Bonus Short: From Episode 72 - Rewiring the Brain: Understanding and Overcoming Driving Anxiety with Joshua Fletcher

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Well, we were on a season break.

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We sharing with you some bonus

shores from an old episode.

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Normally we create one

short for each episode.

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For this break, we focus in on one episode

in particular, which is episode 72.

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Rewiring the brain understanding

and overcoming driving

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anxiety with Joshua Fletcher.

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And we've clipped this into several small

shorts, all around five minutes each.

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This episode is probably the episode that

we share the most with those of you who

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gets in touch and are asking for help.

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So, if you have driving anxiety,

there's probably something for

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you in one of these . shores.

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I can't say what was my biggest takeaway.

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There was so many.

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As you probably heard

in the, you know, the.

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The conversation we had, but

the first one is like we tell

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everybody really is baby steps.

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Isn't it.

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Yeah.

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Just taking those little steps.

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One of the things it's

seems to be a common theme.

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Yeah, it is one of the messages

that I think we try to put

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across in most episodes.

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So it's really nice when we invite an

expert on and they say the same thing.

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Yeah.

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Yes.

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I know that I'm on the right

lines, you know, when I'm teaching

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people or when we're in the car

coaching, whatever it may be.

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Um, but you know, he mentioned

that we're doing the right things.

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When we get people just to

sit behind the steering wheel.

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I won't say facing the fears like

I did in, uh, in the interview,

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but, you have to be scared.

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You know, you're facing those fears.

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To a certain extent, but you're not.

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Going too far.

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You're just taking that baby steps.

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So, yeah, that was one of my.

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Yeah.

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There was so many things that Josh said

that linked into that wasn't there.

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It's sort of

counter-intuitive I know that.

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But like he said that feeling

of fear is not the enemy itself.

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That feeling of fear is a

normal, natural instinct.

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And it will pass.

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And once it passes.

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To do the thing.

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That made you have those feelings anyway.

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Or to tolerate a certain level of anxiety.

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It's that, that rewires the brain.

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I mean, that's really

important information.

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Isn't it?

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Yeah, it.

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It's great.

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And it's, uh, It's so, so

important for people that are

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anxious with their driving.

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know that.

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It won't last.

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Yeah.

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Do you know it won't

last and if you can just.

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You know, get him back to driving,

sitting behind the steamer.

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If you can just get back.

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And, you know, Just sit

there just for a moment.

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Recognize it.

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And do you know, it won't last

forever, those feelings that you have.

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But then also say, well done to yourself.

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Yeah.

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Yeah, definitely.

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So this comes back to

the baby steps again.

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So if you're going to feel a certain

level of anxiousness, this is why

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it's important to have a baby step.

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So it's not too overwhelming or so

it doesn't feel impossible, but then

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coming back to what you just said there.

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The acknowledging that

it was you, who did it?

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Yeah.

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Give yourself the credit.

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Give yourself the credit.

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Yeah, definitely.

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And , I recognize that with some of

the people that we've worked with and

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spoken to talking about open windows,

bottles of water, people sat next to the.

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Having all of these, well,

actually even having a driving

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instructor sat next to you.

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I mean, that is the ultimate.

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I called it a crutch.

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Josh called it a safety behavior.

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It doesn't matter what term you use.

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It's all the same thing.

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So when you achieve your goal, when

you achieve your baby's success, Is

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making sure that it's you, who did it

and you recognize it's you, who did it.

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So Josh used the phrase recognizing

it was your bravery and your courage.

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So owning that.

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It was your bravery and your courage

that helped you achieve that.

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And I think that's so important.

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And again, Not just in driving.

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Is it.

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You know, I mean, I know.

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We are doing the driving podcast,

but it's it's, it is in life.

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Isn't it?

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We take for credit that it was,

if I didn't have my music on,

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I wouldn't have run that mile.

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When in actual fact it's like, well

done you for actually running a mile.

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Yeah.

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Absolutely great to have these

things if they help you, but

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not, if you feel that they're the

only thing that got you through.

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You who did it?

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A couple of other things

that came up for me.

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Was that word acrophobia.

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I had never considered

that before, but yes,

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the almost.

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Gives it a different

position instead of, oh yeah.

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The sketch driving then of some driving.

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It's like, well, how'd she know

you've got agoraphobic tendencies.

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Um, I think given it a name it

is something that you need help,

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where there is some things.

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The might take steps to overcome.

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It's not something just to brush

under the carpet and hope that

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it will magic away somehow.

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It won't it won't I mean, it's

nice that there is something there

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that, you know, being a Griffo BIC.

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Oh, that's that's.

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I can go and look at that and maybe deal

with it slightly differently now, but

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definitely don't use that as a label.

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As an excuse to not do anything about it.

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So Josh was really clear there.

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Associations can change.

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You can rewire your brain.

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So don't use that label as

an excuse to not do anything.

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Use it as maybe a bit of a push.

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To do something about it.

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The other thing that was talking about

that we, you know, the whole idea of this

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podcast was the mystery driving anxiety.

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Where does this mystery anxiety come from?

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And Josh talked there about that

accumulation of life stress.

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And that sometimes it's just

one thing and it can be really.

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Tiny, nothing Orpheus.

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That was the one drop.

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The one thing that the straw that

broke the camel's back, the one drop

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that made the stress bucket or jug.

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Overflow.

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Um, so factoring that in, when you're

thinking about, if you had mystery

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driving anxiety, what was going on in your

life, what was happening at that time?

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And perhaps it was that general

accumulation of life stress, as opposed

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to seeking the, the one thing that

triggered the stress in the moment.

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If you were going

through a stressful time.

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That will have been enough to have

triggered that driving anxiety.

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Yeah, it does.

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It does affect your driving.

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Doesn't it?

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Great.

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So we got loads from that and.

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We hope that you get loads from it too.