Last year was my husband's 30th high school reunion. It had been on our calendar for months and I hadn't thought much about it.

But on Saturday morning, I woke up thinking... I have nothing to wear, what if no one talks to me, I can't believe I got a pimple on my chin...

And I realized that I was talking to myself like I was in high school!!! WTF?

This is classic emotional patterning, which is a habitual, often automatic, way of thinking, feeling, and reacting to life situations developed from your past experiences.

This patterning was created in my childhood to help me navigate my environment, but now it's just giving me social anxiety for no logical reason.

Thankfully, my meditation practice not only helps me realize that my anxiety is from emotional patterning and not actual fear of this event, but also helps retrain the neurons in my brain so I can feel safe in similar situations in the future.

Our brains are pretty amazing, right?

Deeper understanding of the root cause of why we react the way we do will give you the power to respond to the situation more accurately without anxiety.

If you're curious about starting a meditation practice to help you notice your emotional patterning to address anxiety, try mindful movement every Friday at 12 pm Eastern,

So what actually happened when I got to the reunion?

It was just a bunch of middle-aged people talking about their jobs, kids, aging parents, and reminiscing about old times. Nothing to have anxiety about...

... except for that one guy that had too much to drink, gave me a hug, and told me "you smell good." Haha!

Some things never change.

~Ming-Wai