If negative events cause a panic attack, what can we do?

Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
Thank you.
So if you get a lot of negative emotions, as in a panic attack, actually this is a, I’m going to talk later about overcoming fear and anxiety, where we’ll go more into that. But I’ll talk about two points here. First is that there is a situation and there is the imagination.
So the situation is what is confronting us right now. That is what we need to deal with. But along with that, the imagination comes.
And the imagination is what can actually overwhelm us. So for example, if I’m going on a road and I see a deadly accident, what if when I drive somebody comes and hits my car and I’m lying, I start thinking like that, I become fearful. I become too fearful to start driving also.
I’m built in accident, not just for driving, even if I’m sitting with somebody else and they are driving, still I may become fearful. The situation is that the accident has occurred. But the imagination is, it will happen to me and I’ll be destroyed.
So to deal with this, whenever a panic attack is there, now the first thing is, what exactly has happened? This can happen, that can happen, that can happen. That is what fuels the imagination. So to stop that imagination from being fueled, what exactly has happened right now? What is it that I’m dealing with right now? So if we bring the thoughts back to the situation, not to the imagination, that is what can bring us back to reality.
The situation can be managed. The imagination can go anywhere and to manage that becomes very difficult. All the imaginary scenarios that may come up.
And we may say, I’m not just simply imagining, it can happen. Yes, it can happen. So the first step is, come back to the situation.
What is the situation right now? And what about the possibilities? This can happen, that can happen. There is, this is where we have to use our intelligence to differentiate between possibilities and probabilities. If it comes to possibility, anything is possible.
Right now I’m sitting, this roof may cave and we may die. Anything is possible. If we start worrying about possibilities, we will not be able to do anything.
What to speak of driving in a car, I can’t sit under the roof also. I’ll not sit under the roof, I will sit under the open sky, when the earth may quake from below. Isn’t it? If I start worrying about possibilities, I won’t be able to do anything.
So, there are possibilities and there are probabilities. Probability means, that which is likely to happen. Now a hurricane can come anytime.
But if there is a prediction, there is a weather forecast, hurricane is going to come. Then that is not a possibility, that is a probability. Then I have to have a different approach for dealing with that.
So, road accidents can happen anytime. But if my car’s brake has already failed, then an accident is not a possibility, it’s a probability. So, if I use my intelligence to differentiate, Okay, what is the possibility, what is the probability? Yeah, this can happen.
Probabilities, we can deal with. Okay, if this happens, I can do 1, 2, 3. I can do this, I can do this, I can do this. So, when we are focusing on imagination, we get disempowered.
This can happen, this can happen, this can happen. But when I focus on the situation, this is what has happened. What can I do about the situation? I can do 1, 2, 3. Okay, this is a road where people drive very fast.
So, maybe if I drive drunk, I will drive more slowly. I might take a different road or whatever. We can find out the practical steps over there.
So, the panic attack will be triggered by something which is different for different people. But when that happens, if you could just separate between the situation and the emotion, situation and the imagination, the emotion is naturally going to come because of the stimulus, whatever we have seen or whatever we have felt. But along with that, the imagination is what will aggravate it.
So, fear is not the problem. What comes after fear is, what comes after fear is, if all the imagination comes over there, then that is where the problem comes. So, one way to do this, I said distinguishing between the situation and the imagination and distinguishing between possibilities and probabilities.
One way to do it is in advance. Because at that time, we may get very overwhelmed. So, in advance, if we know, these are the situations when I tend to become panicked.
So, if we can plan out, sometimes the panic attacks may come unpredictably. But sometimes they are predictive. That means, I know when I go along this road, there is a bump over there.
When the bump comes, I slow down. So, if we look at our own life and try to see patterns, when the panic attacks come, and how the thoughts work at that time. So, we can plan in advance.
When this particular thing happens, then my mind goes off in the spiral. And how can I check that spiral? So, I write down my thoughts. This is unrealistic.
This is just a possibility. This is what has actually happened. If it happens, I will deal with it.
So, if we plan in advance, if we observe the pattern of our own thinking, recognize the situations when we tend to become panicky, and then plan in advance. And that can help us to deal with it very effectively. And as I said earlier about connecting with the spiritual reality.
So, one of the easiest ways to connect with the spiritual reality is through the mantra chanting. So, if we can just, either as a repetition or as a musical recitation, just chant mantras when the panic attack starts coming. Or we make a habit of chanting the mantras.
We find out the panic attack when it comes. It will still come, but instead of its intensity being like this, it will become lesser. It will be there, but the amplitude will become lesser.
So, when we raise our consciousness to spiritual level, then the panic attack seems to be… A panic attack doesn’t seem that big. By spiritualizing our consciousness, we can deal with that more effectively.