In this episode of the Susie Taff Unshape Sessions, Susie Taff shares a personal anxiety episode and offers a step‑by‑step self‑help guide. She begins by framing anxiety as "emotional shapewear"—layers of programming and belief that keep us stuck in the head. She clarifies the difference between fear (an immediate, real threat) and anxiety (the forward‑projected, imagined threat). She then walks through practical coping tools: 1) grounding and deep belly breathing, 2) moving the body through chores, exercise, or any activity that shifts energy, 3) completing small tasks to create a sense of accomplishment, and 4) writing lists to externalize looping thoughts. Throughout she emphasizes safety rituals, testing music for mood, and the idea that the nervous system responds the same to imagined threats as to real ones. She concludes by recommending her "Golden Glow" 10‑minute heart‑centered meditation to reinforce self‑love and support. The tone is conversational, instructional, and empathetic, aimed at anyone who experiences anxiety.
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Hello, beautiful people. I am Susie Taff, and this is the Susie Taff Unshape Sessions, where we unshape all our old belief systems and programming and what I like to call remove the emotional shapewear from our lives. So emotional shapewear is all of the layers of programming and beliefs etc., that we've absorbed over the years and peeling them all back, um, to get back into our hearts. So to get back out of our heads. So today's topic is on anxiety. So if anyone hasn't ever had anxiety, then fabulous, keep going like that because that's absolutely amazing. And I don't know, I find that anxiety gets worse as I get older. And when we dig a little bit into what anxiety actually is, um, it makes sense that it gets worse as you get older because you pile on more stresses, etc. So there's more things to worry about, which is basically what anxiety is. So, um, today I got hit big time. So probably from about lunchtime, I just got the big whammy, and it sort of feels like stomach's churning and you're feeling like, um, irritated. Not really irritated, but sort of like irritated in a way you can't put your finger on. Um, and so I just wanted to step through some of my, um, ways for coping when I have anxiety. So firstly, um, I wanted to talk about the difference between anxiety and fear. So fear is like an immediate present danger. So you would have fear if a lion appeared at your door and roared at you. That would be fear, and that would be for your safety. What anxiety is, it's the forward projection of the lion approaching your door and roaring at you. And obviously in current day, we don't have lions that are approaching our doors, but it's all of those, um, fear— it's sort of like forward-projected fears that actually aren't real yet. So I have heard of an acronym which is FEAR. The fear acronym, which is false evidence. Oh my God! Now I've completely forgotten it. False evidence appearing real. F E A R. But that's actually not the real survival fear. So such as if we saw a snake on our path, we would. That is a real fear, and your body does need to kick into to protect you. But I think what they're referring to in that is actually about anxiety. And so, um, often I will get anxiety like in the early morning if I wake up too early and I don't get out of bed straight away. I find it really creeps in there, and it can be as small as like, I've got a jam-packed day, my to-do list, how am I fitting everything in? That person needs to go here, that person needs— I need to do that, that call, I need to get new this, and that sort of a thing. And so instantly, the second I get up, And this would be like the witching hours, like 3, 4 o'clock in the morning and the looping. But the number one trick for that is get out of bed. Once you're up and moving around the house, literally it dissipates by, I would say, 90% because you actually start moving through the day and you actually can see those fears aren't real. So today when it hit me in the middle of the day, I was like, gosh, why am I feeling like that? And I do have a lot on my plate at the moment. And so I think it's the forward projection of, my God, but how can I do that? And how am I going to make that happen? And it was just too much. Like, there was just too much, and you just go on a loop. And because it's actually not real, it's only imagined, you have to sort of trick yourself to get out of it. So guess what step 1 is? Breathe. So step 1 is try and ground yourself. If you can get out Side, put your feet on the ground. If you can't, doesn't matter, just feet firmly on the ground. Maybe hand on heart and hand on belly and just breathe like a few big deep belly breaths. If you've got— see, I actually think of meditation at this time, it's too soon. You need to get moving. So what happens is if you saw a lion, you're going to have adrenaline and cortisol. You're going to like— it is pumping through your body. And so you are like ready, you're primed to fight or flight, whichever the one is you would choose. But with anxiety, you get the same physical response as you would if there was a real lion there. So that's my number one thing, is a bit like early in the morning, it's get up and move. So, um, some tips if you're at work, um, is there any jobs on your list that require you to move about? Do you need to go to the post office? Do you need to restack the stationery? Do you need to go and clean the bathrooms? Do you need to— Organize the stock or something. Get up and move because you need to shift that energy through your body. If you're at home, um, really good ones are— I find really helps is make some— make the beds or do some tidying, unstack the dishwasher, um, do some laundry, fold the laundry, put it away. Because the reason why that works so well— well, both, both examples— is you're actually accomplishing something. But you're moving at the same time. So when you're accomplishing things, it doesn't matter that you're not slaying a lion or running away from a lion. Your body feels like it starts to feel safer. So what we're trying to do is bring safety back in. So breathe and sort of, if you have a little I am safe ritual, you can do that. We could tap our heads and tap our hearts and tap our stomachs and say, I am safe, and ground into that. Or we can move around, and by accomplishing things on our list, we're already— we're ticking off things. So even if it's not to do with the thing you're actually worrying about, you're still accomplishing things. So your brain doesn't know you're not accomplishing the things about that you're worried about, like those things over here. It doesn't know that you're not doing those. All it knows is that you're having a sense of accomplishment. So, okay, I'm doing that, tick, I got that done. I'm doing that, tick, I got that done. So I think that that gives our sort of nervous system a bit of an ability to reset and just feel, okay, I can get this under control. So if you've got the— you can go for a run, you can do whatever it is you, you need to do to move that energy out of your body and feel like you're accomplishing something. So whatever that is for you, you'll know what works. Test out a few things, see what works for you. Um, they're what worked for me. Um, you could put on some music, maybe test what works better. Is like an upbeat tune better, or is it like calm Enya-style tunes? Are they better? I'm not sure. For me, I'm usually so rattled, rattled at the beginning that I need to— I don't even think to put music on. So once you sort of settle down a bit, then you could maybe put on what you need and try and come back into your body. Like, even I'm talking fast today. Like, come back into your body and realize that it's not real. And it's sort of a little bit like, say you were moving house, you know, and you have like in the lead-up to it, you have so much stuff to do. And you're thinking of all the stuff you've got to do. But the day comes, and no matter how much prep you've done— I'm usually one of those people, I work best under pressure, so I usually do minimal prep— and you get it done. Like, all that time you spend worrying beforehand, you get— like, it's actually irrelevant because on the day when it comes to it, you do A plus B plus C plus D in action, a little bit like what I was talking about accomplishing the small tasks. And it gets done. Like, somehow it just, it happens. So, so I think that that's something we just need to remind ourselves of, is what we're worrying about, it's not usually something we actually can't manage ourselves. So, um, and I don't know, maybe it helps to make— sometimes it does help to make a list. So that could be even if you're worried before bed, um, maybe write a list of all the things. Like, if I'm looping before I go to bed, I'll get out my Notes app and just write out, okay, this is what we have to do. Bang, bang, bang, bang, bang. So then it can kind of give my brain a little bit of time to just breathe. We have a plan. It's okay. We're not doing it now. We'll get to that tomorrow. And, um, and work it through like that. So there are a few of my tips to help combat the beast that is anxiety. Um, deep breathing always, and move your body. You've got to get that energy out. Like, we're not chasing the lion. So We've got to get rid of all that energy our body has so kindly gifted us to try and fight the lion. And, um, our body doesn't know if it's moving house or if it's a lion, so it's going to respond the same way. Um, now let's hope we don't have any lions coming and growling at our doors. And I hope these tips have helped you. I will link my Golden Glow meditation, which is just a quick 10-minute little music-led guided quick attachment back into your heart to tell you how amazing you are, how wonderful you are, how loved you are, and how supported you are. So if you would like to bring that into your practice just to remind yourself you're actually, you're not alone. You have so much universal support and love for the miracle that you are. So I hope you have a lovely day, and I hope that this can help a little bit with the anxiety. Okay, love you lots. Bye. Bye.
