Joe offers Kelly a small, concrete experiment. Bring to mind the thing you’re most anxious about—for her, the fear of “missing” her family—and then say “I’m excited” ten times while actually feeling the excitement, not just reciting the words.
“It’s an odd little hack. It works 80% of the time. Just say, ‘I’m excited’ 10 times. And but feel the excitement.”
The catch that makes it work is the felt part. This isn’t positive self-talk papering over a bad feeling; it’s redirecting the same charge into the channel it was meant for. Because excitement and anxiety are neurologically adjacent, naming and feeling the excitement lets the kinked energy flow where it belongs.
After the reps, Joe asks how she feels about her family now. Her answer surprises her:
“Really? I’m excited.”
The dread that had her bracing to miss something flipped, in under a minute, into excitement to be with the very thing she’d been anxious about.
Related Concepts
- Anxiety is often repressed excitement
- Feeling excitement cracks the identity open
- Fear is excitement without the breath
- Anxiety is sometimes excitement that isn’t being felt all the way
- Anxiety is a road sign that shows you where you’re abandoning yourself
- Breathing into anxiety to enjoy it turns it into excitement