The three minute fix to conquer ANXIETY

... it even helped ANNA MAXTED cope with awkward relatives at a family party

Whenever my son is late home from school, my mind leaps to tragedy. After visiting friends, I brood that I’ve given offence. If my boss seems terse, I assume I’ll never work again.

My anxiety is not dramatic, but it is pervasive. It nibbles at the edges of my life, reducing its joy and scope. Sometimes the inside of my head feels like a prison.

Clinical hypnotherapist Georgia Foster used to suffer from anxiety, and understands people like me. For more than 20 years, she’s helped clients with unquiet minds — and her new online programme, The 3 Minute Anxiety Fix, is designed to free us from our restrictive thought patterns by retraining the brain.

‘When you’re in an anxious state, it can be overwhelming,’ Georgia tells me. ‘Often, if something bad has happened, the brain thinks that something else bad will happen and gets over-prepared for the worst- case scenario. But once your bucket’s full, it only takes one drip for it to spill over into anxiety.’

It’s this cycle of worry that Georgia aims to help people out of.

The programme — which I access on Georgia’s site through my iPhone — is ideally undertaken over a couple of weeks, and entails listening to three 24-minute self-hypnosis recordings combined with daily breathing techniques to take brain and body from a nervous to a calm state.

Determined to regain control over my fearful imagination, I lie on the sofa, and listen to Georgia explain that anxiety can in fact be protective. It’s natural for the body and brain to sound the alarm in a situation it believes is unsafe. But if this mechanism is on a hair trigger — if we become anxious over small things — it’s unhelpful. happily, we can teach ourselves to react differently.

I’m sceptical and Georgia’s soothing tones in my headphones don’t work automatically. ‘ Change is positive, change is good,’ she whispers. Well it can be, I think, but it isn’t always. Often it’s traumatic.

Georgia says she’s focusing on how, in difficult times, we can train our brain to react calmly and logically, to access the pre-frontal cortex, the area of deep thinking, rather than our panic station, the amygdala at the base of the brain, which produces the fight- or-flight hormones cortisol and adrenalin.

As I listen, I’m struck by the idea of ‘breathing out’ unhelpful thoughts and feelings ‘before they take hold.’

A few days into the hypnotherapy course, I have an engagement. I’m a novelist, and have been invited to supper by a book club. I smile at the sight of 20 friendly people, and it’s all delightful, until the host mentions my ‘speech’. What speech? I pale as it dawns that I’ve agreed to give a talk (as specified in the invitation which I’ve neglected to properly read).

ASI FuMBle for my notebook and start scribbling, a few of Georgia’s words squeeze into my gibbering consciousness: ‘There is a gracefulness and wit when required.’

I experience an unexpected moment of clarity. I shut the notebook, and decide not to refer to it. And as I rationally reflect, my heartbeat slows and I gain access to what Georgia calls ‘the intuitive, calm, logical’ part of myself. This is doable, I think. I’m talking about my writing and myself. I’m the expert. The anecdotes flow and I manage to raise a few laughs. And — even more amazing — I enjoy it.

A few days later, the host sends a bouquet and a touching note: ‘You had us all eating out of the palm of your hand.’

I really feel that Georgia’s suggestion was instrumental to the evening’s success.

Buoyed, I move on to the tutorials, given by breathing technique specialist virginia Alexandra. It becomes apparent that breathing exercises are exhausting.

There are six patterns (such as the humming Bee Breath, below), but you can choose two and apply them to any situation — and you must practise for three minutes every morning. virginia explains: ‘The first three minutes are difficult because the mind continuously chatters. Mentally saying the words “anand” [which means happiness] on the inhale and “bliss” on the exhale cuts through that.

EvenTuAllYthese words become the focus, the mind starts to settle, and the central nervous system calms.’

Days later, there’s a family celebration. I’m looking forward to seeing my sister. however, a couple of tricky customers are also attending. historically, I’ve indulged these people and their slights. But Georgia’s words about dealing with tedious characters and what they say — ‘breathe it out before it takes hold’ — resonate. I’ve gained self-awareness.

I stick with my favourite people. One of Georgia’s tips for reducing anxiety is to focus on the present, not obsess about the future. eventually, a tricky relative seeks me out. her first enquiry, asking after my ‘screenobsessed’ children, is a masterclass in passive-aggression.

I answer civilly and she tries again, this time more bluntly rude. I smile, say, ‘Ah, I think it’s tea-time!’ and turn away. I puff four times out of my nose like a happy dragon. Breathe it out before it takes hold!

Afterwards I feel jubilant. It’s not that I’ve magically acquired a new blithe personality or a false veneer of serenity. rather that, when I feel agitated I’m more likely to question my rationale before spiralling into panic. I’m modifying how I think and therefore respond to challenges.

It minimises anxiety and I can already see that it has the capacity to foster balance and contentment. As virginia says: ‘life is painful, challenging, it’s part of the journey. But we’re here to have a happy time, and we all deserve peace of mind.’