Shoo to all the anxiety in this world!

July 27, 2016July 28, 2016 / drvijita / Leave a comment

“Shoo!” I said to my own thoughts. My brain was having mental diarrhoea in the middle of the night when the whole world was asleep. I was lying with my eyes shut on my cozy bed and an overwhelmingly soft pillow under my head. I had been tossing and turning at least a hundred times from one side to the other, laying on my back and then my stomach.
“It must be the pillow”, I tried to convince myself.
I picked up a second pillow, which had been lying next to my leg for the past half hour, hugged it tight and took a deep breath. But I couldn’t stop my mind from racing. First, I had ideas about what I wanted to do in the future and then random thoughts about things I had done in my past. All this while I became more and more aware of my heart beating: faster and faster, and harder, pounding in my chest as if it was going to break out and run away, dragging me with it so I could still feel its rage.

“Am I having an anxiety attack?” I asked myself. I could hear my heart beating even faster and then it became difficult to breathe. I forced a few deep breaths but then I suddenly felt the need to sit up on my bed. I kept taking deeper breaths but I couldn’t breathe enough. I was suffocating.

I walked out of the room, walked through the hallway with my chest congested, trying to find an open space. And then I realised what was happening.

It was my first panic attack!

I stopped and thought to myself. What on earth are you doing? You are so strong. Why are you trying to run away from something that my own mind created?

I thought I needed to make my choice right there. Either I was to run away from the situation and be scared about another panic attack my entire life or walk back into the situation, fight my battle and finish that enemy right there. Once I win it, I knew I would never have to be scared ever again.

I pushed myself to walk back into my room and slowly lay down in my bed and shut my eyes. I was immediately back in a state of panic. As I tried to tell my mind to control it, my body became numb. I could feel a tingling sensation in my feet, my chest felt heavy, and the heaviness was getting out of control.

I finally managed one deep breath and decided to fight it.

“Alright then,” I said out loud. “This is going to be uncomfortable but remember it’s not dangerous.”

And then I told myself to follow the next few steps:

“First, stop trying to control your breath. It is your body’s natural process to take in air and breath out air.

Next, remember that it’s uncomfortable but it’s not dangerous so hang in there because it will only last until you want it to last.

Then, most importantly, do not even try to empty your mind of these thoughts, because an empty mind can cause more anxiety to those who are already having one. Instead welcome them, each one of them, embrace them and consciously thank it for coming. And then consciously speak up in your mind that, you choose peace than to panic. Say it aloud if you need to. ‘I choose being in peace than to be in panic.’
Say it a few times, until your mind is convinced that you really want to be peaceful.

Next, tell yourself that these are your own thoughts and your own creation and you will not allow them to control you; you are the one who controls your thoughts and that acknowledges that you, and only you, are the one who has the power to change your thoughts to something that you would like to think about.”

At this point, in the middle of the night, all I wanted was a peaceful sleep. And that’s what I told myself, and I made it very, very clear.

The next time I opened my eyes it was 9 am. I smirked at my panic attack and flipped up my middle finger to any anxiety that was planning to come my way ever again.

FACTS ABOUT NEWBORNS.

November 11, 2014November 11, 2014 / drvijita / Leave a comment

Have you ever looked at a newborn and wondered if the newborn babies sense the world as “an overflowing confusion” or if they actually don’t sense anything?
Here are few facts about Neonates and infants.

Neonates see things as though they are looking through a fixed-focus camera. They lack visual accommodation – so don’t keep moving the toy in front of them, it’s hard for them to focus!

By 2-3 months they can see almost all the colours of the visual spectrum but they prefer red and blue to other colours. So, if you are confused about the colour of the toys or clothes you should buy…it’s blue or red!

They are near sighted and they can see objects only upto 7 to 9 inches away so don’t wave at them from the other end of the room, they can’t see you.
However, by the age of 4 months, they seem able to focus about as well as adults can.

They developed hearing even before they were BORN. So if newborns turn to you, it’s not because they can see you but because they can hear you. They reflexively turn their heads towards unusual sounds. They are preprogrammed to survey their environment.

Three days old babies prefer to their mother’s voices to those of other women but they do not show similar preferences for the voices of their fathers.

By the time of birth, they have had 3 months of experience already. They were capable of sensing sounds and they were learning, even inside the uterus. This learning contributes to their neonatal preferences.

Neonates can discriminate distinct odours like onions and even rotten eggs, they turn away from unpleasant odours.
Give a newborn infant a rotten egg to smell and they will literally spit or stick out their tongues or literally wrinkle their noses at the odour. But they smile or show licking motions to chocolates, strawberries or vanilla.

Newborns can discriminate taste as well. Give them anything salty or bitter, they will refuse it. They can discriminate sweetness on the day following birth.

Newborns are sensitive to touch but relatively insensitive to pain though sensitivity increases dramatically with just a few days – no wonder how they adapt to all the squeezing of birth processes.

YES! Newborns are capable of perceiving the world reasonably well soon after birth!

Learn to be creative in just a few steps.

November 7, 2014November 11, 2014 / drvijita / Leave a comment

Creativity involves adventuring the unexplored, it is determined through one’s output in the form of ideas, work, inventions etc. but is it something that is only naturally endowed?

Unlike caste, colour or creed, creativity has no geographical location or culture. It is universal. Everyone of us therefore can be creative.

The most important step is divergent thinking. Here are the few steps to practice it.

REMOVE YOUR FEARS : fear of failing, fear of being judged are some of the factors that stops a person from trying new things.

BE INDEPENDENT IN YOUR JUDGEMENT AND DECISIONS : One’s individuality and identity should be imbibed in one’s creative work. It’s the style of individual functioning and even past experiences that reflects on the creativity.

ALWAYS CHOOSE THE THINGS THAT ARE COMPLEXED : Challenge is the game that creative people enjoy. It should inspire and persuade you to indulge into creative processes.

STOP BEING TOLERANT TO BOREDOM : “feeling bored” is a very common status update on Facebook. Acknowledging it, is a sign of being tolerant to it. Creative individuals develop anxiety at such situations as a result of seeking satisfaction of his creative urge and end up being intolerant to boredom. However this anxiety is different from a neurotic individual with disturbed personality.

TRANSFER KNOWLEDGE FROM ONE SITUATION TO ANOTHER : School achievements have nothing to do with creativity. Scoring low on achievement is because of lack of reproduction of the input. What you need is a greater output of the little knowledge you gained. It involves openness and using the knowledge of what you learnt in the past.

BE FLEXIBLE IN YOUR PERCEPTION : Remember what you perceive is not the only means or the end in itself. Try providing new perspective to your thought and action.

STOP CARING FOR PLEASANT SECURITY OF POSITIVE PEER APPROVAL : Be more inner oriented and try to use your energy and potential to satisfy creative urges. You might end up having non-conformist views but that’s what creativity is about. Being original!

Most importantly learn to express yourself, learn to have fluency in expressing your thoughts to the world because, YOU are original. There is just one “YOU”. You are, what you need to be creative. Be original.

10 ways to become an emotionally competent person.

November 4, 2014November 11, 2014 / drvijita / 4 Comments

Emotion is a state of arousal accompanied by changes in facial expression, gesture, posture and the subjective feeling which generally is a reaction to any stimulus from the environment. It comes naturally but there are times when we so badly want to control it.

So, can a person deactivate emotions? Well, you will become a zombie if you do that. But what you can do is to manipulate it and become an emotionally competent person. How can you do that?

RECOGNISE PATTERNS – All emotions should be distinctly seen in you and you have to be aware of the patterns of every expression that happens to you.

REFINE your emotion – Express your emotions in a socially desirable way. Try smiling whenever and where ever you can, that helps!

CHECK YOUR EMOTIONAL TIDE- Learn to hide your feelings. Avoid sudden inappropriate outburst of emotions. Try thinking of good memories that happened to you Or just do the the breathing exercise.

DO NOT BE A DAYDREAMER- Perceive everything in their real perspective and do not possess the desire to run away from reality. Remember every problem or situation has a solution.

LET INTELLECT BE YOUR GUIDE- Do not let emotions guide you. Your intellectual power of thinking and reasoning should guide you. Try being rational always.

BE HONEST IN YOUR BEHAVIOUR- Do not argue in defence of any undesired or improper conduct or shift the responsibility of your mistakes on others. It’s okay to blame yourself when you go wrong, just tel yourself not to do it again and make sure of it.

SELF RESPECT- Form your self concept and respect yourself first. That will automatically help you to behave in a way in which you will never do things or express in a way that will injure your self respect or your ideals.

DO NOT BE ANTISOCIAL – This will help you to be keen in improving your behaviour to maintain good social relationships. Hence express in the best way that is socially acceptable.

THE RIGHT PLACE AND THE RIGHT TIME -If there is a danger to your self prestige – you are allowed to get angry. If you love someone – you are allowed to show love. Just remember to exercise it at the right time and right place but also remember that too much of anything is not good for health!

JUST BE MATURED -Any person who is matured does not shift too fast from one emotion to another. This doesn’t count being moody because that is the mildness form of any emotion and can be easily controlled.