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Hi, I'm Monica Packer from About Progress, and this is a hug and a kick, a series where I share a short excerpt from my extensive

podcast archives, one carefully selected to give you the validation and or motivation you need

for the weekend.

Let's talk about how anxiety for the new year can change our behaviors moving into the new year.

And I was curious from your expertise, what you see that actually looking like. So this is more so people can pay attention and be able recognize, oh, I'm falling into that

trap or, oh, I'm feeling this way, even though I didn't realize I was.

Right.

So in general, when a human brain interprets danger or concern or a lack of safety, we call that anxiety, right?

Your brain is interpreted there to be a perceived danger.

And what our brain does is it sends out some hormones to your body to prepare you for

this perceived danger.

And I say perceived, meaning it doesn't have to be dangerous.

Your brain just has to perceive it that way. So the new year could be a perceived danger. And I say perceived, meaning it doesn't have to be dangerous. Your brain just has to perceive it that way. So the new year could be a perceived danger in

our mind if there's a lot of anxiety or fear or pressure or expectations associated to that.

When that happens, we prepare for either fight, flight, freeze or fawn, right?

These are behaviors we engage in to reduce or remove the anxiety that we have.

Now, what does that look like?

In general, we will often engage in what we call safety behaviors.

These are not, there's no judgment for you doing these.

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