Get Excited! – Research supports strategy of turning “anxiety” into “excitement”

For years I’ve been teaching a story I first learned about from Tony Robbins, then researched myself. It’s about Carly Simon and Bruce Springsteen. In short, Carly Simon stopped performing because of “performance anxiety” and Bruce Springsteen loves performing because of his “passion” and “excitement” but when asked for details, both describe their physiological experience very similarly. Both have “butterflies in the stomach,” both have “tingling” and rapid heartbeat and sweaty palms.

So what are they experiencing? Is it anxiety? Is it excitement? Both? Neither? I think it’s a mistaken question, because the physical sensations are not the emotion or the experience by themselves, but only in combination with the mental appraisal, the meaning given by the individual. And that tells us that emotions can be changed, both by changing the physical sensations (for example through postural changes) and by changing the meaning.

This is finally getting some attention in the research and I love these very simple experiments by Alison Wood Brooks, showing that the best strategy to deal with “performance anxiety” is not to attempt to calm, but rather to re-appraise them as “excitement.” And that this can be as simple as just saying, “get excited!”

When I use strategies like this with clients who have had “speaker’s anxiety,” it is always inspiring to see how quickly they can transform. “I’m so nervous.” “Ok, then it’s time to get excited.” This exchange transforms pacing with a worried look into a heads up rapid step, clapping hands, ready to charge the stage. And it’s a different experience for the audience because they are happy to help a speaker manage their excitement. Think about the difference between a speaker who comes on stage saying, “I can barely talk because I’m so nervous,” and a speaker who says, “I can barely talk because I’m so excited.” It’s easy for the second speaker to engage the room by saying, “so we’re going to do a couple of things to use up some of my excited energy so I can get calm enough to talk.” That feels great for an audience.

How can you use this? And to add in the concept of emotions as habits – what old habit of “anxiety” can you change to a new habit of “excitement?”

To your dreams!

Radio Interview!

I was recently a guest on “Xray in the Morning with Christine Alexander” on the great local radio station XRayFM. The topic was “Eat Your Vegetables: How to Help People Do What They Know Is Good For Them.” Right up my alley! We talked about habits of stress, what happens in the brain when you beat up on yourself, and how to use playfulness to change bad habits. It was a fun 12 minutes! You can listen here. Leave comments below. What “vegetables” do you need to “eat?” Have you been beating up on yourself for bad habits?

Reading My Book at the Library

If you are in the Portland area, come see me read from my forthcoming book and talk about rewiring the brain at the Lake Oswego Library at 7:00 PM Thursday September 10. The title of my talk is – Practical Brain Science: Learn to Use Your Brain to Wipe Out Worry, Stress, and Anxiety and Build Habits of Happiness.

Find more details at the Lake Oswego Library site here!

Keeping Your Momentum After a Seminar – Video Three

We hear a lot about the power of positive language, and rightfully so.

The problem is, sometimes positive language is premature. If we are just learning something, just taking on a new identity, it can be too soon to make big positive claims about our new self. If we say too quickly, “this is who I am now,” then it may not feel true, and our brains will reject it. That makes it harder to hold on to the new learning and really implement it.

There is a secret to making positive language feel congruent, something you have to do first. Learn about it in this week’s video, the third answer I gave to the question of keeping momentum after a seminar, or after any important event or new learning.

Here is an attachment that walks you through the process described in the video. Download it now and put it to work! If you missed the first two videos, you can learn how to keep your momentum with a quick language trick, and learn what moving your furniture has to do with keeping your momentum. Leave me comments in the comment section. Share how you implement this strategy in your life, so other people can model your success.

Keeping Your Momentum Going After a Seminar – Video One

Seminars. Speakers. Workshops. How many have you attended?

Probably more than you can count.

The memories, the learning, the strategies, are great to recall.

But be honest with yourself, just for a moment.

How many times have you left a seminar, a workshop, or a speaker with the best of intentions, a commitment to implementation, but then did little or nothing? How many times have you gotten back home or to your office and let the demands of your life, and your old habits, get the best of you?

That experience is much less pleasant to recall. It’s embarrassing.

So you put it behind you, and go to another one, sure that this time will be different. And the cycle continues.

But what if you knew three simple brain strategies that would change the pattern? What if you could activate brain circuits that would carry your momentum into the future, into practical implementation?

I was at a seminar recently, and a friend asked me the question you should be asking yourself every time, “How can I keep this momentum? How can I make this time different?

Over these three blog posts, I give you the three simple strategies I taught my friend. She said they made an immediate difference.

Here’s the best news: She got results starting with the very first strategy!

Discover what I told her, in this week’s video.

Make sure to leave me a comment below the video! I’d love to hear your results, and what seminar learning you are going to make a part of your new identity.

Video Two – Keeping Your Momentum Going After a Seminar

Momentum can be tricky.

You learn something new at a seminar, or from a local speaker or something you read, and you get excited and determined to implement it in your life. You may even channel your excitement into temporary change.

But you look back, days or weeks later, and nothing has changed.

In today’s blog video I show you one simple step you can take that can turn that temporary stream of momentum into a permanent river of new habits and sustainable progress.

Yes, it has to do with your furniture. No, you don’t have to go to the mall. 🙂

Learn what to do in this video.

This video is the second in a series of responses to a question a friend recently asked me at a seminar. “How can I keep this momentum? How can I make this time different?”

Watch the first video on this page.

Make sure to leave me a comment below the video! I’d love to hear about your results!