Page 129 - Advance Copy: Todd Kaufman, Author

HOW TO MANAGE ANXIETY & END PANIC ATTACKS
When we apply Intention to changing how we feel, the easiest change comes to move from one emotion to another that feel pretty close to one another.
Imagine if you were an actor and the scene required you to be very angry at another character. You deliver your lines and the director screams, “CUT! I want you angrier, show me RAGE!” And since you are quite capable of giving Meryl Streep a run for her money, you launch back into the scene, and with terrifying believability, you RAGE!
If you think about this for a moment you may realize that there are days an actor might not just be feeling happy, or angry, or whatever is required by the director and the script. But it is their job to step into the emotion, and if they can’t or don’t really become that emotion, we call it bad acting. Great actors deeply feel and experience, by choice, the emotions required for a scene. They have learned how to release just the right cocktail of chemicals and electrical impulses in their brain to experience that emotion. Actors are not the only ones who can shift their feelings, we all can. It just takes, you guessed it: Intention, Repetition and Reward!
The Feelings/Emotions Wheel
Following is a list of feelings and emotions on a wheel. In the centre of the wheel is a beautiful Sanskrit symbol that means “Impermanence.” People often look at this wheel and view it as a list of emotions and feelings, judging them as good or bad. And yes that can be true. However, for the purpose of this exercise, do your best to let go of that way of looking at it, and try, as best you can, not to place or judgment or value on any of the emotions. There is no doubt that feeling happy beats feeling sad, but in this exercise, it is important not to judge any emotion on the list; what matters is your ability to master shifting from one emotion to the next as you move around the circle.
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