Very interesting replies.
I think it all boils down to the fact that most, if not all of us experiencing the palps and other anxiety issues have basically lost our way in life, we feel like we have lost control, that our life is like a leaf blowing in the wind - we are being taken along for the ride and not in control at all.
The palpitations etc. are just the symptom of the above, our body and minds way of saying that things are wrong with our lives, it's tipping us off of the fact that things needs to change.
I believe that the longer we stay in the anxious state the longer it takes to get back to a low base level.
Here are some things I have been implementing that has helped -
I think most of us, if we look at ourselves logically, would see that we are in an anxiety habit, when things go wrong or symptoms increase we immediately grab for our security blankets - whether they be coming to this forum, reading anxiety self-help books or videos, searching the net for yet MORE answers etc. etc. etc. You probably know what I mean and could add to that list.
Now I knew about that habit ages ago, but found in moments when I felt down, perhaps after a bad bout of palps or a sleepless night, I would automatically start the anxiety habit cycle, and it NEVER made me feel better, but instead dragged me down as I was reaffirming that I was anxious, had palps etc.
So I put in place a day diary, and in this I basically just write a quick note of what I am doing every hr or so, it sounds simplistic and probably stupid, but it makes it VERY easy to see if I have started to drift in to spending hrs searching the net, or even chatting on this forum too much etc. and I can easily put a stop to it by getting busy with something else. I also use it to fill out short term goals for the day like, updating my website, doing some exercise etc. and create some forward facing goals.
I have also found that looking forwards as much as possible also helps a lot, deliberately directing ones attention AWAY from palps / symptoms and getting on with life, living life in the here and now not in the past, basically keeping it all present, doing things in the now gives the feeling of more control and also direction in life. It gives me the feeling that things are moving along in the right direction.
Rumination, I believe is the thing that takes us in to the downwards spiral, it's what separates people that have a palpitation and just brush it aside and get on with life and people who have that same palpitation experience and ruminate and worry about it, perpetuating even more of them. My diary and forwards looking is helping me to reduce my rumination, helping me to create more good habits which will hopefully continue to diminish my bad habits and eventually remove them.
Hopefully my thoughts will be of use to someone