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Today , on episode 301 of the Anxious Truth

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, we're going to do a short guided exercise

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in acceptance , letting go , surrendering

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, dropping resistance , being

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mindful , floating , willfully tolerating

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, Call it whatever works for you . That's

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what today's episode is all about . It's

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a short guided exercise in

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acceptance , or mindfulness or letting go

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, designed for people who are struggling with

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chronic and disordered anxiety . If

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you're watching on YouTube today , apologies

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, there is no video , there's only still images . But there's

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a reason for that . You don't have to watch

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me talk today to get the most out of this exercise

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, so I didn't want to distract you with video

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. So this is the Anxious Truth

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, the podcast that covers all things anxiety

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, anxiety disorders and anxiety recovery

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. I am Drew Linsalata . I am the creator and host

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of this fine podcast or I hope it's a fine podcast

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. Anyway , I am a therapist practicing

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in the state of New York under supervision , specializing

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in the treatment of anxiety and anxiety disorders

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. I am a three-time author on

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this topic Anxiety , Anxiety Disorders and

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Anxiety Recovery . I am a former sufferer

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, for many years of my life , of things like panic disorder , agoraphobia

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, OCD , and of things like panic disorder , agoraphobia , OCD and depression

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. Doing much better now , Thank you . For many years

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I am an advocate , a

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psychoeducator , a social media dude and

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, yeah , happy to be here for episode 301 of this podcast , which

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has been going strong since I don't know when 2014

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sometime , I think . So it's been quite a while . If

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you are new to the Anxious Truth , you just accidentally

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stumbled upon us today . I hope you find what

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you hear or watch useful

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in some way and , of course , if you're a returning listener , welcome

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back . I'm glad that you're here , as always . Just

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a quick reminder that the Anxious Truth is more than

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just this podcast episode , this little guided

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acceptance exercise , or this YouTube video . There

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are a ton more resources , many of

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which are free or very low cost . On

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my website , which is theanxioustruthcom

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, you can follow all my social media links . There's

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links to all of my low-cost workshops and courses

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. There are the links to the three books that I've written . There's

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just a ton of stuff over there . So

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when you get a chance , head on over there to theanxioustruthcom and check it out . Of course

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, if you're here on YouTube today watching or listening as a video and you

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like it , maybe take a moment to hit the thumbs up or subscribe

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to the video , and if you have any questions about what you hear

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, use the comment section below to ask

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me Now , before we get into our little guided

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acceptance exercise this morning , I want to give you

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a few little guidelines . The first one is very

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important . If you sit

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quietly and allow your thoughts and

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find that you are overwhelmed

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literally overwhelmed by painful

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memories of very difficult past

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events or situations , or triggered

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into a current crisis state where

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your ability to cope with how you feel is outstripped

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and you are buried , this exercise

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is probably not for you . This is not

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a trauma-focused exercise

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at all . We do not decide

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to just sit quietly in trauma flashbacks

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without a lot of prep and a lot of

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professional guidance . We don't float

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through past abuses or harmful events that

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trigger re-experiencing events . Now

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, here we are targeting the fear of

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thoughts , emotions and sensations that

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themselves are perceived as the threat

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. We're not addressing PTSD or

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the long-term impacts of crisis events that

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create actual memories that are in some

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way incapacitating in the moment In

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those situations if that's the situation you're

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in first , I'm very sorry that you are . That's

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very difficult , but in those situations

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we want to work with qualified in-person

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help using empirically validated methods

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that can help you rebuild the narratives

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around those past events and turn them into

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really bad but handleable memories and

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the internet , including this podcast

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episode and this episode . This exercise

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is not that so if

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you are dealing with PTSD , or you cannot

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sit quietly with your thoughts because you have

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re-experiencing of past experiences or

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you have flashbacks , so to speak , or

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it just becomes absolutely overwhelming

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and incapacitating to you , this exercise

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is not for you . Please keep that in mind . Second

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little guideline you will note that at

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no point in the rationale and instructions

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I provide today am I going to talk

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about calming , grounding

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, relaxing or even achieving

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any particular state at all . Now

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, I might use the word relax to remind

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you to take the tension out of your body when you notice it

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during the exercise , but this is not about

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learning how to make anxiety or discomfort

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vanish through some technique . This is not

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a calming technique at all when

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anxiety and fear sort of kick in your door

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against your will and barge into your home , sort

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of figuratively speaking . Here , with

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this exercise , we are learning to let it sit

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on your sofa with you , get

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bored with itself and move on

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, without waging war against it or declaring

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your life to be a disaster , because that has

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happened . Paradoxically , when

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we get good at this , we often do

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find that we become less anxious overall

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and we will

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experience anxiety surges or panic

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less often , but that is not

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the primary target here . I cannot stress

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that enough . If you're looking for a calming

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or relaxation exercise to regulate

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your nervous system on demand when you are

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too anxious , this is not it . This is not

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what this is for . And third

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, we are going to practice watching

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our internal experiences change

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when we leave them alone . Change is the key word . We're not going to practice watching our internal experiences change when we leave them alone . Change

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is the key word . We're not going to demand

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that they decrease . Now they might , and

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that would be awesome , but they might also

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intensify at times , which is also okay

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. We really want to see things change

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when we leave them alone . That's natural

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, and we're trying to allow that process

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to play out without resisting it or

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trying to control it in some way

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. Now there may be moments in

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this exercise where you engage in this practice

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and you have thoughts or sensations

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that are getting stronger or louder and

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you will be strongly compelled to

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stop , re-engage your resistance

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and fight against that . If you do

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stop and fight , that's okay . This

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is a long-standing habit for most

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anxious people . It's perfectly okay to

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recognize where things went off the rails

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, maybe reset and try again . Remember

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, we call this a practice for

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a reason . We're not trying to create specific

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outcomes every time . We're trying to

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learn that all the outcomes are actually okay

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, even the ones we don't want . But

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in those moments , ask yourself

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when you want to cut bait

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, run , fight , resist control

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, ask yourself if you can let yourself move

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through those peak experiences

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. That's really hard , 100%

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, let's acknowledge it , but that is a

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valuable ability that

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we're really learning to cultivate . That's what this exercise

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is all about . So let's

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get to it . I want to give you

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a core principle before

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we really start the exercise , and that core principle

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is that , in the absence of a real

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danger or external stress or

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input of some kind , all

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internal experiences , emotions

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, thoughts , feelings etc . Are transient

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, All of them . No internal

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state is constant or forever

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. In

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our context , even people that struggle with thought-driven OCD or GAD can notice that scary

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thoughts , excessive worry or rumination are simply

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not constant . They will rise

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, fall and change on their own , even

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when it's just because we're accidentally distracted

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. And while you might insist

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, anxious people might exist sometimes

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that they are in an absolute panic

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during every waking moment . I would urge

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you to stop for a minute and consider a time in the past

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where you accidentally got distracted and

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found that your anxiety or distress did

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fade into the background at least a little bit

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or did change in some way for

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a few minutes or maybe even a few hours . I

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have seen anxious people who were , you

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know , insisted that they could not possibly attend

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a family function , like a wedding , wound up

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, sort of getting caught up in the event , forgot

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about their anxiety and had a great eight hours

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. That happens . So we

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have to rely on the core principle

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that all of our internal experiences

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are transient if we let them be

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so letting

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go . We have to learn

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and practice how to let go

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so that we can allow this core principle

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to work for us . If we're going to fight

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, resist , judge , interpret

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, analyze and predict based

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on how we're feeling those internal experiences

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, then we are simply not allowing

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the experience to be transient in nature

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. We're choosing to keep that

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experience alive by fueling it

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with the resistance . Now , this is not accusatory

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. It seems like common sense to fight negative

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internal experiences . But when we choose

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to fight , we keep those experiences alive

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. And that's when you'll say I feel like I'm just constantly

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anxious . It doesn't go away , nothing

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works . But even then , nobody

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can remain fully focused on scary or

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disturbing things , because life is going

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to happen around you and it's going to distract

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you for a few minutes here and there . So when

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we practice fully letting go , like

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we're gonna do today , for about eight minutes or so , we are giving ourselves a chance to see our

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internal experiences . Even the really scary and disturbing ones that you think are off limits change

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naturally , because that's what they do . So

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what does letting go mean

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? And when I post about letting go on social

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media , people are like , yes , but how ? What are you

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supposed to do ? What does that even mean ? What does that look like ? How

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do you do it ? Well , first let's talk about what it means

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. It means allowing . It

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means not resisting because it's here

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anyway , so resisting is pointless . It

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doesn't mean letting go of your

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thoughts or sensations so they just float

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away and never return . This

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is not like a cure and

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, by the way , we are going to do some mindfulness and meditation looking things here , and I'm tired

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of hearing that mindfulness and meditation are cures for things . They

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are not . These are tools . But

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in this situation , letting go means letting

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go of the resistance to the thoughts

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and experiences In this situation

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. It means learning how to not fight

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, analyze , judge , interpret

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or say , say , predict , based on

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what you're feeling , your internal experiences . This

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is about learning to just be , which

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I know sounds super woo , but it is true

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. It's about learning to just be and

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allow what is as it

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is , moment by moment Now

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. Does this have applications in life in general

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, beyond anxiety recovery ? Sure does , but for

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now , we're going to talk about how to do

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this , what this looks like for

10:06

people who are struggling with anxiety disorder recovery

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and are really struggling because they start to

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feel things and then they bail . So the next question

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would be how do we do this ? Well

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, if we look at the popular definition of mindfulness

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, which comes from Jon Kabat-Zinn

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he's one of my favorites we can look at mindfulness

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as simply this it's the act of paying

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attention to the present moment

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, with the intention of paying attention

10:29

, but without judgment . Again

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, fully experiencing what

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is as it is right

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now . That's it . That's what mindfulness

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is . What is happening ? Not

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, why not ? What does it mean

10:42

? Not , how do I stop it ? Not what's

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going to happen in 10 minutes . What's happening

10:47

right now ? Can I open

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myself up to what is happening in my life right

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now . That is mindfulness

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, that's how we use it and guess what ? That's

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pretty scary If you're an anxious person

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dealing with things like panic disorder or OCD

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or health anxiety . Even gag can get pretty

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scary when it gets loud . This is

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difficult . We fight against scary

11:07

and disturbing internal experiences because

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we think that we must resist sensations

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, thoughts or emotions because otherwise

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they will be too much , they will overwhelm

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us , they will break us or they might cause actual

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harm to us or they are harbingers

11:21

of doom . So even if they were

11:23

, we think we could stop the signal of doom

11:25

and therefore stop the doom . That's not true . So

11:27

we must always acknowledge that for

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someone struggling with an anxiety disorder , fully

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allowing these thoughts , emotions or sensations

11:34

and observing them as they change seems

11:36

simple . But it's going to feel wrong

11:39

, risky , dangerous or even downright

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reckless to do that . We have to acknowledge

11:43

that and that's what makes this so difficult to do . But

11:46

here we're relying on the core principle that

11:48

tells us that an oversensitized , hypervigilant

11:50

mind stuck in protection mode without

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an actual threat present never

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creates actual harmful

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or risky situations for its owner Uncomfortable

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situations , difficult to handle situations

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. Disturbing and scary situations , Uncomfortable situations , difficult to handle situations , disturbing

12:04

and scary situations . But your anxious mind simply cannot

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destroy itself or you by

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just creating thoughts , emotions

12:15

, images or sensations . It just doesn't work that way . And this is scary work when first let

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go to watch things change on their own , without forcing them . But facing that

12:19

fear is part of the hand we've been

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dealt , it is our reality in the

12:24

anxiety disorder world . So let's acknowledge

12:26

the challenge here , but not set

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up permanent residence in . This

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is hard air . Quotes this is hard town

12:32

. We can acknowledge that this is difficult . Be

12:35

patient with yourself . It's okay . If

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you can't really do it for more than a couple of minutes

12:39

or a couple of seconds , that's okay . But we don't

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have to set up permanent residence and plant

12:43

our flag forever . And this is hard , we

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know it's hard . We have to learn to do it

12:47

anyway , patiently and with kindness

12:49

and self-compassion . So before we actually

12:52

get started , just a little

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bit of a caveat here . This exercise is going to include

12:57

much more talking and coaching and

12:59

instruction that I might do , say , with a therapy

13:01

client in session . I'm assuming that

13:03

this is new to you or that you've been trying

13:05

it , but you're struggling to do this . So

13:10

I really want to add the extra coaching and guidance to help you understand what it looks

13:12

and feels like , so you can get a better sense

13:14

of what accepting , surrendering and letting

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go is like . So

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let's bring it down just a little bit , because I'm not the quietest

13:21

guy in the world and I tend to talk

13:23

very quickly . I'm going to try and bring it down a little bit and

13:25

let's get cooking with the exercise . It's going to

13:27

take about eight minutes or so roughly . I haven't

13:30

totally timed it , but let's

13:32

get into it . So , if you

13:34

are ready , I want you to take a few minutes

13:36

to be sure that you're sitting comfortably or that

13:38

you're laying down so that you are supported

13:40

and can remain in that position

13:42

for the seven or eight minutes or so

13:45

of this exercise without being disturbed . Hopefully you're

13:47

in a quiet place . Take a moment

13:49

to start to scan your body from head

13:51

to toe to see if you can find any tension . We're

13:53

looking for tension . When you do

13:55

, I want you to do your best to release

13:57

the tension in your body . This by

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itself might be challenging , because bracing

14:02

your body against what you fear a

14:04

form of resistance might feel a

14:06

little risky or a lot risky . Do

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your best to sort of ragdoll your body

14:10

. That means let it go limp and release

14:12

all the tension . That's going to be hard

14:14

, but it's okay . If you

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have to re-release throughout

14:18

the exercise . When you notice that the tension

14:21

is returning , that's perfectly fine . There

14:23

is nothing in this exercise that you can

14:25

do wrong . Again , we call it practice

14:27

for a good reason . Be nice to yourself

14:29

as we work through this together . Now

14:32

I want you to take a few seconds to settle into

14:34

the position that you're in . Try to become

14:36

as still as you can and again , this

14:39

might be challenging because fidgeting is one

14:41

of those defenses anxious people employ

14:43

against experiences that we fear and

14:45

we want to block . If you find

14:47

it challenging to relax your body and sit

14:49

still , then this is your practice , right

14:52

Doing a few exercises a few seconds

14:54

at a time and working to extend

14:56

that little by little as you repeat the exercise

14:58

. It's okay . If you find

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that you almost can't relax your body

15:03

and sit still at first , that's okay . Stick

15:05

with me for the full exercise so you can learn what

15:07

you're shooting for . But if you have to get up

15:09

and reset over and over at this point , there's nothing

15:12

wrong with starting . There is literally nothing

15:14

wrong with that . Please refrain

15:16

from declaring failure immediately

15:19

. Now , if you're settled in and

15:21

you've managed to release most of the tension in your body

15:23

and you're sitting mostly still

15:25

, this is where you will probably

15:28

find yourself start to get challenged , because you might

15:30

see that your anxiety sensations and

15:32

your symptoms feel stronger . You might feel

15:34

that your thoughts and emotions are starting to feel bigger

15:37

or louder inside of you . That's okay

15:39

, that's not dangerous . We

15:41

expect this to happen . We're here

15:43

to practice having that exact

15:45

experience . Now ask yourself

15:48

if you can allow what you

15:50

feel and think in this moment . Can

15:53

you acknowledge what you're experiencing you don't have

15:55

to try to ignore it and can you allow

15:57

yourself to fully experience it

15:59

as it is , without resistance ? This

16:02

is the part where we start to get sucked into trying to

16:04

explain what we're experiencing or

16:06

analyzing it or finding meaning in it or

16:08

making predictions based on it . Right

16:11

now , in this practice , let's see if we can

16:13

refrain from doing that

16:16

. We expect this to happen and we're

16:18

here to try to learn to simply have

16:20

this experience so we can learn something

16:23

from it . To

16:25

learn to simply have this experience so we can learn something

16:28

from it . If you notice sensations in your body . Let's try labeling them

16:30

objectively . For example , I feel my heart racing

16:32

, I'm sweating . I feel tension

16:34

across my chest . I notice

16:36

I'm shaking a little . I notice I'm shaking

16:38

a lot . I can also notice

16:40

that my head feels heavy . You

16:42

get the idea . Just label

16:45

them objectively , You'll notice . I didn't

16:47

say it feels like and I did not try to

16:49

predict what any of that means or what might happen

16:51

. You might even gently acknowledge

16:53

that you felt these things every time

16:55

you get triggered or anxious and notice

16:58

we're just describing , we're not adding

17:00

stories to the sensation . I'm

17:03

just going to leave a few seconds of silence here

17:05

so you can practice objectively

17:07

labeling what you feel in your body right now

17:09

. Okay

17:27

, so let's move on to thoughts . If you're having scary thoughts and you want

17:29

to save yourself from the disaster they

17:31

seem to imply , can you

17:34

label the thoughts and watch them

17:36

happen as they happen , like you do with sensations

17:38

? Maybe you can imagine those

17:40

scary thoughts being on a conveyor belt , slowly

17:43

going past you . Can you see them on the

17:45

belt in front of you , moving , say , from

17:47

your left to your right and then maybe falling off

17:49

the end of the belt ? They might come back , but can

17:51

you watch them go past you on the conveyor belt and

17:53

then fall off the end . Can you name

17:56

those thoughts without adding stories or

17:58

explaining them ? For

18:00

example , I notice I'm having thoughts

18:02

about insanity now . For example

18:05

, I notice I'm having thoughts about insanity . Now . I

18:08

can also notice thoughts about being somebody I don't want to be or doing things that I truly

18:10

do not want to do , and this disturbs me . Now

18:12

my mind is making thoughts about being sick or

18:15

needing urgent medical attention or being contaminated

18:17

. See how that works . We're just

18:19

naming the thoughts , we're just acknowledging

18:22

them because we cannot ignore them . So just acknowledge

18:24

them , name them , put them on the belt and let them

18:26

go by . You

18:29

might even label your thoughts as recurring stories if

18:31

they're familiar with you . One thing I like to teach people

18:34

is something like oh , there's that psychosis

18:36

story again . You label it for what

18:38

it is it's a thought . There it goes , it's

18:40

coming around again , like it does all the time , and it's

18:42

going past me . I'm going to leave a

18:44

little bit of silence here so you can practice

18:46

with that . Okay

19:08

, now let's try noticing maybe other

19:11

things that are also happening now . Can

19:13

you hear things around you or in the next

19:15

room ? Are there sounds ? Are there any scents

19:18

or smells you can detect ? Maybe

19:20

take note of the temperature in the room . This isn't a grounding

19:22

thing . This isn't a calming thing . Just see if you can notice

19:24

what else is going on . Here's one . See

19:29

if you can visualize all the people in the houses or buildings in the town around

19:31

you or the city around you . They are also

19:34

having experiences now , of all

19:36

different varieties , some positive

19:38

, some neutral , some negative , just like you are . Can

19:41

you notice for a minute that

19:43

the things happening inside you are

19:45

not the only things happening in the universe

19:48

, even though they want to be treated that

19:50

way ? So take a few seconds now

19:52

to see if you can expand your

19:54

reach to consider that there are other

19:56

things happening in the universe , including other

19:59

people having experiences right now . Take

20:03

a little time to try it . I'll leave you a little silence

20:05

, so

20:26

let's move on to being kind to yourself

20:28

. If you find your mind making thoughts

20:30

about how you are failing because of what

20:32

you're feeling right now , or being challenged by

20:34

that , or if you hear your inner

20:36

critical voice yelling at you that you're never going

20:38

to get better , can you also allow those

20:40

thoughts , Because those are also thoughts ? Can

20:42

you label them as negative or critical thoughts

20:45

and also let them move by you without

20:47

arguing with them or making

20:49

stories on top of them . How about

20:51

trying this one ? Oh , there's that story about

20:53

being weak . Again , it's moving by me , on

20:55

the conveyor belt of my mind . Again , Take

20:58

a moment to acknowledge something that when your mind

21:00

makes thoughts and your body makes sensations

21:02

, even the ones you don't like , you

21:05

are literally part of an unbroken line

21:07

that stretches from the very first recognizable

21:09

modern human being to you , sitting

21:12

or laying where you are right now . Every

21:15

human that has ever lived and will

21:17

ever live have or

21:19

will have thoughts and experiences

21:22

and sensations , some of which are unwanted

21:25

, scary , disturbing or intrusive

21:27

. You are not broken . You're just like all of

21:29

us since the beginning of time . At the moment , you are just being tricked . You're just

21:31

like all of us since the beginning of time . At the moment , you

21:33

are just being tricked into treating those normal

21:36

human experiences as problems to solve

21:38

. So can you experiment

21:40

in these few moments , in this exercise , with

21:42

just having that experience

21:45

rather than problem solving

21:47

around it ? Let's take about

21:49

10 or 15 seconds so you could practice that

21:52

, just having the experience , and I'll leave you

21:54

some silence . And

22:10

now . I'll just remind you to try releasing

22:13

the tension in your body , if you can notice

22:15

any again , and if you can go back

22:17

to trying to be still and notice any movement

22:19

or acknowledge it . None of it is wrong . Notice

22:22

it , acknowledge it and gently adjust

22:24

if you need to . This is what we do throughout exercises

22:26

like this . Maybe you can

22:28

now notice how the sensations in your body and

22:31

the thoughts in your mind are changing over

22:33

the last few minutes that we've been practicing together . Maybe

22:35

they're stronger or weaker , or

22:37

they have moved from one spot

22:40

in your body to another . Maybe sensations

22:42

disappeared and others popped up . Maybe

22:44

you're having different thoughts now or experiencing

22:46

different emotions than you were four or five minutes

22:48

ago . Or maybe they're the same ones , but

22:51

they've gotten quieter or farther

22:53

away , or even gotten louder

22:55

and then softer and then louder again . Can

22:57

you notice how your experience has changed

23:00

? Naturally , when you leave it

23:02

alone and stopped hanging on so tightly

23:04

to try to control it . Try to

23:06

notice how things have changed over the past

23:09

seven or eight minutes . Take a few

23:11

seconds to try that , while I leave you a little silence

23:13

. Okay

23:29

, now I want you to take another minute or so to

23:31

just try to stay in your current experience

23:33

, with the intention of staying with

23:36

it and without judgment or

23:38

interpretation . Drop your resistance

23:40

, See if you can fully allow

23:42

this experience without fighting against it

23:44

, and I will leave you 60 seconds

23:47

here for you to practice on your own . 30

24:13

more seconds , Okay

24:44

. Good job on the practice . If you had to reset a bunch

24:46

of times , that's okay . We're getting close

24:48

to the end of the practice . We want to wrap it up , so

24:51

what I want you to do is slowly bring yourself back

24:53

into the space that you're in . Maybe

24:55

wiggle your fingers or toes gently , Take

24:57

a few breaths , Move around in your chair

24:59

, Open your eyes if you had them closed , Just

25:02

kind of get back in touch with what's around you and where you

25:04

are . Take your time . If you're not ready

25:06

to stop , you're enjoying this and you want to keep going

25:08

. Feel free to keep going . You know , hit the stop button

25:10

and then restart the video or the podcast . When you're

25:12

ready , that's okay . But when you've completed

25:15

the exercise and you're comfortable again , pat yourself

25:17

on the back . Even if you struggle to get

25:19

through it and had to keep resetting , you just did something

25:21

really hard . Acknowledge that you

25:24

did something good for you and that is

25:26

a very big deal . That's important

25:28

and I want you to consider

25:30

the following questions . You

25:33

don't have to answer them immediately . Maybe write them down

25:35

and answer them for yourself over the next five or ten minutes

25:37

. What did I observe during this experience

25:39

? Don't interpret what you observe

25:41

. Just ask yourself what you observed . Stick to the

25:43

facts . The second question

25:46

would be what did this experience

25:48

teach me about anxiety , discomfort

25:50

, fear or distress ? The

25:52

third question might be what did this experience

25:54

teach me about how I can interact with those

25:56

things ? What did it teach me about my ability

25:59

to handle those

26:01

negative experiences without wrestling

26:03

with them ? And the last question would

26:06

be what surprised me about this experience

26:08

? What came up or what did

26:10

I experience as I did the exercise ? That

26:12

I wasn't expecting . And remember , we're

26:14

not looking for specific outcomes here . There's no

26:16

box to check or goal to achieve when you do

26:18

these things . We're just looking for what the

26:20

experience was like objectively , sort

26:23

of without jumping into . I felt like I was

26:25

going to that . We're not going to interpret like

26:27

that and we want to see what was it

26:29

like objectively and what you can learn from

26:31

it that you can take with you into

26:33

the rest of today or your next practice

26:35

session . Maybe you're going to do this again tomorrow . Now

26:38

there's a million other places where you can find

26:40

these type of exercises online without

26:42

all of the front and back that I put on a podcast

26:45

episode that's now stretching to 26 minutes . Maybe

26:47

I'll record one that doesn't have all the instructions

26:50

and has more silence for you . I'll try to see if I can

26:52

do that in the next couple of weeks . But

26:54

yeah , if you did this and you made it to

26:56

the end , even if you tried and had to

26:58

reset over and over , congratulations . You did a really

27:00

good thing today for yourself and I

27:03

really appreciate that . You tried something

27:05

that maybe you thought was impossible or

27:07

thought you shouldn't do or have been struggling to do

27:09

. So good on you . And we'll wrap

27:11

it up here . That would be episode 301 of the

27:13

Anxious Truth . In the books there's no music . I don't

27:15

want to ruin the silence with music today . I'm

27:18

just going to remind you again that you did a

27:20

really hard thing today and you should pat yourself on the back

27:22

, and also that if , in

27:24

fact , you can take one

27:26

tiny step today away

27:29

from the fear and toward the life

27:31

that you more realistically value

27:33

and want to live , no matter how tiny that step is

27:35

like maybe practicing eight minutes

27:37

of you know , mindful acceptance on a

27:39

podcast episode , that counts . They

27:42

all count . They add up . Sometimes

27:44

it takes time , sometimes you have to be patient , but

27:47

you can get there if you let experiences

27:49

like this build up and become additive

27:51

over time . If , in fact

27:53

, you are listening to this podcast episode on

27:55

Apple or Spotify and

27:58

you dig the podcast , maybe leave a five-star

28:00

rating and if you really really like it , maybe

28:02

take a second and write a review , because it helps other people

28:04

find the podcast and the more people get help . Of

28:07

course . If you're watching on YouTube for the first time

28:09

, maybe subscribe to the channel , hit the notification

28:11

bell so that you know when I upload new videos

28:13

and if you have questions or comments , leave them in the

28:15

YouTube comments . I know I'm very far

28:17

behind on them , but I'm finishing my master's

28:19

degree in two weeks and I'll have more

28:21

time to come back into the comment section on YouTube

28:23

. If you're listening as a podcast episode

28:26

, look at the description in your podcast app

28:28

. There's

28:32

a link where you can send me a question by a text . I'm never going to text you back

28:34

. I don't see your number . It's just a way for you to talk to me from your podcast app , so

28:37

check that out if you have any questions . Thank you so

28:39

much for hanging out today . I hope you found this useful

28:41

. If you do , let me know . We'll do more of them . I

28:43

will try to make you a better recorded exercise

28:45

without all the jabbering at you , but

28:48

it might take me a while to

28:54

.