Everyone has heard that “perspective is everything.” I do wonder how many people take advantage of this truth. It’s a huge part of healing and the, on the surface, “simple” mechanism behind Cognitive Behavioral Therapy.

Change your thoughts ➜ change your attitude ➜ change your life.

Your perspective colors the entire way you see and move about in the world; if you can change that at will, you become a lot more powerful and in control of your life.

I think the first time I realized how much power your perspective can have was years ago when I was preparing to move to Arizona. I was tired of paying $500 to live behind a curtain in some guy’s kitchen (dat bay area lyfe), so I scheduled a car rental and put my notice in at TJs.

Leading up to the day of my rental I had this anxiety sitting in my stomach; I didn’t know what I was heading into, and I was thinking of all the things that could go poorly: with the rental, with the drive, with the future. Maybe the sky would turn to fire and my nose would fall off.

I could not chill out, so I asked myself what the feeling was about. Why was this getting to me? What could I relate the feeling to?

I realized the buzzing in my stomach and the racing of my thoughts felt familiar.

California Adventure. California Screamin’.

It felt like waiting in line for the first and potentially last loop coaster I’ve ever gotten in line for. Excitement with just a hint of fear, but excitement nonetheless.

Once I started seeing that anxiety I was feeling as excitement, it immediately eased up. I think just changing its name gave my brain the ability to kind of recalibrate how my body was being signaled (body doesn’t know better); once my body picked up on it, it fed back into the loop and into my brain, easing my cognitions.

It turns out that I wasn’t the first absolute genius to discover this ability while I was getting high on my friends balcony all those years ago. These emotions are physiologically two sides of the same nervous system.

The difference is your perspective. Anxiety is like an involuntary excitement resulting from a fearful mindset. Excitement is a more, in my opinion, tolerable state of being where you’re focused on possibility and potential.

And that’s just one example, you guys!

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Today’s video is officially the fourth in my steps to healing “project.” It’s about perspective. ;D