Author: Klara Hanstein
_Klara Hanstein_
Reading time: 18 minutes
Synopsis
Panic attacks seem to come from nowhere. They feel very strong and out of control. But you can learn to understand and calm them. The book Hey Panik, komm mal wieder runter! (2025) uses expert knowledge and care. It shows you how to slowly break free from the cycle of fear. You will learn to trust your body again.
What you will learn: Understand and overcome panic attacks.
A panic attack can hit you like lightning. It can happen in your car, on a plane, in the supermarket, or in the middle of the night. Your body reacts strongly, and your mind feels out of control. Suddenly, nothing seems safe. But panic does not have to be forever. In Hey Panik, komm mal wieder runter!, we show you what happens in your body and mind. You will learn to understand the cycle of fear. Step by step, you will find calm and trust again. This book is practical, caring, and close to real life.
Blink 1 – The Panic Storm – When Fear Takes Over Your Body
A panic attack can come like a storm. You might be in a supermarket line, driving, or in bed at night. Suddenly, your heart beats very fast, your breathing is shallow, and your hands shake. Your body feels like it’s in great danger. At the same time, thoughts rush through your mind: What is this? Am I having a heart attack? Am I going crazy? This fear of fear is often worse than the attack itself.
Many people feel they lose control during panic attacks. Their body seems to do what it wants, and their clear thinking stops. After these experiences, daily life can change. It’s normal to try to stop or fight these feelings. But this inner ‘fighting back’ actually makes your body’s alarm stronger. Your nervous system hears this fight and thinks: The danger is real. Then the cycle starts again.
The first step out of this spiral is to understand panic. It’s not a sign of weakness. Instead, it’s your body reacting too much to protect you. Your body tries to keep you safe, but it chooses the wrong time. Understanding this changes how you feel. Instead of fighting, you can learn to calm your nervous system. You can learn to understand the signals correctly. Panic attacks feel very strong, but they are not dangerous. They usually last only a few minutes, even if it feels longer.
We speak of a panic disorder when attacks happen often and the fear of them controls your daily life. But even then, there are ways to stop the cycle. The main thing is to understand your body’s fear reaction, clear your thoughts, and stop avoiding places or situations. We will now follow this path – looking at your body, your mind, and finally the places where panic appears. Step by step, you will learn how to calm yourself and trust yourself again.
Blink 2 – When Your Nervous System Sees Red
Fear is an old warning system. It has protected us for a very long time. When there is danger, our body reacts very fast. This happens even before our mind understands what is happening. A small part of the brain, called the amygdala, is in charge. It is our fear center. It quickly decides if a situation is safe or dangerous. If it sees danger, it puts the whole body on alarm. Your heart beats faster, your breathing quickens, and your muscles get tight. Your eyes open wider. We get ready to fight, run away, or freeze – this is called „Fight, Flight or Freeze“.
During a panic attack, the same things happen, but there is no real danger. Your body gives a false alarm. There’s no robber, no accident, no fire. Your mind looks for reasons but finds none, and the feeling of not being able to do anything grows. Many people think: Something is wrong with me. I am sick. I am losing my mind. But actually, your nervous system is just working too hard. It wants to help, even when it’s not needed.
It helps to see your nervous system like a traffic light. In the green zone, you feel calm, safe, and connected. Your body rests, your breathing is even, and you think clearly. When you are active or focused, your system goes into the orange zone. This is a healthy state of light tension where you are alert and ready to act. The red zone is when panic starts. Here, your heart beats fast, your breathing is shallow, and your mind is full of fear. In this state, your brain only thinks about emergencies. Logic stops working.
Many people who have panic attacks for a long time often stay between the orange and red zones. They have forgotten how the green zone feels. The goal is to find your way back to green. You can calm and train your nervous system. It’s like an overexcited guard dog that slowly learns to tell the difference between real danger and no danger.
The more you understand these body reactions, the less scary they will seem. In the next part, we will look at how to slowly bring your body back to the green zone – with simple exercises that help you feel grounded, calm, and show your nervous system: You are safe here.
Blink 3 – Exercise: Find Calm in Your Body
Many people who have panic attacks think they just need to „pull themselves together“. But more tension does not fight off tension. Words also don’t help much in such a situation.
Small, gentle movements are more helpful. They slowly bring your body out of the alarm state. Your body needs a physical sign of safety. Stand up, take a few steps, feel your feet on the floor. You don’t need to go far; a few steps are enough. Your body understands: I can move, so I am safe.
Movement works well because it helps you stop freezing. During panic, your body often freezes, like it’s stuck. A light walk, gently swinging your arms, or stretching can relax your muscles and your thoughts at the same time. You can also roll your shoulders briefly or stretch. If you like, smile while you do it. This may sound simple, but a smile actually changes the tension in your face muscles and sends signals of calm to your brain through the vagus nerve.
Breathing exercises also help you feel calm. Fear makes your breath fast and shallow, but you always get enough air. Tell yourself: “I am getting enough air. I am safe.” Breathe in slowly through your nose. Then breathe out slowly through your slightly open mouth, as if blowing through a straw. This makes your exhale longer, and your heart and body will calm down.
Sit down comfortably and let your shoulders drop. When you breathe in, think “in”. When you breathe out, think “out”. This helps you move your focus away from panic. It’s best to practice this regularly when you are not feeling panic, until it feels natural to you. Over time, your body will learn to relax faster.
If your heart races, tell yourself: My heart is allowed to beat. It can handle this. This way, you slowly bring some calm to your body, and that calm is the base for a calm mind.
Blink 4 – When Your Mind Gets Loud
Imagine the sea calm in front of you. Waves roll gently to the shore, pull back, then come again. Light dances on the water. You hear the sound, feel the warm sun and a light breeze on your skin. Just this thought can change something inside you. Maybe you notice your breath gets deeper, your body feels lighter. Thoughts have this power. Even if you are in a crowded train, they can take you to another place for a moment.
But it also works the other way around. The same imagination that took you to the sea can make you feel afraid in seconds. Your mind creates scary pictures, and your body believes them. It doesn’t matter if these thoughts are real or not. If you imagine something is wrong with your heartbeat, your heart will beat faster. If you believe you can’t breathe, your body will start to breathe quickly. This creates a bad cycle: fearful thoughts create body feelings, which then make the thoughts seem true.
But thoughts are not facts. They are just sentences, not always true. You can watch them like movies in your mind and decide if you stay with them or let them go.
If you tell yourself this again and again, you will start to feel separate from your thoughts. You will realize: I am not my thoughts. I have thoughts. And I can choose which thoughts I focus on. This change of view is like a door opening a little bit. On the other side, you will find a place full of calm and clear thinking.
Blink 5 – Exercise: Calm Through Distance
When your mind is in a panic, it doesn’t help to fight against the fearful thoughts. They will only get louder. Words, pictures, and worries mix together, and the more you try to control them, the stronger they become. But in every storm, there is a calm center – the eye of the storm. That’s exactly where we want to go. Even in the middle of chaos, among all the anxious thoughts, there is always a small, quiet space. You can learn to find it.
A simple but very effective technique is: “I am currently thinking that…” If the thought “I am going crazy” comes to your mind, consciously change it to “I am currently thinking that I am going crazy”. This small change changes everything. It creates distance between you and the thought. Suddenly, it’s not the truth, but just something you observe. Your brain reacts to this small difference and feels less stressed. You can use this trick with any thought that worries you. For example: I am currently thinking that my heart is sick. I am currently thinking that it will never stop. This way, you practice seeing thoughts as just thoughts.
Sometimes, it also helps to make fear less powerful by giving it a name. Imagine it like an overly dramatic neighbor who always rings your doorbell and tells you disaster stories. You listen to her for a moment, nod politely – and then you go on your way. You don’t have to kick her out, but you also don’t have to give her all your attention. Humor can break the serious feeling of fear. Fear loses its power once you stop taking it too seriously.
Another step is to consciously look at your fear. Many people try to ignore it with distractions. But if you face it, something unexpected happens: it changes. Instead of “eyes closed and push through”, here it means “eyes open and push through”. When you notice panic thoughts rising, stay in the present moment. Feel what is happening in your body. Observe your breath, your heart, your shoulders. Tell yourself inside: “I am staying here. I can handle this.” The fear can be there, but it no longer controls what you do.
If the fear of illness bothers you, you can consciously change your focus. Instead of looking for signs of sickness, look at what works well. How many days in my life have I actually been healthy? What parts of me are strong? Being thankful for what works well in your body sends new signals to your brain.
These exercises don’t work overnight. But with every time you repeat them, your brain changes. You train new ways of thinking. And over time, you will learn: You are not a victim of your thoughts. You just observe them, and you can decide which ones to focus on and which ones to let go.
Blink 6 – When Places Trigger Panic
Sabine stands outside the bakery and feels her heart racing. Just one year ago, she bought her bread rolls here every Saturday. Today, she can barely go into the shop. Her body remembers the panic attack she had here – between the smell of fresh bread and the queue at the counter. Since then, she avoids that place. Anna, on the other hand, avoids driving. Markus no longer uses lifts, and Lena always goes around the supermarket on her street. Places that were once normal have now become triggers.
This is how conditioning works: Your body stores the memory of fear and then reacts as if the danger is still there. It recognizes the street, the sound of the automatic door, or the smell of petrol – and pushes the emergency button. Even before you consciously think, the program starts: fast pulse, shallow breath, flight mode on. Your nervous system means well, but it confuses the past with the present.
Avoiding seems like the only solution then. It feels good to just stay away. But this relief is misleading. It tells your subconscious mind that the situation was truly dangerous. And every time you step back, the fear gets bigger, not smaller. So, avoiding is tempting, but it’s not a choice if you want to become truly free. The way is not around it, but through it.
So, facing your fears is necessary – but you must do it wisely, gently, and in your own way. Many people make the mistake of trying to do too much at once. But if you push yourself too hard, you will only end up in the deep red zone again. Instead, imagine you are going into a dark room with a scared child. You take their hand, turn on the light, look under the bed together and stay until the child realizes: There is no monster. You don’t force them to go in alone, but you stay until safety is felt. Your own approach to fear should feel the same way.
Small steps are the real strength here. First, sit in your car without driving off. Stand in the supermarket for a short time, breathe calmly, then leave again. Repeat this. Your nervous system needs to repeat actions to learn: I am safe. With each try, the fear becomes more familiar and easier to predict, and it loses some of its power.
Facing your fears is not a fight. It’s an invitation for your body to meet fear in a new way. You are not working against yourself, but with yourself. You stay where you used to run away from. Here, freedom begins.
In the last part, you will learn how to prepare for these moments, which tools can help you, and how you can win back a piece of your life with each new experience.
Blink 7 – Exercise: Stay Brave, Step by Step
Courage is rarely loud. It usually starts quietly, with a firm breath, a look forward, and the sentence: I will try again. If you are afraid of driving, first just sit in the car. No goal, no pressure. Feel the seat under you, put your hands on the steering wheel, breathe calmly. Maybe you start the engine, let it run for a few minutes, then get out again. Next time, you drive a short distance. And one day, you will drive around the block. Not because you have to, but because you can.
The same applies to other situations. If the thought of a restaurant makes you nervous, choose the place carefully. Don’t go for a five-course meal with people you barely know. Instead, have a simple meeting with people you trust. Sit near the exit, order only one drink. You are allowed to leave at any time. This is not a step back; it’s self-care. The most important sentence when facing your fears is: I decide.
This freedom to decide how far you go is the opposite of losing control. It shows your nervous system: You are in charge. With every small step, it learns that the world is not dangerous and that you can rely on yourself. Facing your fears does not mean fighting them, but taking away their power.
Maybe you notice your heart beating faster again, your breath getting shallower, or your hands sweating. Then remember: You have been through this storm before – and you came out again. Stand still, breathe, feel the ground under your feet. You don’t have to be perfect. It’s enough to stay there for as long as you can.
Sometimes a simple mantra helps: I can stay. I can also go. Both are allowed. Both are brave. Because courage doesn’t mean you can do everything. It means trying and staying true to yourself. Step by step, you will gain what panic takes from you: trust in yourself, in your body, and in life.
Conclusion
We have reached the end of this Blink.
It’s true, panic attacks are really hard. So, it’s worth getting rid of them. Even if you have setbacks, keep going! Every small step counts: every breath in the lift, every shopping trip even with a racing heart, every time you consciously stay in the moment. You cannot control everything, but you can learn to let go and trust your body. Over time, the storm will become quieter – and a new feeling will take its place: a sense of safety that comes from within you.
Source: https://www.blinkist.com/https://www.blinkist.com/de/books/hey-panik-komm-mal-wieder-runter-de