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Calming Techniques
how to deal with anxiety, fear & depression

Counselling for the Health of It in Red Deer offers effective calming techniques and Anxiety Re-Patterning Therapy © (A.R.T.) to deal with your anxiety and depression plus work on overcoming fear in your life. These basic techniques also help with anger management since they help you 'get out of your head and into your body.'

Although there are various tests that may be used in the assessment of anxiety, the bottom line is that just about everyone suffers from it to varying degrees. Anxiety may even have severe physical symptoms that limit or even stop you from functioning. 

To help with fear and anxiety as symptoms appear, calming techniques and clinical Meridian Tapping are designed to be straight forward and easy to use. Self administered, any one of the techniques is a quick way to relieve not only your physical distress but also calm the mind. You might also wish to check out these techniques as well as other psycho-educational tools in a safe group setting - Anxiety-Free Power Circles.

If your anxiety is of a moderate degree, this may be the time to be proactive around reducing your stress, before patterns and habits become entrenched. Helena recommends that you try these techniques below.

Out of Your Head & Out of Your Way

Self Calming Techniques for Regulation of Trigger Responses

1. Breathe - Take deep, regular breaths; Count as you inhale; hold to the same count; exhale double the count' e.g. In to count of 3; hold to 3; exhale to 6

2. Let Go - Progressive relaxation; Start with the feet or the head. Scan your entire body slowly, from one end to the other. Tense and release each part.

3. Be Positive - Think positively, especially your self talk

4. Affirmations - statements with positive object (vs. negative of object, eg. I am healthy vs. I am not sick)

5. Distraction - Distract from your triggering cause

6. Attunement - Attune to yourself (in body and awareness) in relationship with your environment; try to connect to your energy body (connection to all)

7. Presence - Place your left hand on solar plexus; attune to your breathing

8. Visualization - Take your mind on a journey. You may use a creative visualization CD or you might magine going to a safe and happy place.  You could also imagine putting your 'trigger' (what upsets you) in a container that only you can open - when you're ready.

9. Rehearsal - Imagine where you will be when you become anxious and rehearse the event

10. Prayer - Talk to God, Source, or your Higher Power and ask for guidance and end with thanks

11. Meditation - Take a break from the mind by various techniques, including focus on a candle, repeat a mantra or just close your eyes and think “rising” with the in breath and “falling” with the exhale

This is a small sample of the types of techniques that you can employ, in the moment that you are triggered, to calm yourself and become more present to the situation. Only then do you have all your inner resources that you need available to you.

Helena Green, at Counselling for the Health of It, uses these and other techniques, including Clinical EFT (Emotional Freedom Techniques), as part of stress management to engender awareness and help you work through your limiting beliefs. You have the ability to take back control of your life.

Deep Listening. Clarity. Sustainable Solutions.

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