Welcome to the Gathering Pod, the audio version of my weekly gathering room broadcast.

I'm Martha Beck.

I want to get right to today's topic, which is, I call it the hidden path to peace,

because y'all may know if you came here a few weeks ago that I was talking about chronic pain

and how it is now known, it has been discovered, that chronic pain exists because the fear part

of the brain takes over from like you hurt your foot. Your brain decides that your foot hurts,

then your foot gets better, but your brain decides it's afraid of your foot. Your brain decides that your foot hurts, then your foot gets better,

but your brain decides it's afraid of your foot hurting. And the result is that it never

actually feels like your foot gets better. It literally feels like your foot is broken,

exactly the way it was broken, even though there's no tissue damage. So I've had chronic

pain forever. So I was all excited about this.

And I started reading about fear and how it affects the brain.

Now some of you have come in regularly, some of my most wonderful gathering room peeps, have

asked repeatedly, but I can't stop being anxious.

I can't stop being anxious.

And I say things to you.

Yammer, yammer, yammer, yammer, yammer, yammer.

So there are all these ways.

You can find your integrity.

You can do thought work.

You can do cognitive behavioral therapy.

You can question your beliefs.

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