Page 29 - Advance Copy: Todd Kaufman, Author

HOW TO MANAGE ANXIETY & END PANIC ATTACKS
oxygenated blood to your brain so you could do your best on that test!
So yes, there is good news about your anxiety. In the right times and at the right levels, it is incredibly helpful and even life-saving. And yes, when it overworks, you can get stuck in the FEAR-based thinking that trips you up in scary thought loops (some call these ruminations or worries) and you can quite possibly have a meltdown or panic attack. All that adrenaline and cortisol flushed into your system in these moments can even make you feel like you are dying.
You need anxiety to survive, but you most certainly do not need panic attacks! Your anxiety needs to be at levels that are helpful, not harmful, and it needs to come in at appropriate times. It’s time your amygdala stopped working so hard and so often, and you stop consistently looking at your world through a FEAR-based lens!
And more good news – you can learn to step out of always thinking through this negative evolutionary bias. If you keep reading, I promise to show you how!
Yup – It’s All In Your Head!
Many us are raised and educated in a culture that teaches us a great deal about many things, but often fails to teach us how to think. For many adults, the idea that they can create their thoughts, let go of thoughts, change thoughts and do much more than entertain or be stuck with thoughts has never oc- curred to them. And if it has occurred to them, it hasn’t come in as much more than a passing wish: “I wish this was not on my mind,” “I can’t stop thinking about this!” or “I’ve worried about this for so long I’m just sick about it!”
Or how about this one? “Do you like Pina Coladas, and songs stuck in your head?!” (Sorry, I promise to show you how to shake this last one a bit further in the book!)
So how about this thought:
5