0:00

This week on the Anxious Truth , we're going to talk about what

0:02

you think and feel . About what

0:04

you think and feel . Now that sounds

0:06

like a joke and it is definitely one of those sort of brain-twisting

0:09

, meta , mind-blowing topics , but

0:11

it's important and we do need to talk about

0:13

it , so let's do that this week . This

0:16

is episode 293 of the Anxious

0:18

Truth . It's incredibly informal . It's

0:20

like the old days . I'm just looking into a camera

0:22

and reading into a microphone , not even reading

0:24

. I'm making this up as I go along . If you're watching

0:27

on the YouTube channel , you can tell I look

0:29

kind of tired this morning because I am . And

0:31

I'm going to talk about that to give you maybe a little bit

0:33

of recovery encouragement , based on my own personal

0:35

experience . And then we're going to get into

0:37

the topic of what we think and feel

0:40

about what we think and feel . Now

0:42

there is metacognitive theory underneath

0:45

this and some of the pinnings of metacognitive

0:47

therapy and metacognitive

0:49

type therapies . That's true , but

0:51

in metacognition we often talk about thinking

0:54

, about thinking . But I heard Sally Winston

0:56

Dr Sally Winston , who is a legend

0:58

in this field . She said something in an IOCDF

1:01

training video from about a year ago

1:03

that really hit . She frames the

1:05

idea of metacognition or these

1:07

metacognitive concepts that we use

1:09

as thinking and feeling . About

1:11

thinking and feeling , because I think the feeling part

1:13

is really important and I especially

1:16

want to go over that today . Before we

1:18

do that , just a quick reminder

1:20

, as I always do every week you guys

1:22

are probably tired of it at this point but a reminder

1:24

that the Anxious Truth is more than just this podcast

1:27

episode or this YouTube video , especially if

1:29

this is your first time here and you just sort of stumbled

1:31

in accidentally because you searched for something about

1:33

anxiety . There are tons

1:35

more resources on my website at theanxioustruthcom

1:38

. There are low-cost workshops

1:40

and webinars , there are the books that

1:42

I've written , there's all the previous podcast episodes

1:45

. There's just years and years of free social media

1:47

content . So if you get a minute and

1:49

you want to find more information

1:51

about anxiety , anxiety disorders and anxiety

1:53

recovery more resources check out my

1:55

website at theanxioustruthcom

1:58

. And , of course , if you're following along

2:00

on a regular basis and you want to find a way to support the

2:02

work , there's ways to do that on the website

2:04

At a minimum . If you're on YouTube , maybe consider

2:06

subscribing to the channel and liking the video . It does

2:08

help me out . And if you're listening to the podcast

2:10

on Spotify or Apple Podcasts . Maybe

2:13

leave a five-star rating and write a quick

2:15

review . If you really dig the podcast every week

2:17

when it comes out or every two weeks , that would be . That

2:20

also helps me out and helps more people find the podcast

2:22

. So thanks , however , way you follow

2:24

along whether it's your first time or

2:26

you're a returning listener or you've been around for a long

2:28

time however way you support this work that I do

2:30

. Thank you , I am grateful for your

2:32

support . So let's talk

2:34

about what we think and feel , about

2:37

what we think and feel . Actually , before we get into that

2:39

, I mentioned that if you're watching on the YouTube

2:41

channel , you can tell I'm wearing a silly baseball cap

2:43

this morning . I'm tired , it's

2:45

early in the morning , it's a Tuesday morning . The

2:47

podcast has to come out tomorrow morning . I

2:50

have more things to do than I can possibly

2:52

do this week . I lost all

2:54

of yesterday because of a family event which

2:57

was actually quite impactful . I lost somebody very close

2:59

to me . You know this

3:01

person left us , unfortunately , back

3:06

in January . It was a big , big loss in the family , a death in the family . We did a memorial service

3:08

and a burial yesterday and interning

3:10

of ashes and all of that stuff and

3:12

that is because I'm a human being . That

3:15

is very draining . It's highly impactful

3:17

. There's a lot of emotions that come with that

3:19

. I am freaking exhausted

3:21

, from a physical standpoint , a mental

3:24

standpoint , an emotional standpoint . There's just a

3:26

lot going on right now Finishing

3:28

my clinical work to finish my master's degree

3:30

. I'm jamming a lot of hours into a short amount

3:32

of time to satisfy my degree requirements

3:34

. So , yeah , there's a lot happening right

3:36

now . Is my life any more difficult than anybody

3:39

listening ? No , definitely not . But the reason

3:41

why I bring this up and sometimes I'm hesitant to do this , definitely not . But

3:43

the reason why I bring this up and sometimes I'm hesitant to do this , because I never

3:45

want to tell you to do what I do

3:47

or do what I did . That's not

3:49

helping . Like

3:56

, I want to give you some of the principles that I followed and maybe once in a while , like now , I'll share

3:58

a little bit of experience just to give you a little bit of encouragement based on

4:00

the principles and the concepts , not

4:02

just , hey , let me tell you what I do

4:04

or what I did , because you might do something

4:07

different , but you may still follow the

4:09

principles of recovery that we're talking about here

4:11

all the time . So , yeah , I'm pretty

4:13

run down , I'm feeling pretty beat up right now . The

4:15

wheels are falling off on me a little bit . But guess what

4:17

? None of that leads to fear

4:20

or anxiety or panic anymore

4:22

, like it used to . Back in

4:24

the day , when I was really struggling with anxiety

4:26

and intrusive thoughts and scary repetitive

4:29

thoughts and probably diagnosable OCD

4:31

and bouts of depression , this kind

4:33

of thing would have plowed me under

4:35

and I would spend all of my

4:38

time trying to manage my

4:40

body and stay calm and I would

4:42

be going for the magnesium powder and

4:44

I would be listening to , like satellite radio

4:46

, old shock jock satellite radio

4:49

shows to distract me and I would have

4:51

candles burning on my desk Believe

4:53

it or not , the guy that always picks on the essential oils

4:55

. I would use the scent of the candles as

4:57

a distraction and I would be spending

4:59

all of my time trying to manage

5:02

my anxious and fearful state . But

5:05

guess what ? Now , at the

5:07

tail end , well into recovery

5:09

, when I do not have an anxiety

5:11

disorder anymore and I am no

5:13

longer afraid of how I feel , now

5:15

I can really just be emotionally activated

5:18

, emotionally worn down , drained , tired

5:20

. My butt is dragging right now

5:22

, but I will tell you that before I recorded

5:25

this morning , I was out for a walk . I

5:27

did 15 minutes worth of other exercise

5:29

. I've been doing my email , I've been taking care

5:31

of my stuff . I sort of set the rest of my schedule

5:33

for the week . Yeah , do I feel

5:35

good ? No , I pretty much feel like

5:37

crap this morning . But I feel like

5:39

crap because I'm a human being under the gun right

5:42

now . And what recovery taught

5:44

me ? In following the principles of recovery

5:46

that I talk about all the time

5:48

on this podcast and everything that I write and

5:50

say , whether it's in books or on social

5:52

media posts , the principles of recovery

5:55

taught me that I do not have to fear

5:57

my own experiences , my inner

5:59

experiences . I don't have to fear my

6:01

own body . I do not have to fear big emotions

6:03

. I don't have to fear my own body . I do not have to fear big emotions . I don't

6:05

have to fear my thoughts . Am I still prone to maybe have a

6:08

catastrophic thought here and there about how

6:10

I feel ? Yes , but guess what ? I

6:12

learned that I do not have to follow them

6:14

. And so they occur , fleeting

6:17

. Maybe I don't even recognize them . Half

6:19

the time I might notice that , oh , I'm a little

6:21

bit anxious for the last few minutes . What's up with that ? It

6:23

might have been triggered by a passing like sort of

6:25

catastrophic interpretive thought about how

6:27

I feel , but I let it go and I go

6:29

on with my day and

6:31

now , instead of the focus being

6:33

how I feel and what I'm thinking , my

6:36

focus is on taking care of the tasks

6:38

in front of me , and I only wanted

6:40

to share that for a few minutes at the start of this episode

6:42

, because I can't bring myself to do a whole

6:44

episode on that . It just seems a little bit too self-serving

6:47

and self-centered . But I wanted to pass it

6:49

along as maybe a bit of recovery

6:51

encouragement for those of you that are struggling and listening

6:53

to this today . You may be at that

6:55

stage of the game where times

6:57

like this would be incredibly difficult

7:00

and triggering for you , because you're so

7:02

focused on how you feel and what you think

7:04

and what your emotions are , and you're spending all

7:06

your time trying to manage your anxious state

7:08

because you think you have to stay safe , or

7:11

you insist that you have to manage it because

7:13

otherwise it will run away from you and you won't be

7:15

able to tolerate it . Well , guess what ? I

7:17

was you once too , and the

7:19

work that I did in recovery taught me the

7:21

lessons that I try to impart to you all the time

7:23

. I don't have to be afraid of myself

7:25

anymore . So I'm allowed to feel what I feel

7:28

. Don't like this , can't wait for it all to

7:30

be over , but I don't have

7:32

to fear what I feel in

7:34

my body and what happens in my mind . I don't

7:36

have to fear my emotions anymore . So

7:38

, while I might be dragging today , and if you're unlucky

7:40

enough to be watching this as a YouTube video and subjected

7:43

to this face today , thanks

7:45

for hanging in there , thanks for not being too judgmental

7:47

today . Thanks for hanging

7:49

in there , thanks for not being too judgmental . And yeah , I wanted to kind of just appear

7:52

on camera this way this week just to give you an idea of like this would

7:54

have been really hard years ago and now

7:56

it is hard , but it's hard for a different reason

7:58

. Anyway , I hope that helps because

8:00

sometimes hearing from people on

8:02

the other side of recovery even if it is the guy

8:05

with the microphone doing the podcast can

8:07

be helpful . And you guys ask me a lot about my

8:09

experience . I'm always selective in the way

8:11

I answer it again , because I don't think it's fair for a helper

8:13

to just keep saying , well , why ? Well , I

8:15

Look at me , I did , I feel . I don't

8:18

think that's okay because it does not

8:20

account for the wide variety of individual experiences

8:22

and it can lead people astray and be a little

8:24

bit invalidating . And it can be frustrating

8:27

for people to just hear me say , well

8:29

, I did , well , I did , well , I did , and if you try

8:31

to emulate me and it doesn't work , you're going to be frustrated . So

8:33

I try not to do that , but today a little bit , I

8:35

hope it helped . So let's get back

8:38

to the topic at hand today

8:40

, which is thinking and feeling . About

8:42

thinking and feeling . We are about eight minutes in , so

8:45

thinking and feeling , about thinking and feeling really

8:47

kind of fits right into what I was just saying

8:49

, about what I'm experiencing right now

8:51

. You'll notice that you know , a couple of minutes ago , when

8:54

I was telling you what's going on with me right now

8:56

, I said I don't fear my

8:58

thoughts anymore , I don't fear

9:00

big emotions , I do not fear my

9:02

internal experiences . Well , why

9:04

is that ? One of the things that

9:06

I find most fascinating about this topic

9:09

is trying to figure out , and

9:11

I don't know if we ever will . Maybe we will . I don't

9:13

know the answer to this . But why do

9:15

some people in our community have such a difficult

9:18

time ungluing themselves

9:21

from their thoughts and their symptoms

9:23

, while others want

9:25

to stay glued to thoughts and emotions and symptoms

9:27

because it feels safer but have an easier

9:29

time of recognizing oh wait a minute

9:32

my emotions , my internal

9:34

experiences . I have interpretations

9:37

of those . I am thinking about

9:39

what I'm thinking . I'm feeling big about

9:41

feeling big . So maybe

9:43

I don't have to follow that . Maybe my big

9:46

emotional reaction to how I feel is steering

9:48

me wrong and they're able to start to

9:50

apply the lessons and sort of pry themselves

9:52

away from that and just let symptoms

9:54

and thoughts happen . They let emotions

9:57

happen . It's not easy . They

9:59

stumble I stumbled all the time

10:01

in my recovery but they're able to move

10:03

along at maybe a little bit more quicker or maybe

10:05

a more consistent pace , while other people

10:07

have a very difficult time

10:10

doing that . They may and this may be

10:12

you , if you're listening or watching right now and

10:14

you listen to me say things like

10:16

it's okay to have really scary thoughts and

10:18

let them be , and you get that logically

10:21

, but it still seems ridiculous

10:23

to you or incredibly scary

10:26

or risky to do that . Well

10:28

, that's kind of what I want to talk about today , those

10:31

metacognitive beliefs , the beliefs

10:33

about thinking and feeling . So

10:35

I think and feel and then I

10:37

have thoughts and feelings about thinking

10:39

and feeling can play a big role

10:41

in how we approach the recovery process and

10:44

how rapidly we progress and

10:46

how much we might struggle or not struggle and

10:50

what possibility is there of a relapse down

10:52

the road . Those things . The

10:54

more I get into this and the more I sort of

10:56

get into metacognitive theory , the

10:58

more I feel like it's getting more and more . I

11:00

feel like it's more and more important and I think it offers

11:02

us a pretty reasonable explanation for

11:05

the wide variances in recovery experiences

11:07

and why some people do

11:09

it and get through and kind of never look back

11:11

and other people will struggle from time to time . Thinking

11:15

and feeling about what you think and feel is

11:17

something that every human being does . Here's

11:20

the issue and this ties in . So metacognitive

11:22

theory and the theories underneath

11:24

ACT you guys know I'm a big ACT fan acceptance and

11:26

commitment therapy . They do start to dovetail here . Part

11:28

of the issue that we have as human beings

11:31

is we have experiences . Of

11:33

course we have experiences , we're alive and

11:35

then that meaning making and interpreting

11:38

part of our brain that is based on

11:40

the ability to think abstractly and

11:42

in symbols and think

11:44

about things that aren't the actual things

11:47

. They're just thoughts about the thing that

11:49

is such a huge power

11:51

, it's such a huge , amazing part

11:53

of the human brain puts us at the top of the

11:55

food chain here on planet Earth and all of that

11:57

, and it's responsible for the beauty

11:59

and wonder that humans can create . But

12:02

sometimes that goes off the rails and

12:04

we start to get into that situation where

12:06

when I have internal experiences like

12:08

symptoms in my body or thoughts

12:10

that pop up in my mind or big

12:12

emotional experiences internally

12:14

, the meaning-making , pattern-matching

12:17

, symbolic , abstract thinking part of

12:19

an evolved human brain kicks into overdrive

12:22

and needs to find an explanation

12:24

for that , needs to figure it out , needs

12:26

to see what it's predicting , needs to stop

12:29

that and try to manage the internal experience

12:31

. And that's when things really get off

12:33

the rails and that's where things get really

12:35

difficult and we start to veer into that

12:37

chronic and disordered state of anxiety . So

12:40

I want you to take a second and

12:42

think about . Stop the video , stop the podcast

12:44

, if you want , just think about this . What

12:46

do you think and feel about what

12:49

you think and feel ? So when you

12:51

hear somebody like me say , having

12:53

like scary thoughts about

12:55

harming your family is no different

12:57

than a thought about a peanut butter sandwich . When

13:00

you hear me say that , you might have

13:02

a logical reaction to that , like , oh yeah

13:04

, I guess that could possibly be , but what

13:06

is your emotional reaction to that ? Do

13:08

you think no , that can't possibly

13:10

be true . That indicates

13:13

metacognitive belief structure . It

13:16

indicates or it's a clue as to what

13:18

you think and feel about what you think

13:20

and feel . And the issue

13:22

here is if you find that

13:24

when you are emotionally activated

13:26

by your internal experiences and

13:29

I know some people will argue that symptoms are not internal

13:31

experiences , but I'm lumping it in here for the

13:33

sake of brevity and

13:35

simplicity If you have anxiety

13:38

symptoms and then you interpret

13:40

them , you have thoughts based on those

13:42

symptoms , and who knows , thoughts

13:44

first , symptoms first doesn't matter . But

13:47

if you have a combination of physical symptoms and

13:49

thoughts that create big

13:51

reactions like fear

13:53

or extreme sense of

13:55

vulnerability or uncertainty

13:58

or feelings of weakness , big

14:00

emotional states , those , the

14:02

bigness of that internal state

14:04

, can be like glue

14:06

that binds you to the thought

14:08

and the symptom and then that

14:10

abstract , symbolic thinking part

14:12

of your brain says oh , feeling

14:15

a thing and thinking about a thing

14:17

is the same as the thing . That's

14:20

where we get into trouble . That's where our

14:22

beliefs about thinking and feeling , what

14:24

we believe , what we think and feel about thinking

14:27

and feeling , that's where that really matters . So

14:35

that will show itself as oh , I feel so big about this thought that I keep having , or about the symptom

14:37

that I'm having and the way I interpret it in my brain . That

14:39

big feeling makes me fuse

14:42

with that and I'm not going to get into the technical

14:44

part of it . But then I start to treat the thought

14:46

as a real thing . Here's an example

14:48

, the example of the typical I fear

14:51

that I will have a psychotic break , or I fear

14:53

that I will lose my sanity Very , very common

14:55

fear . If you go back a couple episodes to the

14:57

word cloud that I did , it was right there in

14:59

the center , right Death , insanity

15:01

, loss of control . So I'm having

15:03

thoughts about losing my

15:05

sanity or losing control of my mental

15:07

faculties or having a psychotic break . Well

15:10

, that's pretty scary , right ? So that

15:12

thought then triggers

15:14

symptoms . Or the other way , maybe

15:16

I've experienced depersonalization or a dissociated

15:19

state and then I have a thought , interpreting

15:21

that , that says this is what happens when you

15:23

go crazy . Now I have a

15:25

huge wave of emotional

15:28

reaction to that in the form of fear

15:30

, horror , dread , oh no

15:32

, this can't be . And that

15:35

emotional , that big emotional reaction

15:37

tells my belief about thinking

15:39

and feeling . You better treat this as true

15:41

, because I feel so big about

15:43

this and I believe that the bigger

15:45

the feeling I have , the more likely

15:48

it is that I have to work on my

15:50

internal experience . So this gets

15:52

again . This is super meta . So if you

15:54

have to listen to this a few more times , totally

15:56

fine , I get it . But one of the things

15:58

that you can look for is when

16:01

somebody tells you that a thought

16:03

that you find so scary or a symptom that

16:05

you find so scary is irrelevant and safe

16:07

to have . Logically , you might

16:10

get it , but emotionally , how much are you

16:12

resisting hearing me say that ? Or

16:14

people like me ? It doesn't have to be me . Maybe you're

16:16

reading the Claire Weeks books or maybe you're listening to my

16:18

frequent friends and collaborators like Josh Fletcher or Kim

16:21

Quinlan or whoever it happens to be Joanna Hardis , and

16:23

you hear them say things like this and you think

16:25

well , logically I get that , but I cannot

16:28

bring myself to emotionally embrace that

16:30

because I feel so big about

16:32

these experiences that that big

16:34

feeling tells me that I have to treat

16:36

this , this thought or this sensation

16:39

as true or as a predictor

16:41

, as an omen , as something that I need

16:43

to follow through . I need to put my hands

16:45

on this internal experience and

16:47

I need to manipulate it , fix it , figure it out

16:49

. Now , people who have a

16:52

little bit looser beliefs about

16:54

thinking and feeling my metacognitive

16:56

beliefs aren't as rigid

16:58

is I can recognize now

17:00

, if I bring it back to , I'm exhausted

17:02

, but I'm not afraid of that I

17:05

can recognize oh , I'm having

17:07

big internal experiences

17:09

because of whatever XYZ

17:11

going on in my life . My evolved

17:15

brain kind of wants me to feel better

17:17

and treat this as something that I'm

17:19

supposed to figure out or fix . It wants

17:21

me to put my hands on my internal

17:23

experience and start to fix it or solve it

17:25

like a Rubik's Cube . But now I know

17:27

that really what I have to do is take my hands off

17:30

it and leave the Rubik's Cube of my

17:32

internal experience unsolved , although

17:34

that might be difficult . I don't want to feel sad

17:36

about the loss of a loved one . I don't want to

17:38

feel like you know , the fatigue

17:41

. I don't want to feel overwhelmed , but

17:43

I feel them . So I'm going to have to just do my

17:45

best to feel them , even though

17:47

I'm having big internal feelings about

17:50

that and big emotions about that . The big

17:52

emotions no longer command

17:54

me to follow my thoughts and

17:56

my bodily sensations as if they are

17:58

true dangers or they're actually true

18:00

. So if we go back to the , you

18:02

know the fear of insanity or psychotic break

18:04

, having a really big emotional

18:07

reaction to that thought that

18:09

you might be losing your mind or

18:11

you might be tempting fate with some sort of horrible

18:14

thing that might happen to you down the road . If you don't , you

18:16

know , save yourself , run from your anxiety or

18:18

perform , you know , compulsive rituals

18:20

, that big emotional

18:22

state causes you to say no , no , no . I

18:25

have to follow this . But here's

18:27

the interesting thing that would be what you feel

18:29

and what you think about what you feel and think . I feel

18:31

that if it's big enough , I believe I need

18:33

to follow it . That's thinking

18:35

and feeling , about thinking and feeling . So ask yourself

18:38

where you are in that . Here's

18:40

another thing you can kind of look for . If

18:42

you feel strongly that you need

18:45

to interact with your thoughts

18:47

and your feelings and your internal experiences

18:49

, you believe that thinking

18:51

and feeling is important and you

18:53

have to interact with those internal

18:56

things . But then you discover

18:58

afterwards that , like , why did I do that again ? It

19:00

tricked me again . I did an episode

19:02

not too long ago about being tricked by anxiety

19:04

. If you , like you know , hit yourself in the

19:06

head , I'm like I can't believe I fell for that again

19:08

. I wish I could stop doing this . I

19:11

wish I could stop ruminating , I wish I could

19:13

stop worrying . If you find that you

19:15

love thinking and feeling , or you think it's

19:17

really important to base everything

19:19

on thinking and feeling , but then you wish you

19:21

could stop doing that , that's

19:23

a good also indicator that

19:25

your metacognitive beliefs may be keeping you

19:27

not stuck , but they are certainly presenting

19:30

challenges in this process

19:32

. So what would we do about

19:34

that ? And again , I know I'm spewing a lot at you

19:36

right here , I'm going off the cuff . I'm hoping

19:38

it's making sense . But in this situation

19:41

you can use that to frame exposure

19:44

, yes , but also tolerance

19:46

, floating experience . Right

19:48

now , that tells me that I should hang on resist

20:03

, fight , manipulate , figure

20:05

out , solve , prove untrue

20:07

. Even though my big emotional

20:09

state leads me to fuse with my

20:11

thoughts and my internal experiences and try

20:13

to fix them and resist them , I

20:16

have to surrender and just let those experiences

20:18

be why not

20:20

? So I could get used to the experience although

20:23

, yeah , you do , that's true . But

20:25

also I have to learn that my beliefs

20:27

about what I think and feel

20:30

, about what I think and feel , might

20:32

be steering me wrong . It is possible

20:34

that making my decisions moment

20:37

by moment , based on a highly charged

20:39

emotional internal state , is steering

20:41

me wrong . So we start to use

20:43

things like tolerance , surrender , letting go

20:45

and floating as little experiments

20:47

that help us learn experientially that

20:49

our beliefs about thinking and feeling

20:52

, the way we interpret and act

20:54

on what we think and feel

20:56

, might be wrong . And

20:58

that's a big deal , because it's

21:00

more than just , oh , let your heart race and

21:02

just let it sit there . Yes , that is true , that is

21:04

what the act looks like , that is

21:07

what dropping resistance looks like , that's what surrender

21:09

looks like . But what is it teaching me ? Well

21:11

, it's teaching me that I don't really have to fear my heartbeat

21:13

like I used to . Out of my own personal experience

21:15

, I'll share that right . But if we look under the

21:17

hood even more , what it taught me

21:19

is that when my brain creates

21:22

interpretations of a rapid heartbeat

21:24

and then that creates a big emotional

21:27

response in me called fear , I

21:29

do not have to treat it like my heart

21:31

is literally exploding . Only

21:34

the emotion , the big emotion

21:36

, the highly charged state is telling

21:38

me that I need to treat it that way . I need

21:40

to treat it that way because I feel big

21:42

right now . That's wrong . That

21:45

was dragging me and I had to learn through my experiences

21:47

, exposures , behavioral experiments

21:49

, whatever you want to call it . I had to learn that my

21:51

beliefs about what I thought and felt were

21:54

wrong and they were contributing

21:56

to this problem . Now some people have

21:58

more deeply held beliefs about

22:00

thinking and feeling . You feel very strongly

22:03

that what you think and feel is very important and needs

22:05

to be taken care of and fixed and interacted

22:07

with . Some people have more loosely held , monocognitive

22:09

beliefs . To start the process , those are

22:11

the people that have a little bit of a leg up , but

22:14

these are not things that , in my mind

22:16

, are set in stone . We use

22:18

these therapeutic techniques , we use principles like

22:20

acceptance and mindfulness to

22:22

get through these experiences and learn to navigate

22:24

through them . When we use these tools

22:27

, when we use these techniques , when we use these treatment

22:29

modalities , we get to change our metacognitive

22:31

beliefs . Will you become a different person altogether

22:33

? No , that's not the object of the game , but you

22:35

can loosen things up a little bit so that

22:38

you don't get dragged around by a

22:40

highly charged internal emotional state

22:42

all the time and then wish that

22:44

you hadn't . So that was 22

22:46

minutes . If I look at the clock , that's a little longer

22:48

than I thought it was going to go . Today I don't think I

22:50

took more than four breaths through this entire episode

22:53

. So I'm really sorry if it's just

22:55

a word vomit like a fire hose

22:57

at you . If you you got to go back and rewind a little

22:59

bit , that's fine . So I'm going to wrap

23:01

it up here Again super

23:03

no production values this week , so there's

23:05

not going to be any music or anything like that . If

23:07

you have questions about this . Interestingly

23:10

, if you're listening as a podcast episode

23:12

, look

23:16

in the show notes of the podcast episode on your podcast player . There's

23:20

a link there where you could text in a question . I will see that . And if you're watching on YouTube , because you subscribe to the YouTube

23:22

channel , hint hint and you've liked the video , leave

23:24

a comment and I try to circle back once or

23:26

twice a week to answer comments on the YouTube channel

23:28

for sure . So you have a way to kind of talk back

23:30

to me now in two places , either from

23:32

your podcast app or in the YouTube

23:35

app or on the YouTube website . However , or in the YouTube

23:37

app or on the YouTube website , however , are you watching ? I hope you found this useful

23:39

. In some way . You might be able to apply these concepts

23:41

. Maybe it is something that will click with you

23:43

a little bit more like oh my goodness

23:46

, I'm so heavily invested in my thoughts

23:48

and feelings . Yeah , I get what this guy is

23:50

saying . Maybe it will give you just

23:52

a little bit of a different look at your situation

23:54

to help you change direction , just a little bit . And

23:57

again , I will remind you , as I always do

23:59

, that no matter how

24:01

small you act

24:03

today , no matter how small the action you

24:05

take boy

24:10

, that was super awkward , right , but I'm not even going to edit it no matter how small the action is

24:12

you take today away from your fear and toward the life that you actually

24:14

want , or either trying to attain or rebuild

24:16

, it counts . If nothing

24:18

more than listening to this podcast today

24:20

and at least being a little bit more

24:23

open to the idea that following

24:25

a highly charged emotional state is a bad

24:28

idea , you are winning . All

24:30

of these things add up . There are no giant

24:32

grand gestures that make you better overnight . We

24:35

have to add them up little by little , bit

24:37

by bit , and sometimes , yes , we

24:39

do have to challenge our beliefs before

24:42

we can take those actions . Challenge

24:44

the belief , test the new belief

24:46

with little actions . Those are exposures

24:48

, those are experiments , and all of them

24:50

count , no matter how small they are . Thanks

24:53

for hanging out today . I will see you in

24:55

two weeks with the next episode . Take care

24:57

.