Hey, welcome back to your Daily Mindfulness. In today's session, we're going to work with a unique way to reframe the experience of fear and anxiety. So there's something interesting about fear and anxiety, which is that it's nearly the same physiological experience as excitement and enthusiasm. So let's paint a picture because that could be a little confusing of how that's possible. Imagine two people on a rollercoaster, they're sitting next to each other.

One person is gripping the bar like this. They're sweating, uh, sweat dripping down their face. Their heart, heart is racing. Um, their teeth are clenched like this. And the other person, same thing.

Hands gripping, sweat going down their face, heart beatin fast, breathing a bit shallow. One person is terrified and the other person is excited. And you could kind of imagine how that would be possible, right? How both of those experiences, both of those physiological experiences are familiar as fear and anxiety, and also familiar as excitement and enthusiasm. The main difference between those two people is not the physiological experience, but it's the meaning that they're applying to the experience. One person is going, I'm terrified.

This is going to be awful. I hope I make it out alive. And the other person is going, this is going to be awesome. I can't wait. I want to do it again.

Different meaning, different relationship to the physiological experience and different experience entirely. Now, there are a lot of ways to work with fear and anxiety. We talk about those ways on the app. Simple things like redirecting the attention back to the breath, noticing when the anxious thoughts come up and not taking them as seriously. And all of those are valuable, but this is unique in the sense that instead of turning away from that physiological experience, the encouragement is to lean into it, to say, yeah, this is here.

And instead, try to shift the meaning that you're applying to it. So if you feel that going on in your body, your heart beating fast, the hands gripping, and it's something like before public talk that you have to give, notice what's going on in your mind. Are you thinking about all the ways it can go wrong? All the ways you're terrified, imagining what the people are going to think if it doesn't go well. Well, what would it be like to switch that up, and instead start thinking about it going really well, how excited you are. Using that physiological response as a way to create meaning in your mind that this is something I can't wait to do.

It's something that takes some practice, but it can be a powerful reframing of an experience that we typically associate with fear, anxiety, or just overall negativity. So try this out. We'll talk a little bit more about it than the meditation. As always, thank you for your practice. I'll talk to you soon and take care.