Is It the Heat or Is It Anxiety 10-Minute Reset for Racing Heart, Brain Fog & Panic Attack Symptoms

Your heart is racing, your head feels foggy, and you can't tell if this is the heat or if this is a panic attack starting. If you've been searching for heat anxiety or wondering why summer makes your anxiety symptoms worse, you're not imagining it, and in the next 10 minutes, we're going to calm your body down, whichever it turns out to be. Welcome, this is calming anxiety. I'm Martin, clinical hypnotherapist, former paramedic, and every day I bring you these moments for nervous system regulation, panic attack and genuine calm.

The daily support beyond this episode, why not check out my course at calminganxiety.fm Now find your quiet place somewhere cool if you can, sit or lie down which ever feels right, and if it's safe, close your eyes. As a paramedic, I was called to more heat related emergencies than people expect, and the symptoms always look the same, erasing heart, dizziness, brain fog, and a sense of dread at something was seriously wrong. These are also some of the most familiar panic attack symptoms, which is exactly why in real heat it can be almost impossible to tell the two apart. But here's the honest answer.

In a heat wave, it's very often both. Heat genuinely raises your heart rate, and it lowers your inter-reception, your brain's ability to accurately read your own body signals, and an already anxious nervous system reads this confusion as danger. That's a false alarm, not a true one, but your body can't always tell the difference, without a little help. So whichever it is today, we start the same way, bringing your sympathetic nervous system back down with one breath.

Today, in for three, hold for two, and then out for five or six, whichever you wish, let's begin. Breathe in, two, three, hold two, release, two, three, four, five.

Just appreciate this gift of time from you to your song, and then once more, ready?

Breathe in, two, three, hold two, relax, two, three, four, five.

Your vagus nerve is hearing that message now. Whatever started this, your body is being told clearly, it's allowed to come back down. Let's do it one more time. Breathe in, two, three, hold two, relax, two, three, hold two, relax.

Two, three, four, five. And just been here, there's nowhere you need to be apart from here, relaxed, reuniting, mind, body and soul. Breathe in, feel the way your rib cage rises, expands, filling your lungs with life, with focus, with clarity, and then as you exhale, take note of how the muscles loosen and lengthen, by using deeply and safely within this moment, deeper and deeper, deeper into a natural trance like state, further and further down.

Breathe in this moment, as the fog in your mind clears, visualize these beautiful words, seeing them brightly in your mind's eye, and then whispering them in your thoughts or speaking them out loud. I can tell the difference between heat and danger.

My racing heart is chemistry, not catastrophe.

I am warm, I am not in danger. My body is allowed to slow down.

I trust my nervous system to settle.

Let that trust settle in now, just a little deeper, there is nothing else to do right now.

Every out breath, drip, floating, further and further down.

And then once more, within the sanctuary of your consciousness, in the beauty of your mind's eye. I can tell the difference between heat and danger.

My racing heart is chemistry, not catastrophe.

I am warm, I am not in danger. My body is allowed to slow down. I trust my nervous system to settle.

Now feel your breathing, intimately, like never before. The in breath, the way your rib cage rises, the way your belly moves as well, pausing at the top to take note of the moment, and then as you exhale, just drop, lower and lower, more calm, more incontrolled, feeling that true sense of peace, of balance, flow through every fiber of your being. And before we go, here are today's three daily caring tips for hot days that feel like the anxious ones. One, hydrate before you panic.

Before you label a racing heart or a foggy head as anxiety, drink a full glass of water. The hydration alone can produce both and it's the easiest false alarm to rule out first. Two, the shade reset. If you feel overwhelmed today, find shade or somewhere cool for five minutes before deciding what the feeling means.

Let your body's temperature drop before you let your mind write the story. Three, check the thermometer. Before you spiral into something is wrong with me, check the actual temperature. 30 degrees outside is a complete ordinary explanation.

Sometimes the kindest thing you can do for your nervous system is handed a fact instead of a fear. Now bring your awareness back into the room around you. Wiggle your fingers and toe. Take that deep breath in, hold and then as you exhale, stretch out the body and then open your eye.

If today helped you tell the difference between the heat and the anxiety, please share it with someone else sweating through this weather and wondering the same thing. And just to say plainly, this is everyday heat and everyday anxiety we're talking about, automatically diagnosis. If anything ever feels seriously wrong, please always get it checked properly by a real person you can see you. If you're ready to go further, then this just 10 minutes.

Please check out anxietycircuitbreakacalls at calminganxiety.fm. This mind, 5 clinical hypnotherapy sessions for only $67, yours for life to really help break that cycle. It's what I do within a clinic in face to face. Thank you.

You'll also find the full library on theAnchored app. Take care my friend. I'm Martin, this is calminganxiety. Stay calm, stay calm and in everything be kind.