcendental Meditation, working
out, but for my money, I want a tool that does not require
me to stop what I am doing and sit quietly meditating.

In other words it has to be usable while I am going about my
daily business, and of all the tools I have tried, the one
that has worked best for me is learning how to do the heart
rate variability biofeedback.

I can feel the change using heart rate variability
biofeedback, and since I learned the skill on a computer, I
know that my physiology changes when I do the Quick
Coherence Technique.

So when I feel myself getting critical or judgemental or
snappy, (and I still use gratitude thoughts by the way) I
can switch my thoughts to the area around my heart, place my
children’s faces there, and feel my heart become more
coherent, and since I have some experience with Heartmath
heart rate variability biofeedback, my body switches back to
a cooperative and affiliative physiology within a heart beat.

Not quite the speed of thought but close, and that tool has
saved me a lot of regrets over the years. I have been able
to operate from a heartfelt cooperation and affiliation more
and more often.

In fact, the practice of heart rate variability has given
me a felt experience of the Cognitive Behavioral Therapy
concept that you do not have to accept thoughts as truths.
You can dispute them. In other words, I can fill myself with
love and then think one distressing thought and fill myself
with the feeling of stress or despair, and then think the
loving thought, and feel the love come right back into my
body. You can even dispute the thoughts that make you feel
good, if you want.

So we have managed to move ourselves from the realm of the
external making me feel stressed, because it is my thought
about the external that brings on the adrenalin and cortisol
inside my body, and using and some mindfulness coupled with
some practice, I can steer my physiology like I steer my car
with thousands of small adjustments.

In fact, I may get so good at heart rate variability
biofeedback that it runs in the background of my brain,
popping into the foreground for a heart beat’s worth of
attention on an as-needed basis.

It is important to recognize for some folks that heart rate
variability biofeedback is a learned skill and does not
override any basic biological process. In other words, I can
still activate my fight or flight chemistry if needed for a
real attack.

If you want to check out the benefits of having your own
personal stress management technique for your neurogenesis,
or the growth of new brain cells, then read Brainfit for
Life by Simon Evans,Ph.D. and Paul Burghardt,Ph.D.

Hope you enjoy your coherence!

About the Author:

Michael S. Logan is a brain fitness expert, counselor, a
student of Chi Gong, and a licensed one on one HeartMath
provider. I enjoy the spiritual, the mythological, and
psychological, and I am a late life father to Shane, 10, and
Hannah Marie, 4, whose brains are so amazing.
http://www.askmikethecounselor2.com

To find really effective panic cures, you simply must begin
by analyzing yourself, and everything you have to do in
order to get over the attacks as fast as possible. Nobody
needs to be prone to the difficulty breathing as well as
wooziness, and if you are among the many individuals who
wants a solution right now, then you should explore deep
into your matters to obtain the solution. Anxiety and panic
attacks can often be reduced by first figuring out which
kind of instances cause you to be the most stressed and
prone to have an anxiety attack. Once you start to do this,
you’ll be much closer to finally stopping your attacks
completely.

To begin with the process of naturally conquering panic
attacks, think about one specific scenario that may be
causing your blood pressure to skyrocket sending you into a
real anxiety attack. This is usually done by someone who
really wants to prevent their anxiety attacks before they
happen. As you observe yourself giving in to pressure,
breathe deeply and think about the worst type of possible
end result of what can happen by allowing the stress to take
over. You are the one in control always, and it’s critical
that you know and understand this. With repetition like a
mantra or an affirmation, you begin taking over the power
over your body and mind, as a result defeating these attacks
forever.

Employing different inhaling and exhaling exercises can
easily put you into a much more peaceful and soothed state
of mind. Doing this you’ll create a good breathing technique
of your own which you can make use of in a scenario which you
know will cause a panic attack. You want to have many methods
of letting you conquer panic attacks, which are nothing more
then our own interpretations of what happens to us. You can
also try counting to ten or twenty while you’re deep
breathing. This could be a very effective method to calm you
down in the moment if you feel like you haven’t any control
over yourself.

Whenever contemplating every one of the ways of controlling
anxiety attacks efficiently, you must additionally look at
the power of meditation. You’ll quickly see that the signs
and symptoms of emotional stress and uneasiness begin fading
away when you get into a more calm state of mind. Give
thought to the internal conversation you might be having, in
order to develop a plan of coping with them, in the course of
and prior to starting feeling weighed down . and anxious.
Often times panic attacks emerge because of the subconscious
fears, so it’s always a good idea to focus on just what
bothers you in most aspects of life in the time of
meditation sessions. The most effective methods to cure just
about any anxiety or anxiety and panic attacks is to to take
some time to think about all the amazing things in your life
that you love, get pleasure from and enjoy. Doing this is a
natural way to remove tension, nervousness, and panic
attacks.

About the Author:

Find out more about overcoming panic attacks and anxiety
cures on our blog at http://overcomingpanicattacks4good.com

Fast, rapid breathing is one side effect, heart feeling like
it’s beating too fast is another. Feeling an almost
overwhelming sense of doom is how some sufferers describe
what they’re going through while battle a tense, nauseated
tightness in the pit of the stomach.

Tense muscles and having trouble paying attention and
focusing on even simple tasks are some of the problems that
anxiety can cause. You can have all the symptoms or a few
and they can come when a trigger that flips the anxious
feelings is tripped.

There are many health problems that can cause anxiety so
before you assume that yours is normal anxiety, go see your
doctor. Health problems that can make anxiety develop are
trouble with the heart-an undiagnosed heart condition or
disorder, anemia, diabetes and problems with the thyroid
gland. Once you’ve been checked and ruled those out, then
you can take herbal remedies for anxiety and find successful
treatment.

For hundreds of years, herbs have been used to help heal a
variety of ailments. While many over the counter and
prescription drugs have dangerous side effects, when used
the right way, herbs can be safely ingested.

If you’re not sure which herb to use for anxiety or how much
of it to use, seek the guidance of a doctor who specializes
in alternative medicine. You’ll find numerous doctors who
practice naturopathic medicine and you can look them up
under holistic practitioners too.

Anxiety and stress are bonded together much like a circle of
metal. You can’t see where one part ends and the other
begins. Stress is not bad as long as it’s not overpowering.
Some stress that can be helpful for you is the stress of a
project deadline. It keeps you steadily working toward
meeting that goal and that’s not a bad stress to feel. But
relentless stress can be counterproductive.

Herbal remedies for anxiety can relieve you not only of the
anxiety but also of the stress you might be feeling. Herbals
can help you to relax and put you in a better frame of mind
as you seek to find the underlying reason that’s causing the
trouble.

Biofeedback is another very powerful tool to have in your
anti-anxiety tool box. Biofeedback technology has grown more
and more sophisticated in the last 30 years, and it is
possible now to train both brain waves and heart rate
variability using computerized programs.

Biofeedback is learned, so it is much more permanent than
binaural beat tones for example, or visualizations.

I have been using the emWave heart rate variability
biofeedback tool personally and professionally for quite
some time, and I think it is an excellent tool to use with
herbal remedies like green tea, with l-theanine.

When I first bought the heart rate variability biofeedback
tool, I had no idea how long it would take for me to learn
how to use it.

Turns out it took 6 one-half hour practices for me to feel
confident that I could induce the relaxation (and is it
relaxing) physiology without being hooked up to the
computer. In other words, whenever I feel stress or anxiety,
I can use my cue thought and breathing tools, and feel the
relaxation replace the stress and anxiety.

The important thing to remember is that I need to continue
to pay attention to the eustress/distress continuum and
adjust my breathing and thinking tools regularly, sort of
like how I steer a car, with many tiny adjustments.

In the background of your thinking, you might remind
yourself often that too much adrenaline and cortisol
inhibits your brain’s ability to grow new brain cells daily,
which is called neurogenesis.

As far as I am concerned, bigger is better when it comes to
brains, so I will learn to pay attention to my thinking and
feeling, and I will use herbal remedies for anxiety, like
green tea, which is also full of antioxidants, another
important part of the brain fitness continuum.

So remember, you can impact anxiety with herbs used as
directed, and they are really effective when included in a
brain fitness lifestyle. Here is to a bigger brain.

About the Author:

Michael S. Logan is a brain fitness expert, counselor, a
student of Chi Gong, and a licensed one on one HeartMath
provider. I enjoy the spiritual, the mythological, and
psychological, and I am a late life father to Shane, 10, and
Hannah Marie, 4, whose brains are so amazing.
http://www.askmikethecounselor2.com

Spas use them regularly as part of their therapeutic
services, such as during massages, scrubs, and facials. But
you don’t need to go to a high-priced spot in order to get
the benefits of aromatherapy. In fact, you can use essential
oils right in your own home and turn it into a relaxing
retreat from the world. The trick is, you need to know how
to choose the best essential oil diffuser for your purposes.

Candle diffuser – this version uses a bowl with a candle
inside. A few drops of oil are placed in the bowl, and the
heat from the flame causes the oil to evaporate into the
air.

Lamp rings — oil is dropped onto the ring and placed over
the lamp, and the heat from the electric bulb causes the oil
to evaporate and disperse through the air. However, these
types of diffusers should be used with caution because they
are hard to monitor and can lead to fires if too hot of a
bulb wattage is used.

Fan diffuser — this diffuser does not need heat. In order
to release the oil aroma, the oil is absorbed by a small
pad. The fan diffuser blows cool air across the pad,
dispersing the oils through the air.

Nebulizer – this diffuser has a motor at its base that turns
the oil into a vapor that wafts into the air. Like the fan
diffuser, no heat source is used in this method.

Electric nebulizer — this diffuser uses both a fan and heat
to give off oil aromas to the entire room.

Your choice of diffuser will depend somewhat on the
environment you plan to use it in. For instance, you might
not want an extra heat source if you live in an extremely
dry, hot area. Also, if you have small children or are
unable to continuously monitor the diffuser, it might be
best to avoid the diffusers with open flames or heat
sources.

On the other hand, heat diffusers offer one of the easiest
and most practical ways to disperse essential oils through
the air. If you don’t have an electrical source, then the
nebulizer that plugs into a wall socket isn’t going to do
you much good!

Now that you know the various types of diffusers available,
you can make an informed choice and start to fill your house
with the relaxing or energizing aromas you like best.
Purchase a diffuser today, start to experiment with
essential oils, in turn your home into a relaxing retreat
from the stresses of everyday life!

About the Author:

Check out this site for the best essential oil diffusers:
http://essentialoildiffusershop.com/