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and rapid that you start to feel a bit ungrounded and untethered, which might make you more susceptible to falling back into old, familiar patterns of anxiety.
    To stay motivated and committed to this journey of healing and empowerment, you need to find that fine line between consistently making progress and taking time to adjust to the progress you’ve made. Through the process of integration, you can bring your thoughts, actions, and emotions into ever-increasing alignment with who you really are. In this regard, integration is the most important of these principles, because it allows you to own and embody your changes and, therefore, give meaning and purpose to them.
    As you consciously work your way through this book and employ the principles of change, you’ll notice that with increasing awareness you can see where you’ve been and what’s waiting on the other side of your perceived limitations. With flexibility and choice, you can learn to stretch your mind beyond what you regarded as your reality. By taking action, you can step out of your comfort zone and create momentum that allows you to continue to expand your consciousness and your life. And through integration you will gain the strength and stability to solidify your new, true, and limitless identity.
    Every step you take, even the smallest one, carries you forward and changes you. No matter how much time and effort you invest in the processes of this book, by the time you finish it, you’ll be a different person than the one who opened the cover.

CHAPTER 3
Facts and Fiction about Fear and Anxiety
    F EAR AND ANXIETY can envelop your mind like a dark, persistent cloud, or they can appear so suddenly that you feel attacked or ambushed. In either case, fear and anxiety feel more like foreign entities than something you created. Understanding some important facts about fear and anxiety is the first step to demystifying them and regaining control. After all, with awareness comes knowledge, with knowledge comes responsibility, and with taking responsibility comes true empowerment.
WHERE DOES ANXIETY COME FROM?
    Although you may often feel overcome, attacked, or trapped by anxiety, it’s still just a basic feeling that you’ve chosen to create, albeit subconsciously. A feeling is a message from the subconscious part of your mind to the conscious part. It lets you know that your subconscious has perceived something either pleasurable or dangerous. Physiologically, the intensity of physical pain indicates how much your body needs your attention; in the same way, the greater the intensity of an emotional sensation, the more closely and urgently your subconscious mind wants you to consciously pay attention to its message.
    Fear and anxiety are created with a positive intention: to keep you safe. The resourceful and adaptive aspect of anxiety is that it places you on high alert, causing you to notice and anticipate danger and either take precautions or appropriately address the situation. A low-grade anxiety can keep you on your toes and prevent you from putting yourself into situations that could potentially harm you. A slightly more intense form of anxiety can help you to be fullyalert and mobilize additional energy and resources so that you’re mentally and physically ready to either fight the perceived source of danger or run from it.
    Researchers believe that some fears, such as the fear of snakes or of anger, have been preserved during human evolution and passed down to us. Studies have shown that children, even infants, can recognize and respond to pictures of snakes and angry faces more rapidly than to neutral pictures. 1 Our relatives from the Stone Age certainly faced life-threatening situations daily, whether they had to struggle with the elements or fend off huge predators. Fear and anxiety provided them with crucial information and led them to come up with adaptive responses. For example, the development of weapons and shelter ensured the safety and