Most people will experience at least one or two panic attacks at some point in their life. This will happen when a person finds himself in an extremely stressful situation. The body then activates what is known as the “fight or flight” mechanism. This phenomena is considered normal when is comes at a highly stressful situation. But for some people, the Panic attacks come almost at random, or in a very mildly stressful situation. This is considered a Panic attack disorder and as you may imagine it greatly affects the lives of the person who has it and his close environment. So what are the main panic attack symptoms? How can you tell if you are having one?

Panic attacks symptoms are surprisingly similar to a heart attack, but don’t worry – the two can be easily distinguished by ant doctor. While having a panic attack the symptoms a person will experience will include:

Quickness of breathing
Increased heart rate
Increased body temperature
An overwhelming feeling of dread or fear (panic).
Tightness in the chest
Tingling in one or both arms and/or the tips of the fingers
Profuse sweating
Minor delusions
Unreasonable fear towards random objects or events
Lightheadedness
Dizziness
Nausea

The symptoms listed above are common symptoms related to panic attacks, each varying from person to person. Most chronic panic sufferers tend to have a unique set of symptoms that mark their panic attacks.

By the way, the feeling of tightness in the chest leads some of the sufferers to believe that they are having a heart attack. However, any doctor can tell you that a real heart attack has additional key symptoms that most are unlikely to ignore.

So, How to tell for sure if you’re having a panic attack?

Besides experiencing any combination of the symptoms mentioned above, there are a few exclusive factors behind real panic attacks.

Panic attacks are very limited in time. The body can maintain this reaction for no more than 15 minutes. Anyone who experiences a combination of some of the symptoms that are described above can rest a sure they will pass before long.

Another major factor of panic attacks is the feeling of anxiety that follows an attack. Most people who experience a panic attack tend to worry about attacks that will follow. This is a natural reaction, and another reassurance that all you experienced was an anxiety attack. This feeling of fear will at most cases be gone within a week’s time.

Having said that, toy mast pay attention to feeing of fear that lasts for weeks, as well as recurring attacks. These may indicate that you suffer from a chronic panic disorder, and not just an isolated incident. If this is the case in would be wise to seek help with a medical physician or psychiatric doctor in order to control the attacks.

For most people, being a teenager is perhaps the most exciting stage in life. But being a teenager is full of ups and downs. A teenage girl is mostly bombarded by images of how Hollywood defines “beauty.” Billboard and magazine advertisements, t.v. and radio commercials, and even the Internet is saturated with images and messages of what is “in” and what is “hot.” These media-driven images and messages play a major role in shaping the identity of young people.

For this reason, social and relationship issues often take center stage in a typical teenager’s life. The need for a sense of belongingness drives many teenagers to remake themselves according to the standards set by media and their peer groups. To be accepted by one’s peers is a normal teenager goal that can even sometimes overshadow the need to have a good academic performance. Many also take it to a higher level and aspire for a certain degree of popularity. For teenage boys, being part of the varsity team or having the most beautiful girl in school as a girlfriend is a ticket to popularity. For teenage girls, being the girlfriend of the high school hunk or being part of the cheer leading team is the passport to enter the world of the “in” crowd.

But how do teenagers make sure they become well-known and well-liked in school? What does it take to be popular? Here are some of the common ways to be a “teenage star”:

1. Be the next Paris Hilton This is done by always being the first one to sport the latest fashion trend.
2. Get a fabulous hairstyle.
3. Get involved – Meet new people and mingle with popular teenagers.
4. Refine your body language and become more sophisticated.
5. Seek opportunities to socialize.

But for sure, popularity is not everything. Some teenagers who take the task of becoming popular to the extreme tend to have psychological and emotional problems. When they feel rejected or unpopular, these young people often resort to anti-social behavior. Saddled with social anxiety, they no longer take the effort to meet and relate with other people. They let their insecurities and lack of self-esteem limit the scope of their social reach and influence.

But living the teenage years need not be such a hard struggle for acceptance and friendship. Here are a few tips on how to blend “in” without losing your identity:

l Just hang out with the people that love you for who you are. It will make your life so much easier.

l If someone calls you a “nerd… geek….or weirdo” — just shrug or laugh it off. You know who you really are and as long as you are comfortable with that and you are not hurting anyone — you’ll be just fine.

l Smile and the world smiles at you. Let your smile show braces or crooked teeth and all!

l Be discriminate about invitations. Accept only invitations to activities or events that can benefit you. It’s good to turn down an invitation every now and then.

l Be outgoing. Stay friendly. Being too shy won’t help you gain friends or develop meaningful relationships.

l Stick to your values. Remember what your parents taught you about courtesy and doing good in school. Getting good grades is more important than being popular.

l Don’t be a show-off. Don’t drink or do drugs just to be show how”cool” you are. Drinking and being addicted to drugs will mess your young life. Do not let peer pressure get to you.

l Don’t let emotions rule your head. If someone snobs you, let it be and let it go. Remember that respect breeds respect.

l Don’t make fun of other people.

l Take care of yourself. Observe proper hygiene. Take pride in your appearance. Be comfortable in your own skin. Being a happy teenager starts by accepting whatever imperfections you have. Project a confident image. Create your own style.

If you are having a tough time fitting in at school, remember that others feel the same way and you are not alone in your predicament. The first step forward is to realize that you should not over-emphasize on external things. It is important to find the right balance in your relationships, activities, and in life, in general. Schoolwork should take precedence over the desire to become popular. Remember that what’s inside is what really matters.

Copyright 2006 Olga Farber Becker

When you’re thinking of money and it brings painful thoughts – what do you do? Trying to run from these thoughts or just switch from them to positive ones doesn’t always work.

Then instead of running from the pain we can use it to our advantage.

Abraham-Hicks says, as our emotions are, so is what we get following our thoughts surrounded by these emotions. The stronger the emotions, the stronger you attract what you’re thinking of, to you.

Which means, if you open your email and see no sales there and you feel strong pain “why doesn’t the money come?” – it means, you attract to yourself the situations where you’ll feel exactly this, that the money doesn’t come.

Or if you’re looking at a stack of bills you need to pay, or your credit card printouts bring you the feeling “why the money goes and goes, when will it start to come??”

But let’s turn the pain to our best weapon! 🙂

They say you’re having a strong emotion, strongly attract to you… something. And your feeling of pain is there because you resist what you want to come to you.

Then let’s see it like this:

What we want, WANTS TO COME TO US. But we resist it, and by that we don’t let it come to us. So when we see email without sales and feel pain, it’s actually pain because MONEY WANTS TO COME TO US and we resist it! IT’S NOT THE PAIN THAT IT DOESN’T COME!

If you’re a woman, you’ll understand the analogy with giving birth: 🙂 Grantly Dick-Read wrote about it – when in labor, normally the woman feels the pain only if she resists the baby going out. She heard from her childhood that labor is pain, and so she is afraid, so she contracts the muscles instead of relaxing and letting them stretch to release the baby. That’s the basis of all modern and old techniques of giving birth naturally and painlessly.

SO try to realize it when you feel pain thinking about lacking what you want: the pain doesn’t mean you hurt because of not having it, the pain means it WANTS TO COME TO YOU and your pain is from resistance only.

Imagine it: money wants to come to you so much, but you barricaded your doors and windows, holding the door as you only can, shouting NO!! 🙂

Please, please – release the hold, unbarricade even one window – you’ll immediately feel better and you’ll finally let what you want, come to you EASILY, QUICKLY and with FUN.

To beautiful life experience!

Copyright 2006 Marshall House

Opportunity is knocking. Opportunity is knocking all the time. All the time. Listen.

Sometimes you may not hear the knocking. Or you may hear, see, or sense it and then ignore or discount it. You may, for example, be preoccupied with the absence of the opportunity you desire. You may think that you are giving your attention to the opportunity you desire, but if you are complaining or feeling sad that it is not present, then you are focused on its absence. Preoccupation with absence, allows absence to expand. Preoccupation with the absence of your heart’s desires can be very disempowering.

Desires are an essential part of life. In fact, without desires there is no life. Desires lead you to opportunity and/or help opportunity to find you. When you hold a space for whatever you desire to experience in your life, you invite in the opportunity with your readiness and eagerness. It is helpful that you identify what is an opportunity for you. Remember, what is an opportunity for someone else may not be an opportunity for you. Your own personal empowerment is entirely in your hands.

The more confident and hopeful you are, the more likely you will be able to listen for and hear the knocking of opportunity. Finding ways to be more hopeful about any aspect of life can make you more ready to let in new opportunities.

You might consider preparing yourself and your space in the same way you would prepare your physical space for an honored guest. You can clean your living space and clear your thinking so that you can feel good about opportunity’s presence. If you want to hear the opportunity when it knocks, fine-tune your hearing and other senses. The very best way to recognize the opportunity is to be happy. Happiness is the key to resonating with the opportunity that you have defined as one of your heart’s desires.

So, consider, what opportunity are you ready for in your life? Do you know? Is it joy? Is it Peace? Is it Abundance? Is it Friendship? Is it Celebration? Is it livelihood? Is it all of the above? There’s no need to limit yourself. Listen for the knocking of opportunity.

Invite in the Peace and Joy and Friendship and anything else you want to experience. Be specific or be general. Be clear about the essence of what you desire, relax, and let it in. Listen, open and receive.

Today is an opportunity. In my view, each moment, each situation, each second, is an opportunity. Listen for the knocking of opportunity.

Arguing – what’s it good for? Arguments are rarely “won.” When you think you won an argument, what did you win? The “loser” at least learned something, right? But what did you get? Debating practice, ego satisfaction, and diminished brain power.

Arguing Diminishes Brain Power?

At times things need to be debated, but most of the time, it just isn’t productive. You may want to argue the point, but what do you get from a useless debate, and more importantly, what do you lose? I say you lose effective brain power.

There is at least one thing we can probably agree on. That is that a person listening to arguments can learn something from both sides. Now what about the participants? When your opponent makes a really good point, do you say, “Hey, you’re right!” and learn something, or do you more often just look for a better argument?

You see, arguing too much gets you in the habit of looking for arguments more than for truth. You get deeper into a rut the more you defend a position, because any hint of opposing evidence is pushed away as a threat to your “victory” or correctness. Ii being in a rut and ignoring the truth doesn’t sound like it’s good for brain power, it’s because it isn’t.

Brain Power From Listening

Say the moon is closer, and if I say the sun is, one of us has to be right. On the other hand, if you say nurture is more important, and I say nature is, we’re both sort of right. That’s because the first argument has clearly defined terms. This isn’t common in most arguments (and what’s the point of arguing with someone who thinks the sun is closer?).

The second argument has to do with values, experiences, and poorly defined terms. We’ve seen different things in life, and we could spend a lifetime arguing the definition of “important.” Alternately, I could shut up and listen. In this case my mind becomes more powerful with the addition of your ideas and knowledge. Listening is the better way.

How do you break the habit of arguing? Start by purposely asking for people’s opinions, and listen without saying anything. Ask them to clarify, but don’t offer one contrary idea. If you do this enough, you’ll be surprised at how much you learn. You may also be surprised by how difficult this simple technique can be, but it works. Tell me I’m wrong, and I may just listen to what you say without arguing.