Thank you for listening to Owning It. If you would like to support the series, the best thing you can do is just tell a friend or better yet share it on social media. If you really, really want to support, you can subscribe to me on Substack where I write a weekly column. Listeners of the pod get a 20% discount forever at carolinephorun.substack.com. Thank you.

Hey, welcome to owning it real time.

In this audio guide, I'm going to walk you through anxiety right before you do something that scares you,

something that matters to you, such as giving a presentation at work.

You can of course apply this guide to lots of different scenarios, but to make things easier

here, I'm going to stick with the example of public speaking, as this for almost everyone

I know can bring feelings of anxiety to the fore.

This is what works for me personally, and it's what I turn to whenever I find myself in

the same situation.

It's exactly what I would have

benefited from and I really hope it will do the same for you. The key focus here is working on

our perception of anxiety. To begin, take yourself somewhere where you can really focus your

attention on what I'm saying. You could take a short walk as you listen or get comfortable in a seated position.

Wherever you find yourself, bring your awareness to your body and then consciously lengthen

your spine.

Taking a posture that allows your breath to flow more freely and unrestricted through your body will really help

in our efforts to bring about feelings of calm. I want you to give yourself permission to feel how

you're feeling. You don't need to try not to feel anxious here. That's not the goal. You feel anxious

for a reason and a big part of that is because you care.

If anything, the goal is to acknowledge the anxiety, to recognize it and then use it as the fuel

to get you through what you're about to do. The thing is, you don't need to be anxiety-free in

order to do a good job. I have given countless presentations

...