Don't Panic When You're Having A Panic Attack: A 7 Step Ascension Journey Through Anxiety

By Janis A. Shannon, LCSW and Helen Kagan, PhD., LCSW

This unique book is a powerful healing story and its purpose is to help those suffering from anxiety and their close ones to understand what it is like to experience anxiety, panic, and how to take steps to empower themselves. It is for every woman who is, was or is going to experience anxiety and don't know how to help themselves. It is written in an attempt to integrate well-known and not so well known approaches in addressing anxiety holistically (levels of the mind, body, and spirit) as it relates to ascending the chakra system (energy centers of the body). The corresponding healing colors for each chakra are brought to you by Helen Kagan's Healing Art.

We, Jan and Helen, holistic psychotherapists, are intending to be an instrument of change so that our experience can be used in helping others, who might not understand what is happening to them, so they may discover ways to empower themselves through this journey.

• Language: English
• Publisher: BookBaby
• Release date: Oct 28, 2012
• ISBN: 9781624883040

Book preview

Authors

Introduction

Why write another book on anxiety? After all, if the hundreds of books that are already published and available don’t have the solutions, what makes anyone believe this book brings solutions? Maybe it doesn’t. What it does do is attempt to explore anxiety as a whole: in physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual dimensions, as we work toward discovering holistic answers to the wide spread problem of anxiety. It is estimated that anxiety disorders are the most common mental illness in the U.S., affecting 40 million adults in the United States age 18 and older (18% of U.S. population) and of that, only one third seek treatment! (http://www.adaa.org/ ) That means the majority of people suffering with the debilitating impacts of anxiety, do not have support to cope with it.

This book is meant to bring you an integrative approach because as trained psychotherapists, with many years of experience, we also practice spirituality and energy healing. We relate holistically on levels of the mind, body, and spirit. This book is not meant as a substitute for medical advice, nor is it meant to avoid finding a competent psychotherapist or physician to guide you in healing the anxiety. So, why another book on anxiety?

This book is a story of a journey, of several journeys. Each section of the journey has paved the way for the next step. The door opens and without recognition, we step into that new world. When we, Helen and Jan, first met, we knew in that split second, without a moment of doubt, that there was some unknown Divine purpose to this encounter. Little we knew then, that this book would come of that meeting. This book is the result of that Divine encounter.

When you are caught in the tornado of anxiety, you look for someone to hold the branch. You can cry. You can scream. You can laugh. Sometimes you need space to breathe. But simultaneously you step into a new phase of the journey and there is no going back. It is about that phase of the Journey. It is about the value of using all the tools in your toolbox, even when your mind is telling you I must be going crazy. This is not me. I don’t know who I am anymore. We have our colleagues and friends to remind us that this belief keeps resurfacing, only in an attempt to sabotage this important and invaluable part of our Journey. This is the journey of a woman but it can be a similar journey of many women each experiencing it in similar ways.

You see, one can be as spiritual and metaphysical as one wants, but we still live in our human bodies with all possible human emotions, physical wounds, psychological traumas, hormones and chemical imbalances. This is a Journey of ascension. As competent psychotherapists, it has allowed us to bring our expertise to the table and thus be more rational and objective about experiencing anxiety as a whole. We are psychotherapists, who are also on the human journey of ascension. And as such, we have circumstantial, emotional, and reactional issues, both within ourselves and outside of ourselves, with hormones playing a huge role. This gave us the motivation to write this book and share our holistic vision on how to deal with such a huge phenomenon - anxiety. We discovered that despite all our knowledge and know how’s, when hormones begin to fluctuate, the anxiety can build up and panic attack may ensue. There is a physiological reason for anxiety to increase in perimenopausal, menopausal, and post menopausal women and this book is written to help you understand your changing life, changing world, and how to begin to embark on a lifestyle change, that can greatly benefit your level of angst and your personal growth in this age of ascension.

It is our heartfelt intention to create healing through learning from our shared experiences and shift from anxiety into joy and passion for life itself.

We welcome you on this shared journey, as together we embark on this quest for our growth through lessons!

Namaste…. Jan and Helen

HOW did I get here???

I am a creative, intelligent, loving, compassionate, caring, independent, mother, grandmother, sister, daughter, friend, professional woman, and seeker of a spiritual life. All the trappings that would leave anyone to believe she is capable, competent and a true gift to the world. So what is it that has suddenly caused me to be HERE NOW? In this body, that feels like I am a blundering menopausal crazy woman in a constant state of flux never knowing until my eyes are open what my body is dictating. Yes, thoughts create reality so focus on what I want and I want calm and peace within me and yet, this seems to be getting further from me. Something has taken over my body and it just will not follow my direction to relax. I am on the merry-go-round reaching for the brass ring only to miss the mark every time and off I go round again. It is spinning in circles and getting so dizzy that I have no clue which way to walk!

The more it shifts away, the more I PANIC and wonder what happened to that capable, competent woman? Where did she go? And more importantly how do I get her back? I feel totally and completely out of control like someone or something else is steering my ship and sending me into places I really do not want to visit. And yet, here I am in a complete PANIC attack on a regular ongoing basis. I cry. I jump. I move. I pace like a caged tiger that is trapped and just wants that taste of freedom again. And so, I pace and roar and cry all the while, I realize I can’t seem to find that place within that I can just breathe into and relax. Where did she go? I know she is there somewhere lost? Knock Knock? Who’s there? AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

Sleepless nights, sudden sweats, going from anger to tears in 1.3 seconds! A new world record!! And then the never ending self talk, "See you are crazy. They all said you were the crazy one, well here it is. What more proof did you need? They were right! More tears. No, now back to anger. Okay, the Mr. Toad’s Wild ride has begun again and I am