What Causes Anxiety Eileen Fisher and Byron Katie Dive into the Question 

Let's look at anxiety. Anxiety, okay. Yeah.

So I invite all of you to… I'm not anxious. No, go ahead. So I invite all of you to find a moment in time, and I'll do the same, let's do the same, where you are experiencing anxiety.

Okay, so find that situation, that moment in time. Maybe you were backstage, and you're going to walk on, and you're doing public speaking, or you're standing on stage, and you forget what you say. It could be a moment in time where you're standing on… You're stepping out of… Maybe you're on a cliff, and you look down, and you've never been frightened of heights before, and you go, like that.

Okay, so find your own moment in time, that situation where you're feeling anxiety. And when you find that, begin to identify what you were thinking and believing. What judgments were happening as you were experiencing that anxiety? Do you want me to answer that? Assumptions or judgments? So really, what we're doing is we're meditating on a moment in time, aren't we? So this work, inquiry, it takes stillness.

Just really still. What was I thinking and believing in that moment? It doesn't matter if it was a year ago, ten years ago, ten minutes ago. Just to get still enough to identify it.

What were you imagining, thinking, and believing in that space of anxiety? For me, I'm not good enough. Familiar? Is there anyone that has not experienced the thought, I'm not good enough? Raise your hand if you do. That's amazing.

So for those of you that have had the thought, I'm not good enough, just feel what it feels like when you believe that thought in that situation. And if you get really still, I'm going to ask you how you react when you believe the thought. Okay, and let's move back to the first question.

Is it true you're not good enough? You're not good enough. In that situation, is it true? Can you really know that it's true you're not good enough? Now, we're not shooting for a no or shooting for a yes. We're shooting for what's authentic.

So really, again, it takes stillness. And in that stillness, in that witnessing, you're shown. No, it's not true.

Okay, so then just feel it. Give that no room. Just give it room.

It's like, is it true? No, next. No. Just get really calm, still.

No. So just to contemplate that. No.  Not true.



Now, stay in that situation. We're meditating on that moment in time.  And notice what happens and how the mind reacts when you think the thought, I'm not good enough. And you're standing there or sitting there, wherever that situation is. 

So begin to track the physical. Where are the emotions specifically? Where does it hit? It can just hit like, and it can travel. Or maybe it's your neck and shoulders.   How do I feel when I'm thinking that thought? In that situation. Clenched, I feel clenched here.

And what images of past, future do you see when you think the thought, I'm not good enough? That takes stillness, doesn't it? It was there, count on it. If you felt anxiety, there's a cause.  And what is the cause? Mind. Images, past, future.