Anxiety & Excitement: 2 sides of one coin

Imagine you’re standing at the edge of a stage, moments away from delivering a speech… and feeling the shift from anxiety to excitement begin to stir in your chest.

Your palms are sweaty, your heart’s pounding, and your stomach is hosting a gymnastics competition.

Are you anxious – or excited?

The distinction often depends on what’s called “cognitive appraisal” – how you label your emotions. If you focus on the fear of making mistakes, your mind leans toward anxiety. If you focus on the opportunity to share your ideas, it transforms into excitement.

Understanding Our Biological Threat Responses

From a biological perspective, anxiety and excitement are very similar. Both states activate the sympathetic nervous system, triggering the “fight-or-flight” response. This physical activation is often discussed in biological stress response research, which explores how our bodies react to pressure.

This leads to physical sensations like increased heart rate, shallow breathing, heightened awareness and a surge of adrenaline. This process involves soothing chronic anxiety levels through awareness of our physical state.

But here’s the important thing: the difference in how we respond is in the way our brain interprets the situation. Anxiety arises when we perceive a situation as a threat, while excitement stems from viewing the same situation as an opportunity.

As someone who suffered from crippling anxiety well into my 50s, I can personally tell you that I viewed many activities in life as a threat, big and small, from navigating the airport to doing live television reports during my reporting career.

Exploring The Roots Of Hypervigilance

Why? For me, and many of us, we were raised as children in environments that posed a danger to our small impressionable and growing brains. The environment was not safe. Maybe our parents and caregivers (or those who were supposed to care for us) intimidated us, threatened us, abused us (this includes mental, physical, emotional, and sexual abuse). We often find ourselves tending early buried childhood wounds because our earliest caregivers were unable to provide the safety we desperately needed. 

We learned to be fearful because circumstances were not safe and in adulthood, our system became habituated to that state of hypervigilance constantly scanning for threats and expecting danger even in situations that may not actually pose any risk. This pattern can make it challenging to relax, trust others, or feel secure in our environment. (The example of my TV reporting was about messing up and facing criticism.)

So, as an adult, anytime there was a situation that I could find possible danger (for example, at an airport, I may miss my flight, my luggage may be lost, I might be flagged in security, etc), I would immediately feel anxious and get hyper-vigilant as my mind raced through all the potential worst-case scenarios – making it nearly impossible to stay calm or focused in the moment. You might begin noticing sudden painful emotional triggers in seemingly ordinary places like a crowded grocery store or during a casual meeting.

Voila! We grow into adults and carry that sense of “this is not safe” even into situations as innocuous as standing up and giving a presentation (maybe just reading this makes the hairs on your arms stand-up).

Of course, life serves us countless moments of emotion that make our hearts race, our minds whirl, and our bodies buzz with energy. I invite you to start paying attention to how similar these sensations are, whether you’re facing an intimidating presentation or an upcoming vacation. PAY ATTENTION.

Anxiety and excitement share common ground, yet our perception of them can define our experience. For those who wrestle with the tall dark history of trauma in our lives, it’s important for us to practice shifting this perception. My Emotional Liberation work is dedicated to this very process – guiding people to sit with their difficult emotions (in this case, anxiety – there’s no shortage of that), acknowledge the emotion, and develop the resilience to face it with strength and presence, so we can process and release it. 

Want to experience this? I invite you to check-out this page with my free practices. And if you’re reading this because you wrestle with fear and anxiety, go to the one called “Clear Old Fear”. The more you do these (relatively short) practices (I recommend doing them daily), the more you will condition your nervous system to respond with greater calm and resilience, gradually breaking free from the grip of fear and anxiety while nurturing a sense of safety and inner peace.

Many/most of my students and clients believe this work is deepened with the intentional use of cannabis (a judicious combination of CBD + THC) and/or microdosing psilocybin. My Courses and retreats always include the training necessary to amplify with these plant medicines.

Moving From Anxiety To Excitement

Meantime, while you’re working on conditioning your nervous system, the next time you face a situation that is anxiety producing, try this simple “awareness” exercise:

1. Acknowledge Your Feelings: Instead of suppressing the nervous energy, recognize it. Be right there with it. 

2. Reframe Your Thoughts: Replace “I’m so anxious” with “I’m so excited.” 

3. Focus on the Opportunity: Redirect your attention to the potential positive outcome (for example, with the airport jitters, focus on the excitement of the journey ahead, the destination you’re heading to, or the experiences you’ll have once you arrive). 

As a gentle reminder, keep in mind that this process takes patience and practice. Each time you approach anxiety with curiosity and openness, you’re retraining your mind and body to respond differently, turning what once felt overwhelming into an opportunity for growth and empowerment.

Want to push the envelope? Seek out challenges that are anxiety-producing by gradually exposing yourself to situations that push your comfort zone. With time, the shades between anxiety and excitement become less intimidating. I promise! 

What do you think might happen if you approached your emotions with curiosity instead of resistance? Could it open the door to a completely different experience? Drop down to the comments section and let me know.

Speaking of emotions, during my ongoing exploration of aging with honesty (along with some gallows humor), I’ve been reflecting on my often subconscious relationship with my body image and the quest to preserve youth. Ready for this week’s reflection? You can find it here.

With Love,
Becc

P.S. JOIN ME IN PORTUGAL. I’ve created two affordable retreats that are short but powerful experiences in a luxury villa (because let’s be honest, I’ve done my time in dorm-style retreats – you too?) 

I’ve heard from my community, and rather than a full week retreat, I’ve curated an intimate and rejuvenating 2 nights/3 days – so that my participants can take some time to explore the Algarve (or other parts of Portugal) before or after our time together. Take a look and see how this resonates for you and I’m happy to have a chat for questions you might have!