shift around inclusivity and accessibility to corporate events in particular.

Absolutely.

Just like he said, we're seeing more and more diagnosis, especially over the last 10 years.

We're understanding more about the spectrum of disability.

It's very easy for people to assume that you're able-bodied just by looking at you.

Yeah.

Maybe you might have a spinal cord injury or a lot of people don't know I'm deaf when they meet me.

Wow.

Let me ask you then, what, you know, what happens when someone consistently evaluates themselves in isolation rather than that sort of longer sort of trajectory of their career or their profession? Is there like a side effect from that or, you know, what's the downside of that?

Well, that word you used, isolation, that's really important because when you're isolated, when you're alone with your thoughts, your thoughts aren't necessarily aligned with reality.

You know, it's amazing what we can do with our thoughts.

We've all had this happen, you know, where you have a thought that is so exaggerated and it's creating all sorts of anxiety that's really unnecessary just because you're not checking in with what's happening and You're not talking to other people to ask, you know, how's my thinking right now about this? And so it's really important to not just be in your head all the time, you know, to talk with other people and to, when you have thoughts that are extreme, especially when they're causing you distress, to say, okay, wait a minute, before I buy this thought totally, I need to remember that thoughts are random sometimes.

Thoughts can be escalated.

not congruent with reality because that's just what the brain does sometimes.

Our thoughts are not under our control.

Well, I think we're going to get to this point in a way, you know, like obviously insight is powerful, can feel powerful in the moment, right? Or, you know, this level of discernment or like you were saying, stop yourself and being aware like, whoa, what am I, why am I thinking this? You know, but, you know, Awareness alone isn't enough to recondition thought patterns, right? Why is that?

Let me ask you then, what, you know, what happens when someone consistently evaluates themselves in isolation rather than that sort of longer sort of trajectory of their career or their profession? Is there like a side effect from that or, you know, what's the downside of that?

Well, that word you used, isolation, that's really important because when you're isolated, when you're alone with your thoughts, your thoughts aren't necessarily aligned with reality.

You know, it's amazing what we can do with our thoughts.

We've all had this happen, you know, where you have a thought that is so exaggerated and it's creating all sorts of anxiety that's really unnecessary just because you're not checking in with what's happening and You're not talking to other people to ask, you know, how's my thinking right now about this? And so it's really important to not just be in your head all the time, you know, to talk with other people and to, when you have thoughts that are extreme, especially when they're causing you distress, to say, okay, wait a minute, before I buy this thought totally, I need to remember that thoughts are random sometimes.

Thoughts can be escalated.

not congruent with reality because that's just what the brain does sometimes.

Our thoughts are not under our control.

Well, I think we're going to get to this point in a way, you know, like obviously insight is powerful, can feel powerful in the moment, right? Or, you know, this level of discernment or like you were saying, stop yourself and being aware like, whoa, what am I, why am I thinking this? You know, but, you know, Awareness alone isn't enough to recondition thought patterns, right? Why is that?

What changes when someone treats it like a claim requiring evidence rather than a verdict?

Well, the key here is to not immediately take every thought that you have as fact, because as I said, it's mostly random thought that we experience as human beings.

And a lot of it is irrational.

And it may be based on, let's say, something that happened 40 years ago in your childhood, you know.

So a very concrete example of that might be, let's say that when you were a kid, the dog next door bit you when you were three years old.

So now you're terrified of dogs.

So if you see a dog, you have this thought that, oh, my gosh, I'm in danger when that's really not based on your current reality.

What do you tell people in terms of identifying when they've crossed the line? I'll say symptoms, maybe not the right word, but what are some red flags that like, hey, maybe it's time to make some changes, I guess?