Ride the Waves
Challenging emotions, such as anxiety or panic, are often experienced in waves. While the frequency and intensity of the waves can vary, we can learn to ride the waves as a means of getting ourselves back to a more emotionally regulated state.
We know some simple truths about waves in water. They begin to form, they peak, and they fall. We know for certain waves do not sustain their peak forever and will level out.
The goal is to help individuals become more aware of their experience and to learn to ride the wave of anxiety or panic, rather than feel stuck in it.
Urge Surfing
One way to begin applying the concept of ride the waves is by urge surfing. Urge surfing is often presented as a coping skill to individuals in addiction recovery. When in recovery people may experience cravings and urges. As with waves, we have learned some similar truths of cravings and urges. They too come on, peak, and pass. When in recovery urge surfing supports individuals in gaining awareness that the urge will pass and eventually level out, and they can learn to ride the wave, rather than give in to the urge.
Waves of Anxiety or Panic
Let’s apply the concept of ride the wave to anxiety or panic.
To begin, recall a recent experience of anxiety or panic.
Next, reflect on the peak of that emotional experience. What were you feeling in your body? What thoughts or self-talk were you hearing? How long did the peak last?
Then, consider your experiences leading up to the rise of the anxiety or panic. Again, what was happening in your body? Thoughts or self-talk? Any external factors (other people around, things happening in the environment or space you were in, etc.)
Lastly, go back to the peak and consider how the anxiety or panic shifted from the peak through the fall, and the leveling back out. What happened after you most intensely experienced your anxiety or panic? Any shifts in your body? New thoughts or self-talk? Changes in the environment or space?
It often appears enlightening to recognize that anxiety and panic have a similar flow to waves, in that they rise, peak, fall and eventually level out. Visualizing a wave of anxiety or panic also provides a way to map out the elements of how individuals experience their anxiety or panic.
Mapping Out a Wave
Here is a brief step-by-step of how to visually map out a wave experience of anxiety or panic.
Draw one big wave. Rising, peaking, falling, and then leveling out.
Identify behaviors, feelings, and thoughts that occur throughout each part of the wave and write them down along the rise, the peak, the fall, and the leveling out.
This may also include identifying other people or environmental factors involved along the experiences.
Write words or draw images on what you noticed along the wave leading up to the peak.
The lead up may point to the triggers and flags that you are beginning to experience anxiety or panic.
Write words or draw images on what you noticed happens at the peak (top of the wave).
These may be the most intense moments, often what someone who experiences anxiety or panic really wants to avoid most.
It is important to remember and reflect on the fact that the experience at the peak will not last forever - it will pass as the wave falls and levels out.
Write words or draw images on what you noticed happens along the fall of the wave, once you begin moving down from the peak.
In the fall there may be behaviors, feelings, and thoughts of acceptance, a sense of relief in knowing the peak is over.
Tapping into what happens in the fall has the potential for pointing you to coping skills that may be helpful during and/or after you experience anxiety or panic.
What you notice in the fall and/or leveling out may also point to strategies that could help you come down from the peak and level out sooner rather than later, in future waves of anxiety or panic.
Building awareness of our emotional experiences is a key in moving through the journey of life. When the journey includes moments of anxiety or panic, we can learn to ride the waves.