In the last couple of years - I’ve listened to hundreds of hours of (what I call) personal development ebooks. I took all of that very serious.

So serious that instead of making notes - I made over 6,000 pictures. They act as notes/reminders. They change every 60 seconds on two laptops that sit on my desk.

On this topic - “The Secret” comes to mind.

Over simplified - focus on what you want - not what you don’t want. That same messages is all over in all kinds of personal development - motivation but .....

While The Secret was a “nice” message - I really did not get it until I found 10 hours of their work shop. The redundancy of the message finally soaked in.

A few points from it:

- Pick the best thing about someone or something and use that as your focus. While thinking about the best feature/part you will come to realize other even better parts about the person/thing/situation.

- Instead of thinking about the bad - potential worse - negatives ...... view the entire situation with a hopeful positive outlook.

A guy named Eckhaart Tolle ...... made a very lasting point - in one of his ebooks.

Your life is now - right now - right this very moment. You can’t change anything about the past - that is not your life anymore.

(thinking about the past is often thinking about regrets - thinking about the future is often thinking in fear - we need to live in the now - the right now - this very minute now)

Sometimes when we are thinking about our problems - if we just shut our eyes and focus on that very minute - we may see that in that very minute - we don’t have the problem at all (in that moment - in our life - our life is RIGHT NOW.

Yes I firmly feel - we should not think about our problems all that much - including our health problems.

Aussie - I have mentioned it before - I died July 20th 1998. In November of that year the panic attacks started. I “learned” my way out of them. At first I visited panic/anxiety forums ......... then stopped that. Reading about people having panic attacks for 20 years or more was not helpful.

I also mentioned I had a TIA (or 10) over the last 40 days or so. Well that was stirring up the anxiety again. I had to look for ways to get that back under control. The panic/anxiety was for sure making anything (I was having or not having) worse.

One of the big big things that helped me (back in 1998) get past the panic was ........

A Dr at the ER said “I just hold my breath when I feel some anxiety coming on”.

Often hyperventilation comes with panic/anxiety. Holding your breath does the same thing as breathing in a paper bag. It slows the oxygen intake - giving time for it to convert to dioxide that carries it to the brain.

Learning to breathe 12 time a minute also helped me.

This time around I have turned this desk chair (Herman Miller Aeron) into a full body vibrator/heater and give myself a 15 minute relaxing “treatment” each day around noon.

I have not had any anxiety attacks for a few days - mostly because I have not had any TIA/stroke scares in several days now but - I hope I can hold my own if I do have another one. I am convinced the anxiety/panic makes everything worse.

I don’t even come here and read much anymore ....... I also think - thinking about our health problems (too much) decreases our quality of life.