Trail Running with Confidence: Facing Fears with Focus.

um yeah so this is a great place to start so if you have not already seen inside out please go, please go and watch it, especially Inside Out 2.

Inside Out 2 deals specifically with anxiety and it does so in a sports performance context.

And I just find it incredibly helpful.

And it's a really, yeah, I'll be referring to it during the presentation today and just like highly recommend it.

I actually think it will help you when you think about yourself and your own emotions related to running.

So the first step to dealing with fear is to not be afraid of fear.

We do not need to have fear of fear.

So fear is one of the emotions that sort of gets a bad rap.

I think like anger or sadness, right? The feelings that don't feel so great, that are uncomfortable, we sort of think of as negative.

So let's just start out by acknowledging that fear is not a bad thing.

Fear is a survival-based response.

It's an emotion that exists to keep you alive.

Fear tells you to move.

It tells you to stay still sometimes.

It tells you when you're in danger.

It enhances your alertness.

It makes you more aware of what's going on around you.

It protects you from pain, both by anticipating things that will cause pain by remembering they've caused pain before.

And I mean that both physically and emotionally, right? So it's going to remind you of the kind of heartbreak you've had before and how you've stubbed your toe before.

um and yeah again it's this automatic response we don't control that we feel afraid of something we feel afraid of something because our brain is designed to keep us safe and fear is one of the primary tools that it uses to do that and fear is our internal warning system So then we get to this question about what's the difference between fear and anxiety.

So fear is a good thing.

Anxiety is a thing that we all have and is something everybody encounters and experiences.

But the difference between fear and anxiety is that fear keeps you alive and anxiety keeps you from living.

So fear, again, is a good thing.

Fear says, hey, notice, be aware, protect yourself.