7 Quotes That Instantly Shift Your Perspective - from Existentialist Søren Kierkegaard

Summary

Podcast Summary:

Emotional Badass – "7 Quotes That Instantly Shift Your Perspective – from Existentialist Søren Kierkegaard"
Host: Nikki Eisenhauer
Date: March 16, 2025

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Main Theme Overview

In this episode, Nikki Eisenhauer unpacks the existential wisdom of Søren Kierkegaard through seven thought-provoking quotes. With passionate, personal commentary, Nikki explores how Kierkegaard’s philosophy of self-responsibility, authenticity, and emotional resilience can offer powerful shifts in perspective—especially for highly sensitive people, trauma survivors, and those seeking to heal and grow. The episode is both introspective and deeply practical, linking nineteenth-century existentialist ideas to real mental health and self-development strategies for today's world.

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Key Discussion Points and Insights

1. What is Existentialism & Why Kierkegaard? (00:00 – 05:28)

• Existentialism: Defined as the belief that each person must take responsibility for creating meaning and purpose in their own life.
• Nikki’s personal connection: Existentialism was life-changing during her counseling studies. She underscores the empowerment found in owning one's purpose rather than waiting for meaning to "fall out of the sky."
• Distinguishes between Nietzsche and Kierkegaard, placing emphasis on the sacred and healthy nature of “selfishness” as self-care:

  “If I can’t be -ish about me, who the hell else is going to be -ish about me?” (03:22)

• Notes Kierkegaard’s short life span, yet wide-ranging impact on psychology, theology, and culture.

2. Individualism and Connection with a Higher Power (05:29 – 08:50)

• Kierkegaard focused on the individual's relationship with God—or whatever signifies “higher power” (e.g., nature, universe, love for a pet).
• Nikki reframes “God” as anything larger than oneself; recognizes a human need for this connection.
• Suggests we are all in an ongoing “process of becoming,” emphasizing growth and evolution.

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The Seven Kierkegaard Quotes

1. "Life has no limitations except the ones you make." (08:50 – 11:40)

• Explores how self-imposed beliefs can either empower or confine.
• Connects this idea to the spirit of human exploration, fear, and resilience.
• Memorable reflection:

  “If we believe that we can’t, then we won’t. If we believe that we can, we will and we can.” (09:54)

• Prompts the listener to ask: What limitations am I creating for myself, and which am I ready to let go of?

2. "Once you label me, you negate me." (11:41 – 15:30)

• Nikki critiques “label culture” in mental health and society, recalling her evolution from rejecting labels to now seeing them as limiting.
• Challenges permanent diagnoses and urges exploration over static identity, particularly in youth.
• Quote:

  “Once you label me, you negate me. Are you right now. Would be a forever label.” (12:30)

• Requests feedback from listeners on how this resonates, noting generational differences.

3. "Anxiety is the dizziness of freedom." (15:31 – 19:54)

• Dissects why anxiety has increased in modern times—suggesting that too much freedom and time for reflection can lead to overwhelm.
• Highlights the paradox: more choice and less survival stress can ironically breed more anxiety.
• Quote:

  “Anxiety is the dizziness of freedom. Now, what does that mean to you?” (15:36)

• Encourages listeners to practice intentionality, direction, and peace.

4. "To dare is to lose one’s footing momentarily. Not to dare is to lose oneself." (19:55 – 23:52)

• Emphasizes embracing risk as essential for growth and authentic living.
• Ties to childhood experiences, breaking out of depression by taking small, healthy risks.
• Impactful quote:

  “Every single change has some inherent risk… Not to dare is to lose oneself.” (21:40)

• Metaphor of children leaping off high-dives, learning about themselves through bravery.

5. "Boredom is the root of all evil. The despairing refusal to be oneself." (23:53 – 27:53)

• Surprising revelation: In addiction treatment, boredom—not trauma—is the top relapse trigger.
• Explains how being connected to self and purpose is inoculation against boredom and its dangers.
• Quote:

  “Boredom is the root of all evil. The despairing refusal to be oneself.” (24:04)

• Self-love includes nurturing curiosity and never letting your “inner child” stagnate.

6. "Life is not a problem to be solved, but a reality to be experienced." (27:54 – 31:00)

• Critique of “fix-it” mentality in therapy and self-help.
• Encourages embracing life in all its messiness and beauty—stop seeing yourself or life as a problem to solve.
• Memorable advice:

  “You’re not a problem to be solved. Never have been. You’re a reality to be experienced.” (29:52)

• Embodying learning and letting go; living with intention and flow.

7. "Whoever has learned to be anxious in the right way has learned the ultimate." (31:01 – 35:52)

• Reframes anxiety as a useful emotion when experienced in proportion and context—i.e., “in the right way.”
• Warns against the chronic, free-floating anxiety pushed by society and politics.
• Advocates for emotional boundaries to protect one’s peace:

  “Will you join me in your life this year and put your foot down to that nonsense, to that backwards message?” (33:39)

• Teases her Breakthrough Peace Program and the concept of training for peace.

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On Healthy Selfishness:
  “There’s a sacred selfishness, there’s a healthy selfishness.” (02:14)
• On Risk:
  “To dare is to lose one's footing momentarily. Not to dare is to lose oneself.” (20:20)
• On Labels:
  “Once you label me, you negate me. ... I very much resist and disagree with the idea that any label that might fit me right now ... would be a forever label.” (12:15–13:00)
• On Boredom and Addiction:
  “In addiction treatment, boredom is the number one trigger.” (24:06)
• On Peace and Anxiety:
  “Practicing peace might sound strange at first. Why would I need to practice peace? Depends on your relationship with anxiety.” (34:16)

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Timestamps for Important Segments

• 00:00–05:28 – Episode intro, existentialism background, Kierkegaard vs. Nietzsche
• 05:29–08:50 – Concept of self-responsibility, higher power, process of becoming
• 08:50–11:40 – Quote 1 & discussion: “Life has no limitations except the ones you make.”
• 11:41–15:30 – Quote 2: Labels and identity; critiques of label culture
• 15:31–19:54 – Quote 3: Anxiety, freedom, and the paradox of choice
• 19:55–23:52 – Quote 4: Daring, risk, and growth
• 23:53–27:53 – Quote 5: Boredom, addiction, and the refusal to be oneself
• 27:54–31:00 – Quote 6: Experience vs. solving the “problem” of life
• 31:01–35:52 – Quote 7: “Anxious in the right way”; boundaries and emotional peace

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Conclusion & Call to Action

Nikki closes with an encouragement to join her in “strength training for peace,” integrating Kierkegaard’s timeless wisdom into daily self-care and healing.

“I am an emotional badass, you are an emotional badass, and together we are where moxie meets mindful. Light and love.” (35:52)

For further tools, Nikki invites listeners to explore her Breakthrough Peace Program.

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For listeners:
This episode delivers both a crash course in existential insight and real-world tools for self-discovery and healing, all delivered in Nikki’s warm, honest, and empowering voice. Each quote is a doorway—step through, and you may find your perspective forever shifted.

Transcript

[A]

Hello, welcome to Emotional Badass, where moxie meets mindful. I'm your host, Nicky Eisenhower, life coach and psychotherapist. And on today's episode, I'm discussing existentialism and some quotes from one of its fathers, Soren Kierkegaard. These are some quotes full of wisdom, y'.

[B]

All.

[A]

Welcome to the show. Existentialism was a life changing concept to me that I learned in graduate school when I was studying to become a counselor. Soren Kierkegaard was a Danish philosopher and existentialist. A simple way to understand existentialism is that it's the philosophical belief that we are each responsible for creating purpose or meaning in our own lives. If you've been listening to the show for a long time, or maybe you're a brand new listener, likely you're already picking up, this is a huge part of what has motivated me in my life. It's a huge piece to how we can take our power back from any of our historical traumas. Anything that was tough in our childhoods. I believe in this belief, if you will. We are each responsible for creating purpose or meaning in our own lives. And can you take that in, really breathe that in? What happens if we take this responsibility and own it? What happens if we don't? If I'm not responsible for creating purpose and meaning in my life, where the hell does purpose and meaning come from? Is it going to fall out of the sky? It's on me to make that meaning, to create that purpose. Kierkegaard was born in 1813 in Denmark and he died in 1855. That's at 42. I'll be 45 in a few months. That's an astoundingly short life to have made such an impact on the world. He was a theologian, he was a cultural critic. He didn't just influence psychology, he influenced Protestant theology throughout the 20th century. Now most people know the name Nietzsche. Friedrich Nietzsche was a philosopher who influenced the development of existentialism. And he really encouraged theories and influence towards radical individualism. Now I'm a huge individualist, and in modern society, sometimes the criticism we hear is, oh my goodness, people in self development, they're so self involved, they're so selfish with that negative intent. Right? I want to make a completely different argument. There's a sacred selfishness, there's a healthy selfishness. If I can't be ish about self, if I can't be ish about me, who the hell else is going to be ish about me when I am healthily selfish? I prioritize my sleep. I prioritize my food. I prioritize everything that I need so that I am rested and more balanced, so that I can then better show up for my own life. Then I can better show up for my husband. I can better show up for my pets. I can better show up for my chosen family, my nieces, my nephew, the people that I love and care about. I can better show up on this microphone, in front of this camera, on this show for my clients, for anybody in my personal or professional life. If we all take responsibility to take the very best care of ourselves, which in part is creating purpose and meaning in our lives as a compass that keeps us going through tough times. When we do this, we really are taking care of ourselves, but we really are taking the very best care of everyone around us. So we're talking close to 200 years ago, well over 150 years ago. So just consider how long ago that was and how far we've come. Kierkegaard is known for his focus on the individual in relation to God. Now, when I say God in this episode or anything that I put out, I don't necessarily mean a religious God. If you follow and ascribe to a religious God, awesome. I also mean the energy of the universe. For some people who may identify as atheists, that might even be the love of a pet. It might be nature. Anything that is bigger and beyond our own self is a higher power. The sky is a higher power. The energy of every ancestor I've ever had. There's a lot of ways that we can connect to this idea of higher power. I am of the belief that there is something in our human DNA in how we have developed that we need this belief, just like we need purpose. So Kierkegaard's work was really focused on the individual in relation to his concept of God. His work often criticized Christianity as a social and political entity. Now, one of the reasons he's considered the father of existentialism is because of this emphasis on individual existence as a process of becoming. A process of becoming, y'.

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[A]

If I look out there in every philosophy, every wisdom that. That I could ever explore, it makes sense to me that this human life, why are we here? What are we doing? All these big, giant existential questions is that we are in a process of becoming. I don't see how anyone could argue against it. We are in a process of becoming every day. Yesterday, I was in a process of becoming myself. Today, When I was 2, I was in the process of becoming myself through figuring out how to get more stable and run around and climb things and play and interact and share toys and maybe feel selfish about my toys. All of that has been a process of becoming. His work also explores concepts like authenticity, commitment, responsibility, anxiety, and dread. I've pulled some quotes for you, for me, for us to discuss today that come from these concepts. It's fascinating to me that almost 200 years ago, someone else was out there. Of course he didn't have a podcast, but man, he was out there talking about authenticity, commitment, responsibility. These are things that I'm talking about today. I very much hope, like deep down into my bones that I am a continuation of his work from so long ago. It's choking me up as I say it, and that I am a part of this continued wisdom that passes down to you, and you are a part of that wisdom that keeps teaching this so that human beings can finally the owners of who we are and what we bring in our own lives and the purpose we make and the purpose we don't make are in how we relate to all of each other along this path. So, as you can tell, I am deeply passionate about this and I hope that some of these quotes maybe hit you in same sort of passionate way. I think when we allow ourselves to. To be passionate, that's a bit of how we become. All right, so here's a quote from Kierkegaard to consider. Life has no limitations except the ones you make. Life has no limitations except the ones you make. And we've heard different versions of this in self development since the moments any of us dipped our toe into the pool of self development, right? And we hear this, we believe it sort of. In good times, we feel expansive. In good times, we feel quite limitless, right? We feel like life is opening up and just allowing us to walk unimpeded. Life has no limitations except the ones you make. If we believe that we can't that, then we won't. If we believe that we can, we will and we can. This is such a foundational idea for being a human that is living a life of becoming, towards making purpose. There's a reason when we feel limited this way and limited that way and limited by time and limited by bureaucracy. There's a reason that that starts to feel depressing. If we look back at our human history, y', all, I can't imagine being a part of the era of exploration where you got in a boat and crossed the ocean and had no idea where you were going, where you might wind up, what a situation where you could invite limit. Oh, this is scary. Oh, I could die. What are we going to encounter in the sea when we thought there were giant sea monsters to set out on foot like Sacagawea across the country? No idea what you would come across. The spirit of being human to me is one of no limitation or of feeling a sense of fear and not allowing that fear to become a limitation. There's certainly a time and a place to respect fear. If I open my front door right now and there's a bear there, you are going to see me respect fear. Fear. But in terms of our dreams, in terms of our purposes individually and collectively, why would we ever bring in ideas of limitation on this journey? Life has no limitations except the ones you make. Are there any limitations that you are making for yourself right now that you might consider letting go of? So here's another quote I have for you from Kierkegaard. Once you label me, you negate me, y'. All. Does that blow your mind the way it flows mine? Once you label me, you negate me. Somehow in my 19th year of being in mental health, somehow we went from my first 10 years of really refusing labels, of not wanting to be limited by labels, to an entire generation almost living by their labels. When I was growing up, we didn't hear the differences between the generations so much. We knew there were older generations. We called them the greatest generation, that World War II generation. But we didn't think of ourselves as labeled and so separate from other generations. We can feel that now it's palpable. It's in the common vernacular. It's in the way colleges are teaching kids to relate or young adults to relate. I fought in my career to reduce stigma of mental health diagnoses. Today, I feel very differently about any mental health diagnoses. I very much resist and disagree with the idea that any label that might fit me right now. Are you right now. Would be a forever label. Sure, there are some. I will always be a woman. I will always be Nikki. You might want to go back and listen to an episode I did years ago where I talk about how I've had so many names. I've had five last names. I will always be Nikki. I will always love dogs. You know, there are things about me that are me. I will always be highly sensitive. I will always be an empath. But in terms of things that are hard, anxiety, depression, things like bipolar are taught today that they're forever diagnoses. I disagree with that strongly. Gender, sexuality. We move through different seasons and waves. We get to experiment, particularly when we're young. I'm deeply uncomfortable by the idea that any young person is labeling themselves instead of exploring, experimenting, experiencing to learn more of who they are and how that might guide their purpose instead of some label that gives them some kind of status or some kind of access to a group. Once you label me, you negate me. I'll be curious to hear feedback from y' all on the patreon and I want to know your age, what generation you're from, and how this quote hits you. Once you label me, you negate me. We are very grateful to have Air.

[C]

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[A]

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[A]

All right, here's another. Anxiety is the dizziness of freedom. Not only is that beautiful and poetic, but that is deep. That's six words. Anxiety is the dizziness of freedom. Now, what does that mean to you? Before I break it down, when I look at mental health statistics, okay, how we gather information, particularly in this country, in America, what has been on trend for years is that anxiety in our youth is increasing. And it's not increasing a little bit, it's increasing a lot. It's astronomical in its increase on paper. That doesn't really make sense to a lot of us, right? Because we've gotten stigma on mental health reduced. We have more accommodations in school and in society for differences in learning, different abilities. We have more programs than ever before. We have more access to knowledge. You wouldn't know me without the Internet, right? If we look back at human history, humans have been surviving way more than thriving. And it's tricky, right? There are layers to this. Certainly in a survival mode, which I lived in most of my life, it's an anxious state, but there's a purpose to survival. See, when somebody's surviving, they're not sitting back going, what is the purpose of my life? Because the purpose is decided for us. I didn't decide that my purpose was surviving so much. Not in a conscious way. The life force of who I am basically decided for me. Nikki, you have to survive to your purpose till you're done. Surviving is surviving. And everything I did was towards keeping a roof over my head. Everything I did for many years was towards trying to hold onto my sanity while I had severe post traumatic stress symptoms. If we look back at human history, people had to survive. They had to work farms, they had to work like mules, they've survived wars, they survived famine, they've survived disease that they didn't have the first forms of treatment for. And yet we have more reported anxiety today than ever before and 200 years ago. Kierkegaard gives us this quote, anxiety is the dizziness of freedom. If you're working with your hands, if you're having to do something, do you notice that that takes anxious worries sort of away? And your energy goes into your hands or into your feet, into what you're doing. We have so much time and space. We give so much time and space to thought anxiety. These Days, what am I going to do? What shall I do? How shall I figure out Bridge 7 when I'm at Bridge 1? We project into the future because guess what? We're not surviving right now. Or we rehash the past like an activity, like a hobby for some of us, or like a post traumatic symptom, like it was for me. This is quite the dilemma. Anxiety is the dizziness of freedom. This is part of why I teach peace and boundaries. Those are my two main things. Because we think, oh, if I have more abundance, if things work out for me, I should have more or I should have less anxiety. Even today I read comments on my Patreon from people saying, nikki, I don't know how to be peaceful. It makes me uncomfortable. We know this thought space where we're creating anxiety, where we live in anxiety, where we just think and think and overthink and overthink and overthink and wear ourselves out. It's now a comfort zone. In modern life, not very many of us feel free. But what if in our freedom, because we're not surviving, we're not plowing a field, we're not surviving war or famine. What if this is true? What if anxiety raises when we are not very intentional with being directional with our thoughts, directional with our purpose, directional with the energies that come over us as highly sensitive people, without direction and intention and attention, we may be having an anxiety as the dizziness of freedom. I don't want freedom and ease and peace to enact a default setting into anxiety and stress just because my mind is familiar with it. I don't want to have more anxiety. The more freedom I earn, I work towards, I intentionally cultivate my life towards. So I practice peace, I practice gratitude. I don't want to practice anxiety with my freedom. Anxiety is the dizziness of freedom. All right, another quote. To dare is to lose one's footing momentarily. Not to dare is to lose oneself. All right, I'll say it again. To dare. D A R E. To dare is to lose one's footing momentarily. Not to dare is to lose oneself. This is one of those things that none of us were taught when we were younger. And it still puzzles me that we're not so directly teaching children this. Now, being alive in a lot of ways is about embracing a certain amount of constant risk. Every friendship I might make is a risk. To dare is to lose one's footing momentarily. In every interpersonal risk that I take, I feel that little flutter in my gut. I feel that little, maybe very old part of me that Was in elementary school or middle school trying to figure out how to make friends, trying to figure out how to avoid the mean girls. There's a risk. Even if I reach out and compliment someone, there's a risk to that they might not take it the right way. They might not receive it very well. Think about the risks that you have already faced, conquered, overcome in your own life. Every single change has some inherent risk. No one ever tells us directly that we are going to choose a lot of the direct risk, and we're going to stare it down in its face until we figure it out, move past it, conquer it, and go beyond. And without that risk, there may not be a reward. To dare is to lose one's footing momentarily. Not to dare is to lose oneself. Some of my favorite little video online lanes to get lost in are little kids doing the high dive for the first time. They are daring. They are scared getting up on that high dive, right? They're challenging themselves. They're scared. In that moment. It's intense, it's intimidating. They don't know if they can do it. The ones that pull it off and actually jump and don't climb back down, they beam like the sun. And in that moment, they found themselves from that challenge, from that risk. Not to dare is to lose oneself. When someone's depressed, I often challenge them to take a risk, to get out of their comfort zone. They often look at me and say, but I don't feel like it. I say, I know, I know. We face risking no matter how we feel Sometimes, sometimes the very thing that's required goes against the grain, not with it. And if and when we're depressed, we can't keep going along with that grain. We need to go against the grain of depression and a healthy risk, a reasonable risk like that high dive, like saying hello to that cashier at the grocery store or that person in the library you keep running into. Not to dare is to lose oneself. What if we actually conquer depression by facing risk, owning that risk and moving forward? And as we do so, guess what we're doing? We're creating our life. We're creating our purpose. And that risk proves that we're taking responsibility for our own growth, our own directionality towards the rewards that we want in this life? To dare is to lose one's footing momentarily. Not to dare is to lose oneself. All right, got a few more for you. Boredom is the root of all evil. The despairing refusal to be oneself. There's a lot in this quote, y'.

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[A]

Boredom is the root of all evil. People are often shocked when I say that in addiction treatment, boredom is the number one trigger. Isn't that shocking? Doesn't make logical sense, right? We would think something very upsetting. The death of a loved one, the loss of a job, you wrecked a car, and now you're facing a dwi. And that upset is making you want to drink even more. No, it's not the stuff that happens that's the biggest trigger. It's boredom. Now, why is this? Well, boredom is the root of all evil. What do you think that means? On the surface, there's nothing evil about just being bored, right? Someone might sit and argue with me. Oh, children are bored all the time. There's nothing evil about that. A mind that's creating a life, a mind and a heart and a spirit that is creating a purpose, cannot get bored. And if we give ourselves the message, I'm bored, there's nothing to do. I'm bored, there's nothing to do. What this quote says to me is, it's as if the devil, or evil, if you will, steps in like, oh, you're bored. Perfect timing for me. It's kind of like when I was young and old timers would say, nothing good happens after midnight if you're out. Now, I bucked that as a teenager and a young woman, but they were right. There's this way that we can take care of ourselves by never allowing boredom. For many years now, before I ever read this quote as a way to take care of myself, I would say to myself or anybody who would ask, oh, no, I'm never bored. Why am I never bored? Because there's always a book for me to read. There's always something for me to listen to. There's something for me to draw. There's me playing with my dog. There's me cooking something brand new, cleaning something to make my space feel better to me. More respectful, more lovely, easier to even breathe. Boredom is the root of all evil. The despairing refusal to be oneself. See if we're really embracing being ourselves and taking responsibility for our one precious life. That respect makes it impossible to be bored. You get to be yourself. I like to embrace being weird. How could you be bored? Maybe you want to, like, roll on the floor like a log. Just play with your imagination. How could you ever be bored? Those of you who have been with me a while talk a lot about the inner child. They'll not really go in there in this episode. Do you see how it's our job to take care of that inner child? And not let him or her get bored. Get into things that aren't so good. Go down dark rabbit holes online just because you're bored. Scroll till your brain and your eyes hurt because you're bored. Part of self love is tapping in that wise woman or that wise man and saying, oh honey, there's way too much life to live than to ever really truly be bored. Another quote for you from the brilliant Kierkegaard. Life is not a problem to be solved, but a reality to be experienced. I wish every therapist that ever graduated and decided to work with people hung this on their wall. Because so many counseling and psychotherapy clients show up to a healer as if life is a problem to be solved and they'll just be okay if that problem gets solved just as soon as it is solved. Life is not something to solve. And if you believe that it is, you're going to feel a lot of stress because you see life as a problem. Life is not a problem to be solved, but a reality to be experienced. Therapy isn't about fixing you. The work that I offer isn't about fixing you or solving that problem you're having that you just want to go away. It's about learning how to experience life. All of it. It's ups, its downs, its wins, its fails, its lackluster ness, its beauty. All of it with more ease, more grace, more light, more joy, more purpose, more intention. Allowing it to show you through the experience what it is to be alive instead of fighting it. As if we only want to experience everything that's good, which is logical, right? Of course, if I ask me to, who wants to only experience only positive things in the world? Everybody raises their hand, right? That's logical. But it doesn't serve us psychologically. If I put that childish, immature, idealized expectation, life should only be all good things for me. You hear the little kid in that? If I put that down and I take care of her by holding the actual truth, oh, honey, there's going to be lots of problems, lots of unforeseen things, lots of things we didn't choose. But let's experience it. Let's see what it has to offer us. Let's stop trying to control it. Let's stop looking at life or ourselves as some kind of problematic Rubik's Cube that must be figured out or else all we have to do is experience with more flow. Would you argue with me on that? Does that sound right to you? Do you want to live from that place you're not a problem to be solved. Never have Been. You're a reality to be experienced. And with everything you experience when you embody learning, then it's easier. But it's not gonna just dish out easy. Not for you, not for me. This is a beautiful way to let go, to embrace what is instead of what you want or what you think should be. It's a way to stop fighting with life and really embrace it. All right, last quote. Whoever has learned to be anxious in the right way has learned the ultimate. Now, a lot of you might hear that and go, what do you mean anxious in the right way? There is nothing wrong with any of our feelings, y', all, any of them. We tend to think of our emotions as good or bad, right? Those are the categories we start having as children. It's good if I'm happy, it's bad if I'm sad is what we think as kids, right? It's good if I win, it's bad if I lose. We have a very binary or black and white way of thinking because we're very simple and we grow into complexity. Even anxiety has its place. Believe it or not, we're not supposed to have zero anxiety like medication commercials would have you believe. The reason humans have anxiety is so that if you're chasing me in a dark alley to hurt me, I start feeling anxious. It makes my blood pump, it makes my senses turn on. It changes my nervous system from chill to activated so that I can fight or flight, run away or freeze. If that's the thing that my system decides will better save my life. That anxiety is there to help me. It's just that anxiety was always supposed to operate on this very old hardware system we have called the human body in the moment of something happening, so that my body can go into that mode in a way that is sort of effective or useful in modern society. We have far too many moments of just thinking anxiety. That's not actually happening to us. Now, if you are carrying around anxiety for things that you are powerless to have any control over, I would say that's a wrong way. Whoever has learned to be anxious in the right way has learned the ultimate. I had post traumatic stress most of my life. Very easy for my system to get triggered into anxious state or fight or flight. Even when my head knows, hey, I'm safe, my body may react. Every year of my life, it reacts less and less and less because it's learning more peace and more safety. Every single year of my life, I want to help my system be anxious in the right way, which means in the moment and not in overthinking, whoever has learned to be anxious in the right way has learned the ultimate. It is tragic. I will even use what I'll call the E word evil, in my opinion, that politics has pumped into our atmosphere, that if we are carrying people, we should be worried, we should be upset, we should be anxious, we should be fearful. I fundamentally buck all of that. It doesn't work. It amps us up. It wears us out. It makes us raw, it makes us edgy. That is the wrong way. Then when something happens, you're kind of fried, y'.

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You're burnt out because you've been carrying around this mental stress and pressure that just isn't applicable to the moments you're living through, not in the way you're carrying it in your mind and then putting on this body. So I want to implore you not to try to be someone who never feels anxiety, but to try to be someone who figures out where to put that anxiety, where to put that anxious response in its proper place, contain it. I teach boundaries too, right? We need emotional boundaries. We can't just let anxiety run all over the place in our psyche, in our minds, over our bodies, and then go, gosh, why am I so tired? Go, gosh, why am I exhausted? Why am I so on edge? Why did I snap at the kids? Why did I snap at my spouse? Society is telling us to be anxious in all the wrong ways, y'. All, Will you join me in your life this year and put your foot down to that nonsense, to that backwards message? Whoever has learned to be anxious in the right way has learned the ultimate. If these move you, if you feel passionate about your seeker spirit, if you've struggled to understand what it is to be anxious in the right way and to allow more peace instead of more anxiety and seer in your life, I want to encourage you to come check out my breakthrough peace program. Now, so many of us had childhoods where we practice stress every day. Of course, we didn't do that intentionally, but we practiced stress. We practiced overthinking. And a lot of us with good hearts have bought in to this political teaching that if you care, you're upset. If you care, you're worried. And it's wearing us out. We have known for many, many years that stress kills. We can't just sweep that knowledge under the rug. Practicing peace might sound strange at first. Why would I need to practice peace? Depends on your relationship with anxiety. Depends on your relationship with your mind and your thoughts. Come check out my breakthrough peace program so that you can learn how to be anxious in the right ways and peaceful and and so many more. Check the description to find the link and come see if the Breakthrough Peace Program is right for you. There's no pressure, there's no stress. Me and my team, we want you to have more peace even through the process of deciding if this is right for you. So if you've struggled to be peaceful, if you soak up anxiety and stress, if your mind spins and spins, I want you to know that it does not have to be that way. There is so much peace available when we know the exact right emotional muscles to to strengthen. You can strength train for peace y'.

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I am an emotional badass, you are an emotional badass and together we are where moxie meets mindful light and love. And thank you for listening and being on this journey of today's episode with me as we just review some good old wisdom from Soaring, Kierkegaard, Light and Love. If you want more, come find me at patreon.com backslash emotional badass bye Bye.

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