Hi there. Thanks for joining. This is Josh, Darmapunks, New York. If there's something you're

getting from these talks, and you feel like supporting my work, everything I do is simply

provided by donation. I don't charge for anything. So the Venmo is Darmapunks with an X NYC, and there's PayPal and Patreon on the website.

So thanks for that.

Tonight we're going to be talking about leaning out of the overprotective brain,

addressing anxiety and old stuck patterns of behavior and so after we have the talk then we will go to a meditation where we'll build

on the themes in practice and contemplation.

We know from the work of countless cognitive scientists that our minds don't wait for things to happen.

There are always one step ahead,

or several steps ahead, of our conscious awareness,

anticipating what's going to come next.

So when we walk into any kind of social gathering

before a word is spoken to us us or anyone even looks our way.

Our chest may begin to tighten with anxiety or release with ease.

Our attention may jump with anxiety or settle with a sense of confidence, depending upon what our unconscious

right hemisphere expects. On a date, before somebody even finishes the first sentence sentence we probably have a prediction about whether

we're being appreciated and welcomed or dismissed our brain prepares us based on expectations not by

waiting for things actually to occur.

Our brains don't build these expectations from what's out there.

These expectations or predictions, by the way, in science is called priors, and in Buddhism

called Sankaras or fabrications that we mistake for reality,

our brains build them from memories of past experiences that seem relevant to the present

...