Hi folks, I'm going to talk about the basics of anxiety today. And to do that, I want you to very

briefly think about the word set. Apparently, it's the most versatile word in the English language.

And if you've been in a brain scanner, then there'd have been some neurological changes in the brain,

just because of the word set. And it's likely that it would

be a different brain activity to, if I'd asked you to think about the word sausage. It's even possible

that the word set are some sort of emotion attached to it for some reason. Maybe, maybe not. But if it

does, for any weird reason, then it's the emotion that we start

thinking about. The same as if I'd asked you to think about sausages. That might have an emotion

that your brain jumps onto. Or if I'd asked you to think about going to the zoo or something,

or anything, these are just words, aren't they? Set, sausage, zoo. But in order to think about them,

your brain does a heck of a lot of unconscious work coming up with what those words mean to you.

And at the same time, you were consciously listening to me. but your unconscious processes were busy looking at

the meaning behind all those words and whether they're safe to think about or not. Because

set, sausage and zoo might be safe to you, but for someone else, they might as well have been

stress, worthless and lonely.

And if I'd asked you to think about those words, your brain would have done something else

unconsciously whilst you were consciously listening to me.

This is just what the brain does.

It's inescapable and it's part of just being human.

Everything we experience makes the brain look for meaning,

makes it look for a time in the past when we had that same experience to gain insight into it.

Constantly scanning our environment,

...