Hello and welcome to the Being Well Podcast, I'm Forrest Hanson. In our last episode we began the strength of calm with an episode that explored

why calm is such an important mental resource, the physiological symptoms that form

the basis for calm and their psychological impacts and how we can get

better at activating those systems through various relaxation techniques. Today's

episode focuses on managing experiences of anxiety and the underlying cause of those symptoms, fear.

Sometimes fear is obvious, such as feeling nervous or panicked, but much of the time fear operates behind the scenes.

For example, fear is at work when a person stays within a small comfort zone,

procrastinates to avoid a challenge, feels emotionally inhibited,

or avoids speaking up and standing out.

Specifically, we're going to be focusing on a particular kind of fear, Paper Tiger

Paranoia.

Dr. Rick Hansen is here today to help us fight against those

Tigers. So if you don't mind, could you explain where the phrase Paper Tiger

Paranoia comes from and what the kind of basis of the concept is.

Sure. Well, it comes from the idea that in the wild, as it were, our ancestors and our non-human

ancestors before them could make two kinds of mistakes. Mistake

number one is thinking that there's a tiger in the bushes about to get you but

there really isn't a tiger there. All right.

Mistake number two is thinking that the coast is clear.

Everything's fine, but actually there really is a tiger in the bushes

about to pounce.

These are the two mistakes. What are the consequences of the first mistake?

...