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Panic Not Required

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Aging Beyond BeliefDon Ardell’s tips for aging well are from his book Aging Beyond Belief, 69 tips for REAL Wellness. REAL wellness stands for Reason, Exuberance And Liberty. Don says you can’t buy pills or treatments for REAL wellness−it’s a mindset and lifestyle you control. It’s never to early to let Reason, Exuberance and Liberty be your guide…these tips are for folks of any age. Enjoy.

TIP 6
Panic Not Required
Expect changes, some of which won’t be pleasant

 

At first, naturally enough, many changes will look and feel like crises. This is natural, since they ARE crises (e.g., receding hairlines, wrinkles and fewer offers of leading roles in major motion pictures). Disappointment, upset and worry can’t he helped—it’s quite unavoidable. But, resolve not to dwell forevermore on such things. You are still younger than you are ever going to be again—make the most of it. After a short period adjusting to changes, start plotting rejuvenation, not just a recovery to a boring survival level. Think about actual advances you might attempt that will leave you better off than you were before change intervened and unsettled things.

Prepare for change by building up your level of resilience. Cultivating this quality will protect your vitality, induce added serenity and pave the way for continued passion, adaptability and optimism.

You will build and strengthen your resilience by doing positive things, like reading this book about AUI of a wellness lifestyle. There are many other ways. A few additional steps for creating increased resilience for better adaptation to change might include:

  • Nurturing your network of connections with others—thus avoiding isolation.
  • Helping others.
  • Protecting your routines. Change, as Alvin Toffler emphasized in his 1971 megabit “Future Shock,” can be tempered by safeguarding the familiar. Don’t change things you don’t have to while adapting to crises.
  • Setting goals and picking up the pace toward accomplishing them. Fashion modest goals, at least initially, goals that are easy to realize. Building confidence is more important for resilience than reaching the goal, at least for a while.
  • Keeping the big picture in mind. Relative to all kinds of good things going your way, a crisis does not loom as large if kept in perspective.

See change for what it really is—a part of life, as inexorable as day and night, taxes and politicians who don’t live up to your hopes.

Donald ArdellDonald B. Ardell was a pioneer in the Wellness movement. He wrote High Level Wellness: An Alternative to Doctors, Drugs, and Disease, first published in 1976 by Rodale Press, with editions over the years by Bantam Books and Ten-Speed Press. Since then Don has written a dozen additional wellness books, including Die Healthy (with Grant Donovan), 14 Days to Wellness and most recently, Aging Beyond Belief.

PanicNot Required Expectchanges,

someof whichwon’t

bepleasant

The anxiety continuum

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Overcoming Panic, Anxiety & PhobiasThink of anxiety on a continuum from very mild to very severe. In its milder state, anxiety can enhance your life. In key moments, it can make you sharper, more energized, and more effective. In cases of real danger, extreme anxiety can make the difference between your safety and disaster. Your anxiety is serving you well if it is in response to a real threat. Once you can tell the difference between useful anxiety, which leads to effective action in the face of a real threat, and excessive anxiety in the absence of real danger, you will be well along your road to recovery.

Let’s begin by understanding the worry and panic cycles and their  roles in maintaining your anxiety. When  you  understand them, you can begin to find ways of breaking the cycles.

• The worry cycle often begins with a concern that something you fear is going  to happen.  Events in your life may have taught  you to be on guard  and  to strive for control.  Most anxiety sufferers are consumed with worry about what might happen  next, continually asking themselves, “what if … ?” This anxious apprehension may become worse as you begin to constantly monitor whatever concerns  you. In fact, for some  people,  the  anxiety  caused  by  the  anticipation  of danger is much worse than the anxiety they actually feel in a feared situation.

•  As you start  to worry, you may also notice  uncomfortable physical sensations. Research has shown that people who experience excessive worry may actually be biologically predis­posed to easily develop the physical signs of anxiety. Some­ times the worry cycle starts with these physical sensations. Of course, these reactions will, in fact, increase your anxiety. You may feel tense and find it hard to concentrate. Your thoughts and physical sensations may interrupt your ability to focus at the task at hand.

• And finally, you feel extremely anxious. Until you find ways to break the cycle, you can go around and around: the thoughts or images, the physical sensations, and the anxious behaviors increasing each time. One worry may follow on the heels of another, and the worry cycle can take over your life.

–Overcoming Panic, Anxiety & Phobias, pp. 11-12