How to quickly calm your body down from an anxiety attack

Using tapping to retrain your amygdala

John Glanvill, Author of The Calmness in Mind Process to treat anxiety and OCD and help you to live a calmer life.

Today, we begin the process of reprogramming the brain and recalibrating the body’s reactions, to our thoughts, or the external factors in our lives (be they real, our expectations, our assumptions, our imaginations, or our conditioned responses.)

I really hope you are getting the message that our body can’t tell the difference between a thought, a dream or reality – whatever reality really is – and that’s another video I am really looking forward to making.

Right then, so, when we are ready to let anxiety go – our emphasis needs to be focussed in two key areas.

Firstly, we do everything we can to recharge our emotional energy battery, by tricking our systems into spending less time being anxious and more time in rest, digest and repair mode conditioning our cells to reside within a chemical soup of favourable peptides and hormones.

Then, we need to consciously reprogram the unconscious parts of our brain, that have been “conditioned” to respond with fear – so it can now react normally, like most other people.

So, in this video I am going to teach you what I believe to be the best way to calm yourself down and reprogram your brain based on everything I have learned in the last 20 years.

As ever, rather than just tell you what to do, I am going to explain in detail what is happening to you and why this process works, so you can be in no doubt, how to do it, and why you need to do it.

Remember too, that we talked about secondary gain a few videos back, where, for some people, if they do fully recover from mental illness it means they will have to get on with their lives, get jobs, leave relationships etc. and if you don’t have the right skills to do those things your sabotage may stop you from doing what you need to, for your own recovery – so, keep a conscious eye out for this.

I hope too, that, as you proceed through these videos that I am beginning to challenge some of your ingrained ideas of what some mental illness might really be, that often, it’s more of a conditioning of the brain and body based on how you were trained to think and behave, rather than an actual disease?

In fact, one of my favourite Psychotherapists the late Dr Thomas Szasz who wrote the book “The Myth of Mental Illness” – He suggested that people experiencing mental illness were mainly – just having “problems in living” rather than any physical disease.

He went on to say that a genuine disease can be found on an autopsy table, as well as, within the living person, meeting the pathological definition – as opposed to

mental illness which is voted into existence by members of the American Psychiatric Association and documented in the DSM, which is a publication for the classification, of mental disorders.

He would say that “Heart Attack” and “Heart Break” are in separate categories, one based in science and the other is a pseudoscience which parodies medicine – he goes on to say that Psychiatrists are the successors of “soul doctors, priests, sages, mentors and advisors who for millennia have dealt with the spiritual conundrums, dilemmas and vexations of stuck individuals – which you could say are “the problems of living” that have troubled people forever.

He also goes on to say that most people experiencing mental illness, are, at some level, malingerers – meaning, they are not getting on with their lives, not doing what needs doing, or changing what needs changing – and very often using how they feel (or their label of mental illness) as an acceptable excuse to remain stuck – even though it feels horrible.

Although this is a harsh statement, I think there is quite a lot of truth in it.

So, as we proceed, let’s begin to feel more comfortable with pseudo-science, stories, metaphors and perspectives that in addition to calming you down, will also allow you to address any “problems in living” you may have… that way, you can transform your job, relationships, health etc. and get back in the game of life, but on new terms.

So, if we are going to reprogram our anxiety responses, then a good starting place is to actually explore how they work in the first place.

All anxiety activates from some sort of trigger, a thing that happens to us, or that a arises from a thought within us, or from an unrequested bodily reaction that just happens to us.

The first group of triggers can be categorised as external events like noises, people, situations, conflict, smells, situations that may embarrass, annoy or leave us feeling vulnerable, like presenting or asking for help.

The second group of triggers are a little sneakier to recognise, because they actually come from within our own mind, our thoughts, memories, our judgements, our “if only…” stories about the past and our catastrophising “what if…” stories about the future.

But, what I need for you grasp, is that, regardless of whether the trigger is external, or internally self generated, within the thinking brain itself – there is another part of your brain that can’t tell the difference – it thinks all inputs are external ones – and that is the part of the brain where we need to focus our attention.

It’s called the amygdala, it’s buried deep within our brain in the anterior-inferior temporal lobe, which is part of the old emotional limbic system which we have talked so much about in earlier videos – and it plays a pivotal role in controlling our

emotional responses, in reaction to what “it perceives” is happening out there and it offers what “it perceives” is a safe response.

But, of course, this raises three very important questions.

How does it really know what is happening out there, when it sits in the darkness of our mid brain and is only interpreting signals from our senses?

Then, why can’t it differentiate between an external event and an internal thought? The amygdala thinks they are both external! And that they are both real! This is why people can be so easily tricked into OCD loops of worry and fear.

And thirdly, how does it know what experiences (or reactions) are safe and unsafe – except for how it was programmed to respond, by your past life experiences?

So, the amygdala is a wonderful, evolutionarily positive part of us – that filters every sensation and thought we have, as we have them, in real-time and offers us unconscious responses, to what “it” thinks are the best emotional reactions for our survival, in that moment.

The process looks something like this;
Step 1. A trigger arises
Step 2. The amygdala classifies the event, or thought, as safe or not safe.

Step 3. In response to the amygdala’s classification, we either get a nice positive feeling through the agitation of our organs via our limbic system – which means, it’s ok, it’s safe.

Or we get a massive fearful surge through our sympathetic nervous system, which triggers the fight or flight response that readies us for that perceived danger.

Then step 4. We consciously think about what just happened unconsciously – and if we are not careful, we re-input our fearful stories back as a trigger into step 1 and around we go again!

For most people this system works well – however, with anxiety, OCD (and depression to a certain degree) this part of the brain becomes hyper-vigilant and over sensitised, which leads it to fire off the fight or flight response too often.

This over-activity, may result in the exhaustion of the immune and neuro-endo-crine system – which often leads to chronic physical and mental exhaustion, plus inflammation and pain, that we often classify as chronic fatigue or similar labels such as fibromyalgia or ME.

Now, before I take you deeper into how this all works, it is important to understand a couple of things, firstly, the amygdala does “not” understand language, it responds to tonality and speed of thinking, like dogs and cats do – and secondly once it has become programmed, it doesn’t constantly monitor and check to see if its programming is still relevant.

So for example; if you are scared of dogs because your amygdala became conditioned after some fearful event (or parental training, you know – “come away from that dog, it might bite you”)

You can consciously say to yourself “this is silly, why is this happening, it’s only a dog” all day long, but your unconscious amygdala doesn’t understand you and it’s never checking to see if the response is still valid.

So if you were scared of dogs when you were four, you will still be scared when you are twenty-four, unless “you” consciously break this unconscious loop – which is what I am going to teach you here.

And for those of you who are experiencing OCD, can you now see why you can’t think your way out of it? And why constant reassurance is just keeping you trapped – and each worrisome thought is just further reprogramming your amygdala into continuous fear responses?

Let’s get back to step 2 again, which is where the amygdala chooses what it thinks is the right emotional response to a perceived trigger – and dig a little deeper down.

It turns out that the amygdala developed a clever way to keep our caveman ancestors safe without over stimulating their sympathetic nervous system, remember, back then, our conscious thinking brain was yet to be formed, so, language and thinking as we know it, did not exist.

Metaphorically, it works like this; it divides all inputs into the amygdala into two tracks, the first track we might call the “Safe Track” – the input comes in and the amygdala compares this sensory information to a database of known experiences, foods, sounds, people, animals which are safe.

If the results come back as safe, the amygdala jumps to step 3 and gives our body a gentle feeling of “OK-ness” which we receive in our gut and chest and we move towards or accept that event.

So, if a friend offers us an apple, unconsciously, the amygdala has looked in the safe database, seen that apples are ok, given us a nice feeling – only then, do we consciously jump to step 4 and think “I’ll have an apple”. We didn’t consciously choose it; our conscious thought was the last step of the process.

Now, that process – from input to final response takes about 1 second.
The other track works a little differently, it’s our emergency safety track and this follows the same process but looks in an “unsafe” database, but with two distinct differences, firstly, the look is very fast, like a rapid glimpse into the database – and secondly, if there is match between the perceived danger and the unsafe database, the amygdala immediately fires off the full fight or flight response to get you out of there – and it does this in less than half a second.

The way it manages to look really quickly in the unsafe database is via a process called pattern matching, if one thing, is similar to another, it will just assume it is bad, even if it is not.

For example; in a rapid glimpse – a hose pipe looks like a snake, but so does a skipping rope or a tie on the floor or the root of a tree – the amygdala will just assume the worst, fire off your fear responses to get you out of there, just in case it was a snake.

The amygdala is really happy being wrong 99 times out of 100 because it only needs to be right once to keep you alive. Plus it never checks to see if the response is still valid, once a response is in the unsafe database – there it stays, which is why OCD anxieties just keep firing off again and again – until we can move the trigger out of the unsafe database and into the safe database.

You can see now too, why OCD works in pattern matching groups so something similar to your actual fear can easily make you anxious – if you don’t like blood your body may also jump at a tomato ketchup stain or a red sock on the floor.

So, our journey to recovery is to retrain the amygdala (which does not understand words) to move your conditioned fear responses from the unsafe database to the safe database – which of course is what Exposure Therapy is all about and for those of you with OCD, exposure therapy is the only way you are going to be able change deeply yourself.

However, to do exposure therapy correctly, you need to be calm, whilst imagining or experiencing your trigger (or the anxiety of avoiding it) and repeat this over and over and over and over again until the amygdala is just tricked into working in a new way – it is absolutely possible, but knowing this will make no difference – it’s the doing of it that will change your life enormously.   

But, how can you be calm when each time you experience or think about your trigger your amygdala fires off your anxiety response within 0.5 of a second?

Well, that is what I am going to teach you how to do today and it is probably the most important thing you can do for your own calmness and emotional wellbeing – even though your unconscious little 8 year old is probably going to try and sabotage you.

It’ll say things like:

Well, you already know this.
Or, it didn’t work last time.
Or, I don’t have time to do this.
Or, I am too scared to expose myself to my fears Or, I’ll do this later.

Or, he doesn’t realise how terrifying my anxiety is. Blah, blah, blah….

Watch out for these, because they will come up – and when they do, just smile, take a breath and step forward into changing yourself at a new profoundly deep level.

So, let me teach you the first of many differing techniques that I will be sharing with you in the upcoming videos; however, I think this is one of the best, if you do it correctly and frequently.

Put simply our sympathetic nervous system which is the fight or flight system makes us anxious and the parasympathetic nervous system gets us back into calm, rest, digest and recuperate mode, where we want to spend as much of our day as possible, so our emotional energy battery begins to recharge.

It’s obvious really, the more time each day we can be calm, the less energy we use, the friendlier our chemical soup becomes, which encourages our cells to generate more receptors for the more pleasurable hormones and less for the anxiety and fear based ones.

Plus, the more time we spend in parasympathetic – rest and digest mode – the more time our immune system is on, working for us, repairing our bodies and reducing inflammation and pain.

So, to update our amygdala – and move events and thoughts which have been registered as unsafe – across into the safe database – we need a technique that will disrupt and confuse our sympathetic nervous system so it shorts itself out and reboots itself.

And at the same time we need to be imagining our fear, whilst talking softly, slowly and gently – we then repeat this over and over again – until the amygdala is tricked (placebo-ed) and ultimately retrained.

The best way to do this is through a process called tapping or EFT Emotional Freedom Technique – now, regardless of whether you have heard of or this tried it before, keep an open mind as it is taught in many different ways, and I am going to

teach you my way of how to use it to interrupt and lessen your anxiety in any moment, then, how to retrain your amygdala.

Our central nervous system snakes all around our body and both the sympathetic and the parasympathetic systems are carried next to each other – and what seems to happen is; if you tap on these nerves, is that the signals get disrupted and confused which shorts out or stalls the fear responses and allows you to turn the system back on in a calmer mode.

In addition, if we work smart we can cleverly trick our vegas nerves too, to focus more on our parasympathetic rest, digest and repair responses through the commands it communicates to our organs.

(I have referenced a book in the notes beneath this video that explore the vegas nerve and its role in calmness for those of you who are really nerdy like me.)

There are 3 ways to use tapping, firstly to calm yourself down, the moment your anxiety or intrusive thoughts are triggered – which I will teach you in the remainder of this video.

Then in video 9 I will show you how to deeply retrain your amygdala and how to use exposure therapy effectively – and thirdly, I will teach you a simple, yet powerful tapping meditation which can be used to begin and end your day.

So, let’s go, follow along with me and remember, as silly as this may look, we re just using science, biology, physiology and common sense processes to trick our anxiety.

Plus, we are diverting our attention from the intrusive thoughts in our mind, we are consciously talking over the top of the old stories our unconscious mind proposes, we are placebo-ing our bodies and verbally soothing ourselves – all at the same time – it’s just the most effective thing you can do!

But, you need to practice it whilst you are calm, so you know what to do when you are actually being hijacked by anxiety.

The places were we tap are here:

We tap on either hand, whichever is most comfortable for you – with the tips of two fingers in the middle of the fleshy part of the side of your hand, quite firmly, but don’t bruise yourself.

The second place, is “very gently” tapping with two fingers in the soft depression directly beneath your cheek bones.

We then move to the “crease of your chin” where we can use your middle three fingers – and a little more force, but, once again, don’t bruise or hurt yourself.

Next step is to tap on our Vegas nerves – they run down your chest about an inch either side of the centre line – here take your middle 3 fingers and jab vertically in the gaps between your ribs.

Then slap the inner side of your wrist (on whichever wrist is most comfortable for you).

The last step is a slow and deep inhale, until your lungs are full, hold your breath for 3 or 4 seconds, whilst sagging or slumping your whole body down into your chair, then slowly, slowly breathe out until your lungs are empty and then just hang there for 10 seconds or so.

This last step is really important – it simulates a yawn (demonstrate) and, we only yawn when it is safe to rest, so we are tricking our body and mind into parasympathetic rest and digest mode.

So that is the sequence of where we tap, next we need to bring in the right language to use at each step.

This first way I am teaching you, is, how to quickly calm yourself down once anxiety has started within you.

The instant you begin to feel anxious – you close your eyes and start tapping on the side of your hand – and focus your attention on the feeling of anxiety, wherever it is in your body.

Or for those who have intrusive thoughts – focus your attention on them.

Remember we are not trying to solve the problem “out there” or the thoughts or feelings “in here” – we are just looking to trick ourselves into calming our mind and bodies down.

As you tap the side of your hand with your eyes closed you will say the following statement, softly, slowly and gently – out loud.

“Even though happening….

Even though I Even though I Even though I Even though I Even though I Even though I

XYZ, I love and respect myself” – Where XYZ is a statement of what’s

am angry right now, I love and respect myself.
fear my anxiety, I love and respect myself.
feel embarrassed, I love and respect myself.
have this intrusive thought, I love and respect myself. can’t stop shaking, I love and respect myself.

need to wash my hands, I love and respect myself.

It is very important to add the phrase “I love and respect myself” – said with compassion, firstly because it is a very soothing statement and secondly we are learning to placebo our subconscious mind and it needs to hear, kind statements like this – and, overtime, our unconscious mind begins to believe what it is told – and remember self-esteem is only, really, the degree to which you stop being horrible to yourself!

So, let’s together run through a complete test cycle with words and actions of what to do, to calm yourself down, the moment anxiety kicks off.

We start tapping on the side of the hand, close our eyes and say out load, softly, slowly, gently… “Even though, my body is getting anxious, I love and respect myself.”

Whilst doing this place your attention (your minds eye) on where the anxiety is in your body, don’t wish for it to end, just keep your attention on it, be with it, observe it and accept it.

Or if you have intrusive thoughts in your mind – just watch them.

We do this 4 times – “Even though, my body is getting anxious, I love and respect myself.”

Keep watching your thoughts or observing your bodily anxiety.

“Even though, my body is getting anxious, I love and respect myself.”
Last one, “Even though, my body is getting anxious, I love and respect myself.”

Now move the tapping to just beneath your cheek bones – softy tap there – and we shorten the phrase, but keep our attention on where our anxiety is and tap about 12 times or so.

Anxiety, anxiety, anxiety, anxiety, anxiety.

Three fingers in the crease of the chin – tapping there.

Now we change the story into a placebo one.
“I am ok with my body being anxious”
“I can just watch those emotions come up”
“Even though my body is anxious, the observer can be calm.” “That’s ok anxiety, you just do what you want.”

Moving down to tapping on your chest – three fingers between the ribs – 15 times or so

And the story loosens even more – “I’m ok with these feelings” – “I’m ok with these feelings” – “I’m ok with these feelings”

Onto your wrists – roughly 15 times or so – saying “I can let those stories go now” – “I can let those fears go now” – “Everything is fine now.”

Then stop tapping, sag your body, slump down into the chair – take a long slow deep breath in – hold it for 4 seconds – slowly, slowly breathe out until your lungs are completely empty, then breathe normally and just hang there – check how your body feels, see if your mind is quieter.

If you are still anxious – see what your “story” has morphed into and go around again, and again until your body and mind have been tricked into calming down.

As you sit slumped at the end of the process – your “story” may have changed to something else..

“Why is this still happening to me?” – you go straight back into the loop..

“even though this is still happening to me, I love and respect myself”

(JG demonstrate loop)

see what comes up – go around again – until you calm down, and you will, normally just two or 3 loops is enough to trick you body into calming down and you distracting yourself from yourself.

Can you see how the process is forming? Rather than moving away from our fears we are sitting with them, letting them be and calming ourselves down, then repeating, repeating, repeating.

You will need to learn this first basic tapping routine whilst you are calm, so that when your anxiety comes on, you can remember what to do.

And know this, the sooner you start the tapping, the easier it is to interrupt it, and the sooner you nip it in the bud, the less the volume of anxiety hormones are released into your body – so, you are creating a more favourable chemical soup to live in, like I discussed in video number 7.

It will also make a lot of sense, to share this information with your significant other, or carer, so they can remind you to take action as soon as any anxiety arises and even do it with you to keep you on track.

And your homework.

Keep watching those last clips of me doing the tapping, tap along with me, say the words out load, softly, slowly gently, observe your anxiety and just go with it, don’t fight it – play around with the words to suit yourself – there’s no way to get this wrong, except, to not do it.

Get your significant other to watch this video too, tell them to remind you to jump straight into this interrupt technique, the moment you get anxious.

It works really well with children too, so teach them how to calm them selves down..

“Even though I cut my knee, I love and respect myself”
“Even though I am scared of that boy in the playground, I love and respect myself”

Pay attention to your sabotaging little 8 year old who will try and stop you doing it – ignore her and take back control of calming yourself down.

In the next video I am going to explain more about what the symptoms of anxiety really are – which might surprise you – and I am going to teach you how to do exposure therapy and actively retrain your amygdala to take erroneous fearful OCD responses and place them in the safe database.

Until then, tap, tap, tap.