Your chest tightens making it difficult to breath. You can feel the blood coursing through your veins, the carotid arteries on each side of your neck pulsating like they might explode. The thunderous pounding of your heart is reacting like there is a ravenous tiger closing in on you as you try to run to safety. The level 10 nervousness feels like you are getting ready to parachute out of a plane for the very first time.
The problem is there is no tiger and there is no plane. You are simply lying in your bed opening your eyes to wake to a new dawn.
The “fight or flight” sensations seem to have come out of nowhere. You haven’t even had your morning coffee yet and yet your body is behaving as if you have consumed 5 espressos already.
What is going on? Is this what a panic attack feels like? And if it is . . . why are you feeling panicky first thing in the morning when absolutely nothing is going on?
These are the questions I have been asking myself for a few months. I used to have these types of episodes long ago coinciding with PMS and only for a couple of days a month. Now they are happening randomly throughout the day and night ravaging my peace of mind and robbing me of my much needed sleep. Truly, it is exhausting.
Fortunately, I have witnessed this before in other menopausal women and been able to glean a lot of help in working through this roller coaster ride. Thinking I was having a heart attack the first time it happened, I went to the cardiologist and he assured me my heart was strong and healthy. His professional conclusion was everything I was and currently am experiencing is related to hormones.
Really uncool! But nevertheless, this is my new reality. At this point, I have no desire to introduce anything into my body – such as hormone replacement or other prescription drugs. If possible, I hope to allow my body to adjust without chemical assists. I’m aware it may require some tweaking at some point.
I have discovered a few things which have greatly helped and reduced my episodes. Every morning I meditate, sometimes with the help of the head space app, sometimes with my own yoga breathing self-guided visualization. I drink herbal tea – chamomile and a blend called “calm”. It helps. I soak in hot baths by candle light with relaxing background music. It helps. I get down in the floor and deepen my breathing while stretching. It helps. I take long energetic walks and focus on oxygenating my brain, while inhaling calm and exhaling anxiety. It helps. But most of all I remind myself – “this too shall pass.” That greatly helps.
The last few days – my chest nervousness has been between a 1 and 3 based on the 10 scale. My episodes have been must less frequent and last night I slept the entire night without waking up to the thunder of my heartbeat. Awesome!
I hope by sharing my experience maybe some of you might feel encouraged and know that you are not alone in this season of struggle and that these crazy changes are not unusual. Our mind is a beautiful thing, but it also can play tricks on us. Awareness is the first step, breathing is the second step and choosing a path forward is the third step to calming the beast of hormonally induced anxiety.
After watching my close friend go through so many treatments, spend thousands of dollars on various specialists and never get relief until she learned how to meditate, practice yoga and openly share her experiences with her empathetic friends – I knew this was the best path for me.
Today I am feeling quite grateful for her allowing me to be a part of her homeopathic healing as her experience has been my best physician.
From our first day of menses through the birth of our first child until we experience the ravages of hormonal fluctuations that come with menopause – women helping other women will always be one of the greatest gifts we can give each other.
Grateful for all my amazing women friends in my life – Thank you for showing me the way to tame the beast!
This article was written by a guest blogger. The opinions expressed here are those of the writer and do not reflect the opinions of Bob Lacey, Sheri Lynch or the Bob & Sheri show.
The Zen Den
Hello and welcome to The Zen Den. My name is Alison and while I am passionate about many things, my most inspiring driving force is human connection. Blogger, content writer, orthopedic exercise specialist, motivational speaker, international yoga pro, published songwriter, avid poker player, mom and wife are just a few of my titles. But when I do my job at NASA, I am known simply as “The Fairy Zenmother” a role I deeply love because people invite me into their space to help them find their center, relax and stretch their muscles and destress their mind. Here in the blogosphere version of The Zen Den, I invite you into my world where I will explore ideas for creating a better tomorrow and a kinder today. And hopefully, with insight, authenticity and humor; my words, observations and experiences will help you feel calm, centered, intellectually challenged and spiritually enlightened. Alternatively, if you have something you would like to see covered in The Zen Den, just let me know. Your feedback is welcome and valuable to the success of this blog. Finally, my heart is filled with gratitude to have this opportunity to share with all of you.
