SUMMARY

• “Anxiety is a byproduct of the way we are perceiving reality, not reality itself.”
• Anxiety is a byproduct of the way we are perceiving the reality of our life, the circumstance of our life, the things that are going on. And so if we can understand that, then we can leverage the mind out of anxiety and to create other emotions, such as joy or inspiration or passion or empowerment.
• “ If there was the absence of thought, then anxiety would no longer be there. And so the mind has to be thinking in a particular way, in a, in a theme, if you will, in order for it to fuel and intensify the experience of anxiety. And once the mind isn't doing these key things, then anxiety is going to dissolve and dissipate”
• If you’re looking for tips on how to understand and manage anxiety, this episode is for you.
• Watch the video to get the full training.

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 Full Transcript:

[The following is the full transcript of this episode of Joey’s Performance Tune Up With Joey Klein. Please note that this episode, like all episodes, features Joey speaking unscripted and unedited. This video is captured in one take.]

Welcome to our session on anxiety. And so when most people feel anxious, they're assuming that there's something inherently wrong. And that's actually not entirely true. And it's so important to understand that anxiety is a byproduct of the way we are perceiving reality, not reality itself. And so let me say that one more time. The anxiety that we feel is not a result of the reality that we're experiencing as being wrong or bad, that there's necessarily anything the matter. Anxiety is a byproduct of the way we are perceiving the reality of our life, the circumstance of our life, the things that are going on. And so if we can understand that, then we

can leverage the mind out of anxiety and to create other emotions, such as joy or inspiration or passion or empowerment, as an example. And so what we want to do is understand what is the mind doing when it's fueling anxiety? 

Another way to think about this is if the mind was not thinking at all, if there was the absence of thought, then anxiety would no longer be there. And so the mind has to be thinking in a particular way, in a, in a theme, if you will, in order for it to fuel and intensify the experience of anxiety. And once the mind isn't doing these key things, then anxiety is going to dissolve and dissipate. And so if when you're feeling anxious, you're going to notice that the mind is focused on one of a few key things. It's either focused on, on the theme of too much, I've got too much to do, there's too many things on my plate, I can't do it all, and so on. And so there's a theme of too much when anxiety is present. And then there's the assumption that I'm going to drop a ball or I'm going to make a mistake, or I'm going to forget to do something, and so on. And so then it's fueling this sense of anxiety. 

The other theme that can be present in the mind is not enough. Right? There's not enough time, there's not enough resources, there's not enough money, there's not enough this, there's not enough that. And if we're focused on there's not enough, then there's the fear of the absence of something. And so if the mind is focused on how there's not enough of something that's going to fuel anxiety. The other thing that the mind may be doing when we feel anxious is assuming that bad things are going to happen. And so that can be an extrapolation from the past. Like, hey, these bad things happened before, and so I don't want them to happen again. And our focus is on those bad things reoccurring or in the anticipation of something not being good in the future, something bad is going to happen. 

And sometimes that bad thing happening could be the anticipation of something bad happening in the next 20 minutes. Like, maybe I'm going to take a test and I'm afraid of failing. And so there's the assumption of failure. And so the bad thing happened could be 20 minutes later. Or maybe I'm going to ask somebody out on a date and I'm assuming they're going to reject me. And the anticipation could be something bad that's going to happen in the next 10 seconds. Whether it's the next 10 seconds or it's the anticipation of something bad happening in five years, it doesn't matter. If the mind is focusing on the bad things that are going to occur or may occur, then anxiety is going to be the byproduct of that. And it's not going to be possible to go beyond the experience or the feeling of anxiety if we're allowing the mind to focus on how things are too much, how we don't have enough, or how bad things are inherently going to happen. 

And so what you can do is notice when you're feeling anxious, the emotion of anxiety is present in your nervous system, and then take note of, well, what is the mind doing? Does your mind tend to focus on too much? Does it focus on not enough? Does it focus on bad things are going to happen? And if you can acknowledge what the mind does when you're feeling anxious, that is a huge step to noticing it when it's present in your life as it's occurring, when the mind is thinking in one of those themes and then being able to then take that next step after being aware that we're fueling the anxiety to redirect the mind in a way that's going to fuel other emotions. And so you can, you know, look at one of the other videos that I shot, one of the other trainings, and maybe you want to train joy. And so if I want to train joy, I want to go focus on, hey, what does the mind do when I'm accessing joy and, and start getting the mind thinking in that theme as opposed to the anxiety theme? And next thing you know, you'll start to train joy. 

As an example, when we're focused on joy, we're focusing on the things that are going well right in our life, especially in the moment. And so instead of focusing on, hey, it's all too much, we could focus on what's going well. Instead of not enough, we could focus on how I always seem to have what I need, and it always works out, again, what's going well. And instead of bad things are gonna happen, here are the good things that I get to anticipate and look forward to. And so when we start looking at how do we train emotion, it's really about gaining influence over the mind so  that the mind is thinking on your terms and not allowing the mind to sort of grab hold of you, be a slave to the mind and start thinking inside the habits or the conditioning that's been predetermined in the mind and understanding. How do we train the mental concepts, the mental frameworks that are going to inherently give you access to not only the experience of life you want to have, but the ability to perform at your best and create the outcomes that you desire.