There is a simple shift you can use to
transform your anxiety in two words, and in this video you'll learn how to do it.
So one time when I was working in the desert in an outdoor therapy program with youth, we
had a super hot week, like July in Utah, and the temps hit over 100° F every day, and it was
hot and sweaty and exhausting. And one day when I was sitting there just kind of feeling sorry for
myself, I decided to try a thought experiment. I I love a bath so hot that it makes my skin red and
sweaty, so I imagined that the waves of heat were actually me sitting in a hot bath enjoying the
feeling of heat, relaxing my muscles. And suddenly my experience transformed. I went from dreading
and suffering to appreciating the discomfort. It was just like this weird shift that took me from
suffering to appreciating. Now, in our body there is no physiological difference between anxiety
and excitement. Inside of our body it's the same physiological response: cortisol and adrenaline
are released, there's rapid breathing, there's an increased heart rate. You can actually like
flip a switch in your brain when you say, "Bring it on. I actually want this. Like let's go."
And that transforms your experience. So in this video you're going to learn how you can use those
two words to transform anxiety into confidence. [Music] Okay. So a lot of times when someone's anxious,
the advice they're given is to calm down, to relax, to take a deep breath, right? But
it's actually quite difficult to switch from an activated emotion like anxiety to a lower level
of activation like calmness. It's not impossible. People can train themselves to do this. But
it's just hard. It's it's actually much easier to switch from one intense emotion to another.
So a simple way to transform anxiety is to say, "I'm excited." And these two words can make
all the difference. It's actually easier to switch from one heightened emotion to another. So
you'll see this sometimes when someone's feeling really scared or they're feeling really
embarrassed. They'll switch to anger, which is another activated emotion. Well, in
this video we're going to talk about switching from anxiety to excitement. And there's a simple
way to do this. It's by saying, "I'm excited." So these two words can make all the difference.
Researchers have found that when people say, "I'm excited," they actually gave better speeches,
they sang better in karaoke, and they did better on math tests. Now, this might sound too simple to
be true. But what you're really doing is getting yourself out of a threat mindset, where you're
focused on all the things that could go wrong, and into an opportunity mindset, where you're thinking
about all the good things that could happen to you if you do well. Now, the emotion of anxiety is
supposed to prepare you to take action, to help you perform. It's the exact same physiological
response in your body as excitement. And I read a great comment on a video the other day, and here's
what Bryce said: "This idea literally changed my life. Growing up, when I was getting ready for
my first speech ever with my school speech team, my coach asked if I was scared or excited.
She then asked me to turn that extra energy, which was making me shake and sweat with anxiety,
and channel it to project my voice and increase my stage presence. It actually somehow worked.
I still get anxious about public speaking to this day, but the way I think about the anxiety
and try to redirect it into positive energy. It doesn't work all the time, but that one event in
high school has helped me so much in life." Okay. Let me give you another example. There's something
about being outdoors that is uncomfortable. It's hard. But it's also enjoyable. And I think that
it's the mindset. So the marathon near my house, their slogan is "Pain you enjoy." Like people
choose to run 26.2 miles a day even though it hurts, and they enjoy the pain. Mountaineers
experience exhaustion, freezing, hunger, heat, thirst, whatever. But when you choose to
intentionally engage with discomfort, it changes your experience with it. So these mountaineers
probably whine a lot less on the mountain than they might do in an office building where the AC
is set a little bit warm and they might complain when it's like, you know, 75° in the office
building. Um check out this video with two awesome rock climbers. So they've been climbing this huge
face for hours. They're tired, they're hungry, they're worn down, it's dark, and they've got
like huge rock faces beneath them and above them. So what do they do? They dance. So this
is the mantra I've got when it comes to anxiety: Feel the fear, and do it anyway. Like this is
part of the adventure. And, you know, I think there's a lot of little ways we can kind of shift
our mindset to make things more positive. And I I try to teach this to my kids um when we're out
exploring and they scrape their knee or they fall down or they get cut or something by a branch. We
just say, "Oh, that's some hardcore points." And like a bigger owie is like three hardcore points,
right? And the idea behind this is like getting hurt or doing hard things or getting whipped in
the face accidentally by the branch, like oh, this is part of our goal. Like sometimes these big
owies get even like five hardcore points. And it's not that I'm minimizing the pain. It's not like
toxic positivity. I still hug them and I love on them. It's that we say like, oh, pain is part of
the adventure. And that transforms it in our mind from something bad to something that just is. Um
another example of this, you know, being a parent, I've got four little kids, and um being a parent
of little kids is really hard. Like sometimes it's exhausting. And I read this thing on Instagram
the other day that kind of changed my perspective. This lady said, "Sometimes when I'm having a
really hard time with my kids, I imagine that I am a time traveling from my future, from 40 years
in the future where my kids are all grown up and I rarely get to see them, and I get to time travel
backwards in time and spend a day with my kids as babies." Now, my mama heart gets like tender
just thinking about that because like we love our babies, and we hate the idea of not being able
to to see them. But just that little mental shift can transform our present moment experience into
something better. So what does this have to do with anxiety? When you choose to see anxiety as a
normal, natural, and healthy part of accomplishing your dreams and goals, suddenly feeling scared is
part of the adventure, and you're actually excited about it. So you might see that emotional nudge of
anxiety as a sign that this is something you care about. Uh when I teach teach or when I do a live
event, I definitely feel like a bit of anxiety. And I think oh this means I care, or this means
I'm excited. This means it's important to me. Like let's do this. To be honest, the more time I
spend teaching, the less anxious I feel about it, like, but I still feel really excited. Now,
sometimes we really can calm ourselves down. We can combat catastrophic thinking or soothe
our body. But sometimes the very best thing to do is to just convert all of that powerful
energy into action, right? Awesome action. It's like surfing. You're not trying to stop the
waves; you're learning to flow with them. Feeling nervous is your body preparing you for action. So
instead of trying to force yourself to calm down, just tell yourself, oh, you're excited. How you
interpret those feelings, how you relate to those situations can determine the outcome. So some of
the things I say are things like, "Okay, anxiety. Bring it on. Make me as anxious as you want" or
"Oh, this ought to be a fun challenge." Um it can also be really helpful if you predict anxiety.
You could say something like, "Oh, you know, if I agree to give that speech I'm definitely
going to feel some nerves, but that's normal. It just means I'm excited and I care a lot." Um, you
know, some research has shown that almost every type of performer feels a lot of anxious energy.
You could label that as performance anxiety, but the performers who are able to manage it well,
they just think, "This is what I'm doing. This is part of my performance. This means I'm excited."
And the people who get all locked up are like, "Oh my gosh. I have to make this feeling go away.
I can't feel anxious. What if I feel anxious?" And that tends to backfire and make them freeze
up. When we choose something instead of feeling like we're surprised by something, it shifts
our experience to a sense of confidence and control. And I call this challenge by choice.
So when I decide that like, oh, I choose this, I get to be excited about it. So how can you do
this with work? How can you do do this with like a difficult person? You could be like, "Ooh, this
is a chance to see if I can keep my cool. What a fun challenge with a social situation." Or with
morning anxiety, you might say something like, "Ooh, this anxiety means I'm excited about
something today. I wonder what's going to be awesome about today. Let's take some action, you
know. Let's take some action." The other day I was talking to um a young girl in my neighborhood,
and she's a senior in high school. I said, "Hey, how's your senior year going? What's going on?
You getting ready for college?" And she's like, "Oh, yeah, I'm just so anxious about where
to go to college. I'm just so anxious." And I said - you know, maybe this was me being a little
bit contrarian - but I said, "Well, uh you know, maybe that anxiety is excitement that you have
so many opportunities." And I don't know if that was helpful for her. Maybe not. But, you know,
I think you've got to be a little bit excited if you're choosing to do that. Okay. So if you like
to have a list of steps for this kind of thing, here you go. Um get super specific about
your fear. Say like, "I'm afraid I'll say something stupid," and then reframe that fear as
excitement. "I'm excited to share these important ideas." Then visualize some positive outcomes and
how you'll feel when you've done it. Use positive affirmations like "I am capable" and convert your
anxious energy into working on that presentation. And then after you do it, after you present,
reward yourself afterwards. Like remind yourself of the good you did. Give yourself praise. Accept
praise from others. Um and and that's going to help you reinforce the idea that like you're
capable, you can do this, you can handle it, you can feel the fear and do it anyway. Okay.
Here's one last example from the comments section. This person said, "When I'm starting
to feel dread or frustration from work, I used to start finding myself thinking about how much
I hated my job and almost repeat like a mantra in my head to get through it. But a couple of weeks
ago I stopped myself from thinking that way, and I instead tried telling myself that I love my job
and I enjoyed doing it. And what do you know? It helped a ton. I started feeling more excited about
it and even working overtime because I was having so much fun." Okay. So there you go. You can
transform anxiety into excitement with two words: I'm excited. Tell the anxiety like, "Bring it on,"
and let's channel that energy into performance. You got this. Um for those of you who are new
here, this is day 20 from my online course Break the Anxiety Cycle in 30 days. And you can access
the full course at the link in the description. [Music]
