Life Inside a Restless Mind “SUDDENLY it’s hard to BREATHE!” That’s how it sometimes feels. That’s how it usually starts. An event, a trigger, a vague or precise stimulus, an irrational or oblivious thought, an image, a word, an unpredictable something…. That’s when it starts feeling like the whole world is collapsing; space around you becomes narrow or it becomes wider, the air is being sucked out, time no longer makes sense, rational cognition no longer intact, mind freezes, feelings bombarding, emotions clashing and almost everything is in complete dissonance. And all of a sudden; rush of irrational and cloudy thoughts, a crowded mind, confusion, chest tightness, shortness of breath, tremor, nausea, sweating. Your system gets flooded with norepinephrine and cortisol and your body and brain becomes wired to be on the lookout for potential threats. It pulls you down, it shakes your mind/body/and soul, paradoxically it shuts down your system, and it withdraws your sense of peace, tranquility and clarity. As a matter of fact, it is debilitating, it is tiring, it is controlling and threating. It is crippling! But what is? It is the Fear of Fear, the feeling of dread and apprehension that creates all this aggravated body and mind tension. It is the fear of the unknown, the unpredictable and the unclear. It is your mind creating a draining and overwhelming life in the future and living it in the present. It is your mind creating a series of unhealthy, untrue, invalid, catastrophic and inaccurate life events. It is preparing your body and mind to receive these events. It is coercing your body and mind to react to these events. It is absolutely hard to control… Somehow, you think you are preparing yourself, you think you are anticipating, you believe you cannot control it and you convince yourself that what you are afraid will happen is inevitable and will absolutely take place. You convince yourself that the expected unknown catastrophe will befall. Thus, your body is always in the “Fight or Flight” response. When in fact, your thoughts are arousing your body and tiring your mind. That’s how it always feels like you are in “Alarm mode” When all of this is happening and you feel your whole world collapsing and your knees are touching the ground, “Take this still moment to acknowledge the countless times that you have faced your worst fears, fallen down, stood up again, dusted yourself off, and found the strength to move forward.” Pascale E. Nakhle Psychologist at the American University of Beirut Medical Center/Psychology Instructor at American University of Beirut
Posted on: Thu, 04 Dec 2014 23:30:46 +0000
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