Anxiety is a feeling of worry, nervousness, or unease about something with an uncertain outcome. It’s more than just feeling stressed or worried. While stress and anxious feelings are a common response to difficult circumstances, they usually pass once the situation has passed, or the ‘stressor’ has been removed.

When the anxious feelings don’t go away and they're ongoing and happen without any particular reason, it’s called anxiety. Anxiety is the most common mental health condition in Australia. Beyond Blue states that on average, one in four people – one in three women and one in five men – will experience anxiety at some stage in their life. In a 12-month period, over two million Australians experience anxiety.

Anxiety disorders can affect relationships, work, sleep, and the ability to relax and enjoy yourself. Symptoms can include feelings of fear, dread, nausea, fatigue, trembling, poor concentration, and in severe cases a “panic attack, whereby the central nervous system is overloaded.

When someone feels anxious or afraid, their body goes into an alert ‘fight or flight’ state. The sympathetic nervous system and brain is cued, as norepinephrine and cortisol hormones flood the body. This boosts speed, reflexes, perception, while speeding up respiration and the heart rate and slowing down digestion. When the situation is over, the parasympathetic nervous system works to calm the body down for recovery.

People suffering with anxiety find it difficult to calm down. Their thoughts overflow, their stress levels are sky-high, panic sets in. When unmanageable it affects their life socially, physically and mentally, often avoiding specific situations and friends.

Severe anxiety can be very unhealthy for the mind and the body. Brain research has showed that it can be toxic to brain cells and can alter brain physiology. Brain scans show that the amygdala area of the brain, which processes fear, grows in size, while the hippo-campus area of the brain shrinks, harming long-term memory. Hypertension, insomnia, depression, diabetes and digestive disorders are a few of the possible physical effects of chronic stress and severe anxiety.

On the positive side, brains are neuroplastic, resilient and are continuously able to make new connections. They are able to learn new ways of responding and have the ability to break out of negative patterns. Neurofeedback training is an all-natural approach that can create long-term changes in brain function. These changes go to the source of the anxiety — imbalanced brainwaves in the brain itself.

Essentially, when the Central Nervous System (CNS) becomes dysregulated, a variety of symptoms such as anxiety can appear. With Neurofeedback you learn to self-regulate, which calms the nervous system, thereby reducing or eliminating anxious symptoms.

 There is an extensive body of research that demonstrates the effectiveness of Neurofeedback for those experiencing anxiety and numerous other concerns, which you can view here: https://www.isnr.org/isnr-comprehensive-bibliography.

If you suffer stress and anxiety, try Neurofeedback - it’s very effective, safe, non-invasive, medication-free and very relaxing and enjoyable.

For many Christmas is a wonderful happy joyful time, yet for many it can be one of the most difficult times of the year. Some may be missing loved ones passed, or feeling lonely with family living elsewhere. For some people seeing old friends and family members may be exciting or it may bring up memories of disappointments and feeling hurt. So feeling depressed or anxious is not unusual during the holiday season. 

Essentially the healthier your family is, the less difficult holidays are. If you have more of a dysfunctional family, it’s important to have a survival plan.

Firstly, try not to have any expectations. The more we expect the more disappointment we will have when things don’t turn out as we hope. Instead try to be realistic, go with the flow and enjoy the present moment. Just being aware of how the holidays can wreak havoc on your emotions will help you better prepare. You don't want to be overly pessimistic going into it, but you do want to be realistic.

Identify each and every thing that's likely to trigger you. Then make a game plan for how you'll handle each one. Or just smile and nod. You can also try an all-purpose, but specific-to-family-drama mantra: "Today I'm giving my family the gift of tolerance." Deep breathing exercises are also powerful to use in combination with your mantra.

Ask for help if you need it. Reach out to others if you feel alone. Don’t self-sabotage and be a victim. Your loved ones want you to enjoy this special day.

Be true to yourself. Don’t take on more than you should. Do what is right for you – say “no” if you need to! Relax and spend time in nature – nurture yourself. Go for a walk on the beach. Dive into the ocean. Take your dog for a walk in the park. Water the garden. It doesn’t have to take long. Just long enough to refresh and renew your energy.

Don’t take things personally. Remember your boundaries. If someone tries to put you off balance, remind yourself not to personalise it. How people act and behave is a reflection of who they are and has nothing to do with you. Even though it can be tough, try not to personalise hurtful comments. 

Don’t expect people to change. Going into your holiday hoping people will be different this year just sets you up for disappointment. Remember: You are not your family; you are your own completely separate person.

Whether your family has profoundly hurt you or regularly offends you, use holiday time to become an even stronger person. No one can touch your thoughts, so think what you want, laugh to yourself and give yourself tremendous amounts of compassion as you navigate your complicated family landscape. When you meet dysfunction with incredibly healthy functioning on your part, you don’t hand over your emotions to anyone else.

Give yourself a healthy reminder that this is life, not a sparkly Christmas movie. Toss out all notions of achieving perfection, but try to create moments that are special to you. 

Nourish yourself with kindness, compassion and good food. Don’t binge on booze or food, just practice mindfulness, eat slowly, enjoy each mouthful, relax and find pleasure in your meals. Don’t beat yourself up if you over-indulge, as Christmas is often renown for. Just try and listen to your body wisdom and stop before you feel full. If you feel full but still want to taste all those delicious desserts, ask for a small portion to take home for tomorrow.

Schedule post-holiday self-care time. Boxing Day is the perfect day to do something for you. Make a plan to catch up with cherished friends, go watch a new movie by yourself, move your body with some kind of pleasurable exercise, go to the beach, or just curl up with a great novel for the day.

If Christmas being just around the corner seems all too over-whelming for you, then book in for a couple of neurofeedback sessions in December, as I’m offering 30% off until Christmas. Training your brain makes most things in life easier and it can help you find the ability to choose how to respond, rather than react in the same old way. That can make a big difference, especially at holiday time.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all.

Neurofeedback Perth 

The brain is the centre of the human nervous system, governing our thoughts, feelings and movements; it filters and prioritizes all the information that bombards our senses even while we sleep; it controls our autonomic functions from swallowing and breathing to heart rate and perspiration; it constantly modifies our memories to improve our decision-making abilities and from early infancy it allows us to develop the self-awareness that makes us uniquely human.

Since you were born your brain has been developing and being fine tuned from the network of connections, associations, genetics and life experiences. Essentially life moulds your brain, and it has been described as 'plastic' meaning it will continue to develop throughout life. So it’s never too late to learn new information, change your thought processes and boost your brain power.

It’s important to keep working out your brain. You can do this my doing problem solving, puzzles, brain teasers, quizzes, learning new things, challenging yourself, being creative, performing mental tasks and doing neurofeedback.

Neurofeedback training is an all-natural approach that can create long-term changes in brain function. It uses a system of audio and visual feedback to re-train your brain, and bring it back to balance.

An amazing fact is the brain is so big and nutrient hungry that an estimated 25% of all our energy expenditure is used to power its 85 billion neurons; and new connections are formed between them every time you make a memory! All this brain size and flexibility is great news for those of you who recognise the importance of good brain health, stimulation and development.

Did you know that the hippocampus (a region of the brain associated with the consolidation of information from short-term to long-term memory and spatial navigation) continues to grow new brain cells well into old age?

So start exercising your brain so it can function optimally. It can change your life in amazingly smart ways!

Contact me at Neurofeedback Perth on 0402041561 or neurofeedbackperth@gmail.com if you would like further information of how to optimise the power of your mind, body, spirit and life.