A Different Way of Looking at Anxiety - a podcast by Sam Led

Society looks at anxiety as a terrible thing. What if we can be just ok with our anxiety? Yes, it is uncomfortable sometimes. Yes, it is scary. What if we look at our anxious mind as not a broken piece of machinery? What if we see our mind as a perfectly/imperfect high precision machine that is alerting us with anxiety when our mind is going to fast?  Alerting us to slow down? Or that there is a temporary software glitch?

Anxiety just moves through us in the moment. It does not exist. Anxiety is a barometer. It is not there to terrorize you. Anxiety is just the check engine light on the car dashboard indicating the engine is overheating. It is alerting you that you are too zoomed in on a problem.

Our mind has not had a software update since the paleolithic era.  The brain’s emergency alert system cannot differentiate between suddenly being jostled in your seat by air turbulence from being chased by a saber tooth tiger. But we can.  When we are calm. In the moment. When we see our crazy mind innocently getting confused and caught up. What the personal mind does is package up the past nonsense and replays it for you when you have to make a decision that is life changing or you are on time constraint. The judgements, the old tape, and the critical analysis comes in on how difficult it is going to be. Then you take a deep breath, hold on and wait for the thought storm to pass through us.

We have mental health within all of us, we just don’t know it. You can still be very anxious and perform in front of an audience. Or score the winning hit in a baseball game. Or going on a job interview.  We are all divinely guided by a factory default internal GPS that is always working for us. 7 days a week, 365 days a year.  And if you get calm and listen you will understand what I mean. What to do next in your life, your job, your relationship is never found up in your mind.

Never has been. Never will.

Further episodes of The Fear Less Now

Further podcasts by Sam Led

Website of Sam Led