The Anxiety Coaches Podcast

In today's episode, Gina discusses Claire Weekes' idea of "the habit of fear" and how anxiety is often largely a learned pattern of sensations, interpretation of these sensations and exaggerated emotional reactions to these sensations and interpretations. Learning to reinterpret anxiety related bodily sensations as not necessarily threatening or dangerous can go a long way to helping us in our anxiety recovery. Listen in and strengthen your ability to interpret bodily sensations and environmental factors in ways that do not signal danger to your body-mind and become more resilient and less anxious today!

Stillpoint Fridays is my once-a-week Friday note — a slower, more personal reflection that’s different from what I share on the podcast.
If you’d like a quiet place to land as the week winds down, you can join here: http://eepurl.com/bR2F9P or on our website anxietycoachespodcast.com and sign up for the newsletter.

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Learn more about anxiety What is anxiety?

Free Guided Meditation for Calming Your Anxious Mind 10-Minute Body-Scan Meditation for Anxiety

Quote:

Do not be bluffed by your feelings.

-Claire Weekes

Chapters
0:27 Habit of Fear
6:14 Don’t Be Bluffed
7:42 Predictive Brain Explained
12:47 New Paths of Recovery
18:04 Learning, Not Just Knowing
22:12 Practical Steps to Respond
25:41 Anxiety Returning Again

Summary
In this episode we explore Claire Weekes’ idea of the “habit of fear” and how anxiety can become a learned pattern through repetition. We discuss how fear may start with a body sensation, a frightening interpretation, and then more physical alarm, until the brain begins to expect danger from similar cues.

We explain that the nervous system can become sensitized and that modern terms such as conditioned responses, neural pathways, and the predictive brain help describe the same process. We look at how the brain makes predictions from past experiences and how those predictions can trigger checking, bracing, avoidance, and reassurance seeking.

We also cover Claire Weekes’s reminder to “not be bluffed by your feelings,” meaning that sensations can feel convincing without actually signaling danger. We discuss how short-term relief can reinforce the old fear pathway, while allowing sensations, thoughts, and uncertainty without reacting helps create a new response.Finally, we emphasize that progress is not measured by never feeling fear again. We focus on returning to ordinary life, reducing monitoring, and noticing when an old alarm is active without treating it as an emergency.

#Anxiety #AnxietyCoachesPodcast #GinaRyan #ClaireWeeks #HabitOfFear #AnxietyRelief #PanicAttack #NervousSystem #NervousSystemRegulation #PredictiveBrain #NeuralPathways #ConditionedResponse #AnxietyRecovery #OvercomingAnxiety #AcceptanceAndCommitment #IntrusiveThoughts #MentalHealth #MentalHealthAwareness #StressRelief #Mindfulness #SelfCare #EmotionalWellness #AnxietySupport #InnerPeace #CalmYourMind #HealYourNervousSystem #BodyAwareness #Overthinking #MentalWellness #HolisticHealth #ACP
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In today's episode, Gina discusses the frequent anxiety related behavior of symptom monitoring and how to overcome it. This is another core aspect of Claire Weekes' anxiety recovery protocol: acceptance, and more emphatically, utter acceptance. Learning to become comfortable with any symptoms anxiety throws at us is very helpful for our anxiety recovery. Utter acceptance of the symptoms can help us do this. Listen in and let go of constant self-monitoring today!

Stillpoint Fridays is my once-a-week Friday note — a slower, more personal reflection that’s different from what I share on the podcast.
If you’d like a quiet place to land as the week winds down, you can join here: http://eepurl.com/bR2F9P or on our website anxietycoachespodcast.com and sign up for the newsletter.

Please visit our Sponsor Page to find all the links and codes for our awesome sponsors! https://www.theanxietycoachespodcast.com/sponsors/

Website https://www.theanxietycoachespodcast.com

Join our community Group Coaching Join our Group Coaching Full or Mini Membership Program

1:1 Coaching Learn more about our One-on-One Coaching

If you prefer to listen AD-FREE, try our Supercast premium access membership:

Learn more about anxiety What is anxiety?

Free Guided Meditation for Calming Your Anxious Mind 10-Minute Body-Scan Meditation for Anxiety

Quote:

Recovery lies in the places you fear. Go to them with utter acceptance and let time pass.

-Dr. Claire Weekes

Chapters
0:27 Utter Acceptance Begins
3:48 The Monitoring Trap
10:20 Body Scans vs Scanning
15:48 Loosening the Checking Habit
20:32 Trust Over Supervision

Summary
In this episode we focus on moving from symptom monitoring toward self-trust through Claire Weekes’ idea of utter acceptance. We explain how this differs from radical acceptance, which is about accepting reality, while utter acceptance means full permission for bodily fear without bracing, checking, or resistance.We talk about how anxiety often keeps us in a cycle of monitoring the body, seeking reassurance, and searching for explanations.

We describe how attention to sensations like heartbeat, breathing, dizziness, or fatigue can make them feel more urgent, which then increases anxiety and creates more sensations to monitor.We also distinguish anxious body checking from mindful body scanning. A mindful scan is described as curious and non-judgmental, while anxious scanning looks for danger and tries to confirm safety.

We note that even meditation can become a checking ritual if we use it to test whether we feel better.We then outline practical steps for reducing monitoring: noticing checking habits without judgment, pausing before checking, shifting attention outward, stopping daily comparisons, choosing one checking behavior to loosen, using permission phrases, and allowing progress to be imperfect. The episode closes by emphasizing that the opposite of monitoring is trust, and that we can notice uncertainty and still continue with daily life.

#Anxiety #AnxietyRelief #PanicAttack #AnxietyRecovery #ClaireWeeks #UtterAcceptance #RadicalAcceptance #HealthAnxiety #Interoception #SymptomMonitoring #Mindfulness #NervousSystem #SelfTrust #MentalHealth #MentalHealthAwareness #AnxietySupport #OvercomingAnxiety #BodyScan #DBT #SelfCare #InnerPeace #StressRelief #DropTheStruggle #AnxietyCoachesPodcast #GinaRyan #EmotionalWellness #Mindset #HolisticHealing #Wellness #LetItBe #ACP
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In today's episode, Gina continues her Claire Weekes series with an episode devoted to the often overlooked step in her core clearing protocol: letting time pass. Letting time pass connects importantly with acceptance and floating. The differences between "letting" time pass and "waiting for" time to pass are expanded on. Listen in and come to understand the final letting time pass step in Claire Weekes' anxiety clearing protocol and further your anxiety clearing journey today!

Stillpoint Fridays is my once-a-week Friday note — a slower, more personal reflection that’s different from what I share on the podcast.
If you’d like a quiet place to land as the week winds down, you can join here: http://eepurl.com/bR2F9P or on our website anxietycoachespodcast.com and sign up for the newsletter.

Please visit our Sponsor Page to find all the links and codes for our awesome sponsors! https://www.theanxietycoachespodcast.com/sponsors/

Website https://www.theanxietycoachespodcast.com

Join our community Group Coaching Join our Group Coaching Full or Mini Membership Program

1:1 Coaching Learn more about our One-on-One Coaching

If you prefer to listen AD-FREE, try our Supercast premium access membership:

Learn more about anxiety What is anxiety?

Free Guided Meditation for Calming Your Anxious Mind 10-Minute Body-Scan Meditation for Anxiety

Quote:

Let time pass: do not be impatient with time.

-Claire Weekes

Chapters
0:27 Welcome and Series Focus
4:13 The Meaning of Letting Time Pass
7:54 Recovery Doesn’t Move Straight
9:19 Safety Learning in the Brain
14:05 Stop Symptom Checking
15:11 Practice, Don’t Test
17:21 No Verdict Needed
19:46 Hidden Signs of Growth
22:06 A Gentle Weekly Practice
23:25 Modern Steps to Healing

Summary
In this episode we continue our series on Dr. Claire Weeks and focus on her direction to “let time pass.” We look at how this idea connects with acceptance, floating, and the difference between first fear and second fear, with an emphasis on patience as part of nervous system healing.

We explore what “letting time pass” means in practice and what it is not. It is not waiting for anxiety to disappear, putting life on hold, counting symptoms, or treating recovery as a test. Instead, we keep living ordinary life while allowing sensations and thoughts to come and go without turning each moment into a measurement.

We also discuss why checking symptoms so often can keep anxiety central. We contrast “practice” with “testing,” and we look at how measuring progress too closely can hide deeper change. Progress may show up as continuing with plans, staying in situations longer, returning to the day after a hard moment, and responding with more kindness.We connect Claire Weeks’ advice to modern ideas about threat learning and safety learning.

Repeated experiences of surviving anxiety without catastrophe give the nervous system new information over time. We note that old alarms can still return, especially when we are tired, stressed, sick, or facing change, but this does not erase what we have learned.We close with a gentle invitation to notice checking, soften the body, and continue with what we are doing. We emphasize that healing is gradual, not linear, and that we do not need to be impatient with time.

#Anxiety #AnxietyRecovery #ClaireWeeks #NervousSystem #MentalHealth #AnxietyRelief #Mindfulness #SelfCompassion #Neuroplasticity #PanicAttack #AnxietySupport #MentalHealthAwareness #LetTimePass #Floating #Acceptance #SymptomMonitoring #OvercomingAnxiety #NervousSystemRegulation #HealingTakesTime #InnerPeace #Calm #MentalWellness #SelfCare #Psychology #AnxietyManagement #StressRelief #SelfHelp #EmotionalWellness #MindsetShift #HealingJourney #GinaRyan #ACP #AnxietyCoachesPodcast
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In today's episode, Gina discusses Claire Weekes' concept of "floating" and how to best understand this step in her anxiety clearing protocol. Floating is a natural companion to the important "acceptance" step and is an essential aspect to clearing anxiety. Being able to float and not respond to the uncomfortable symptoms anxiety throws at us ensures our best path through any anxiety provoking situation. Listen in and master Claire Weekes' "floating"!

Stillpoint Fridays is my once-a-week Friday note — a slower, more personal reflection that’s different from what I share on the podcast.
If you’d like a quiet place to land as the week winds down, you can join here: http://eepurl.com/bR2F9P or on our website anxietycoachespodcast.com and sign up for the newsletter.

Please visit our Sponsor Page to find all the links and codes for our awesome sponsors! https://www.theanxietycoachespodcast.com/sponsors/

Website https://www.theanxietycoachespodcast.com

Join our community Group Coaching Join our Group Coaching Full or Mini Membership Program

1:1 Coaching Learn more about our One-on-One Coaching

If you prefer to listen AD-FREE, try our Supercast premium access membership:

Learn more about anxiety What is anxiety?

Free Guided Meditation for Calming Your Anxious Mind 10-Minute Body-Scan Meditation for Anxiety

Quote:

Do not resist the wave of fear. The less you fear it, the less it will frighten you.

-Dr. Claire Weekes

Chapters
0:27 Floating and Acceptance
4:00 What Floating Means
8:27 Stop Adding Friction
10:42 Nervous System Armor
12:49 Active Willingness
15:21 Move With the Wave
16:17 Floating in Daily Life
17:29 A Calm Practice
19:03 Less Resistance, More Ease

Summary
In this episode we continue our series on Dr. Claire Weeks and focus on her teaching about “floating.” We explain how this term relates to acceptance, allowing sensations, and non-resistance in modern language. We frame floating as stopping the habit of fighting anxiety rather than doing something to anxiety.We use the example of learning to float in water to show how tension and effort can make it harder to stay afloat. In the same way, we describe how anxiety often leads us to brace, clamp down, and try to control symptoms, which adds more strain.

Floating is presented as softening into the experience instead of tightening against it.We also connect the idea to nervous system responses, describing common signs like shallow breathing, clenched muscles, narrowed attention, and racing thoughts. We suggest small acts of release, such as loosening the jaw, unclenching the hands, and easing tension by just a small amount. Floating is described as active willingness, not passivity.We compare this approach to images like Chinese finger traps, quicksand, and waves in the ocean, where struggle makes the situation worse and cooperation is more effective.

We then offer simple language to use in difficult moments, such as noticing that sensations are present and returning attention to the next breath or next step.We close with a short practice of relaxing the face, shoulders, hands, and breathing, and imagining resting on calm water. We end by emphasizing that healing comes from changing our relationship with fear, not from winning a battle against it.

#Anxiety #AnxietyRelief #PanicAttacks #ClaireWeeks #FloatingThroughAnxiety #NervousSystem #NervousSystemRegulation #MentalHealth #Mindfulness #Acceptance #RadicalAcceptance #SomaticHealing #AnxietyRecovery #AnxietyCoachesPodcast #GinaRyan #StressRelief #SelfCare #EmotionalRegulation #FightOrFlight #MentalWellness #PeaceAndCalm #HealingJourney #OvercomingAnxiety #StressManagement #SomaticPractices #MindfulLiving #LettingGo #SelfCompassion #InnerPeace #MentalHealthAwareness #ACP
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In today's episode, Gina discusses one of Claire Weekes' most important topics in her anxiety recovery methodology: acceptance. Through liberal application of Weekes' acceptance, individuals with anxiety will improve their anxiety recovery journey. Embracing acceptance of life circumstances automatically reduces resistance. Resistance to what is in our lives is a significant source of our suffering (anxiety related and otherwise). Listen in an strengthen your acceptance practice today!

Stillpoint Fridays is my once-a-week Friday note — a slower, more personal reflection that’s different from what I share on the podcast.
If you’d like a quiet place to land as the week winds down, you can join here: http://eepurl.com/bR2F9P or on our website anxietycoachespodcast.com and sign up for the newsletter.

Please visit our Sponsor Page to find all the links and codes for our awesome sponsors! https://www.theanxietycoachespodcast.com/sponsors/

Website https://www.theanxietycoachespodcast.com

Join our community Group Coaching Join our Group Coaching Full or Mini Membership Program

1:1 Coaching Learn more about our One-on-One Coaching

If you prefer to listen AD-FREE, try our Supercast premium access membership:

Learn more about anxiety What is anxiety?

Free Guided Meditation for Calming Your Anxious Mind 10-Minute Body-Scan Meditation for Anxiety

Quote:

You are the sky. Everything else- it's just the weather.

-Pema Chödrön

Chapters
0:27 Welcome to Anxiety Coaches Podcast
1:16 Understanding Acceptance
8:56 What Acceptance Is Not
10:00 Acceptance in Daily Life
13:23 Floating Through Anxiety
15:34 A Simple Acceptance Practice
18:21 Closing Reflection

Summary
In this episode, we continue our discussion of Dr. Claire Weekes’s approach to anxiety, focusing on the meaning of acceptance. We explain that acceptance does not mean giving up, approving of anxiety, or resigning ourselves to it. Instead, it means stopping the struggle with what is already happening in the present moment.

We distinguish between disliking anxiety and fighting it. We note that resistance can add another layer of fear and stress, while willingness can soften the nervous system. We describe acceptance as a posture rather than a feeling, and we use examples such as dizziness, intrusive thoughts, and a racing heart to show the difference between resistance and acceptance in daily life.

We also connect Claire Weekes’s teaching with Pema Chödrön’s ideas about staying present and not hardening against discomfort. We describe acceptance as a form of “floating” through sensations without trying to force them away. This is presented as a way to reduce the second fear and to support nervous system retraining.

We end with practical language and a brief micro-practice: pausing, relaxing the shoulders and jaw, breathing normally, and using willingness phrases such as “I’m willing to let this be here” or “I can float through this moment.” We emphasize that acceptance is a skill that becomes easier with repetition and that it allows healing without adding unnecessary suffering.

#Anxiety #AnxietyRelief #PanicAttacks #ClaireWeeks #DrClaireWeeks #AnxietyRecovery #MentalHealth #MentalHealthAwareness #NervousSystemHealing #Mindfulness #Acceptance #PemaChodron #SelfCompassion #AnxietySupport #OvercomingAnxiety #StressRelief #InnerPeace #MentalWellness #AnxietyCoachesPodcast #GinaRyan #FloatingThroughAnxiety #HealingJourney #SelfCare #MindsetShift #DropTheStruggle #PanicDisorder #HealthAnxiety #Agoraphobia #FightOrFlight #NervousSystemRegulation #VagusNerve #SomaticHealing #ACTTherapy #CognitiveBehavioralTherapy #Overthinking #IntrusiveThoughts #SelfHelp #EmotionalHealing #HolisticHealth #MentalHealthPodcast #PodcastEpisode #WellnessPodcast #MindBodyConnection #CalmYourMind #StressManagement #AnxietyTips #MentalHealthCommunity #NonResistance #InnerCalm #Empathy #ACP
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