Month: September 2026

🤔 What if F.E.A.R. (False Evidence Appearing Real) is easier to combat than you think? 🔮 Part 3 of 4

In our STUDY, SAVOR, & SUPPORT Each Other CHAT☕️🍵, we’re doing Part 3 of 4 in our deep-dive into conquering Fear, inspired by Chapter 8 of REWIRED: The Breakthrough Tapping Method to Stop Overthinking, Calm Your Body, and Finally Feel at Ease by Nick, Jessica, & Alex Ortner.

Chapter 8 — 🤔 When Fear Stops You Cold — is such a critical concept that we’re going to take concrete actions to battle our greatest challenge: F.E.A.R. — False Evidence Appearing Real. In this series, we explore what we can do together, to stop thinking and actually take action to combat it this month.

Think•Do•Be the MVP in Your Own Creative Life, inside the MINDFUL VICTUS PLAYSCAPE!

I strongly believe that taking action together — in community with other people who “get it” — makes a tremendous difference. It takes the sting out of doing anything new. It’s fun. And we can keep each other accountable.

Full Recordings are posted in my FREE Private Skool Community: The Mindful VICTUS Playscape, so please join me there. You can overcome one of your own F.E.A.R.s, but there’s no pressure to post a Recording of your own. Simply post what you feel comfortable posting. Even if it’s a simple comment to document what you did to move past your own fear that week. It’s the perfect opportunity to see & imagine what’s possible if you join us, to conquer your own fear. Whatever you decide, my complete Recordings will be posted there, and you can see me succeed or flop 🤣, as I battle the 4 F.E.A.R.s described here.

This week we’re celebrating life with (3) Humor & Joy, in Community

My goal: — Singing karaoke, as a way to embrace Joy with others who want to do it with me.

Why not?

It’s worth celebrating LIFE, in all of its messy glory.

Without the need to be perfect.

Without feeling like we have to be polished all the time.

There’s so much to enjoy, when we simply bask in the joy of Being.

MY SINGING from Week 2 — Battling Perfectionism:

👇🥳 Press PLAY on the Audio attached to this Substack Post! 🥳👇

Or, listen on Soundcloud!

I chose this song because the name & lyrics of the song — “I Love You, Always Forever” — say it all.

MY VIDEO from Week 1 — Battling Stage Fright:

MY MINDFUL REFLECTION:

I LOVE how all 3 of these weekly challenges echo our EFT Tapping Script:

“Even though I feel X, I completely love and accept myself.”

And what a journey it’s been. From week to week, we’ve learned to go from merely thinking and planning, to worrying about it, to hearing the Monkey Mind’s excuses to avoid it, to tapping about it…

To actually doing it.

But that’s how we have to learn sometimes. To truly grow.

To embrace who we are — as is — perfectly imperfect.

And, music’s been the perfect pairing to our EFT practice.

It’s powerful, how the words and rhythms of music can elevate our state, and help us to relax into joy, peace, and Flow.

Now, Take a Mindful Moment, to ask yourself:

⭐️ What F.E.A.R.s have been holding YOU back?

⭐️ Have you been stuck in an Anxiety Loop of thinking-studying-preparing-and-ruminating?

⭐️ Do you hear your own Monkey Mind, beating on your amygdala’s drum?

🤔 Are YOU ready to take ACTION with me, to S.Q.U.E.E. in the face of Fear?

🤔 Did you take the time to serenade yourself with 🎵“I love you, always forever”🎵?

🤔 Did you join me in celebrating 🎵“September”🎵, before we accept Fall’s invitation to practice Hygge & let go of what no longer serves us?

🙌 Then JOIN my FREE Private Skool Community: The Mindful VICTUS Playscape! It’s FREE. It’s FUN. It’s how we BREAK FREE from our F.E.A.R.s, one by one!

Subscribe now

Plus, for a Limited Time only, the

2nd Book of The Obsidian Chronicles

(OBSIDIAN: War of Shadows)

is now on Sale for $2.99,

or read it for FREE with your Kindle Unlimited Membership!

Get BOOK 2 (OBSIDIAN: War of Shadows) here!

READ THE SYNOPSIS

Are YOU ready to use EFT to step into the new Creative YOU, in a well-regulated way with me?

Then join The Mindful VICTUS Playscape so we can

EFT-our-way-to-Freedom this day & every day!

See you inside!

• Choose a creative activity to pursue alongside me. Not necessarily the same creative practice as I’m choosing (music). But, the creative practice that YOU choose.

• Together, we will experiment and PLAY.

  • P.S. No worries if you don’t have a Creative Practice yet. I’m planning fun ways to listen-to-learn piano, by going back to basics, so beginners will be right on time!

Join Marisa Victus’s subscriber chat

When you SUBSCRIBE TO MY SUBSTACK, you’ll gain access to these 2 resources:

(1) Every week, you’ll get my free Non-Fiction Newsletter on Substack, entitled Marisa VICTUS: Science of Synergy & Self; and,

(2) You’ll be able to entrain your brain — the quick & easy way — with my Mindset & Meditation (M&M) practice.

Plus…

(3) If you’d like to see me succeed (or flop 😂) as I practice in public, SUBSCRIBE to my free YouTube Channel!

(4) JOIN our private, members-only community in The Mindful VICTUS Playscape, where we come together to Share our creative work • Celebrate our “Messy Middle” • Silence our Inner Critic • Elevate our State • Experience safety in our body by regulating our nervous system • Motivate ourselves with creative carrots, not punishing sticks • Entrain our brains to adopt unstoppable self-belief • Practice loving ourselves • Stop taking ourselves so seriously • Lower our stress • ENJOY a Life that’s full of abundance & creativity!

🤔 What if F.E.A.R. (False Evidence Appearing Real) is easier to combat than you think? 🔮 Part 2 of 4

In our STUDY, SAVOR, & SUPPORT Each Other CHAT☕️🍵, we’re doing Part 2 of 4 in our deep-dive into conquering Fear, inspired by Chapter 8 of REWIRED: The Breakthrough Tapping Method to Stop Overthinking, Calm Your Body, and Finally Feel at Ease by Nick, Jessica, & Alex Ortner.

Chapter 8 — 🤔 When Fear Stops You Cold — is such a critical concept that we’re going to take concrete actions to battle our greatest challenge: F.E.A.R. — False Evidence Appearing Real. In this series, we explore what we can do together, to stop thinking and actually take action to combat it this month.

Think•Do•Be the MVP in Your Own Creative Life, inside the MINDFUL VICTUS PLAYSCAPE!

I strongly believe that taking action together — in community with other people who “get it” — makes a tremendous difference. It takes the sting out of doing anything new. It’s fun. And we can keep each other accountable.

Full Recordings are posted in my FREE Private Skool Community: The Mindful VICTUS Playscape, so please join me there. You can overcome one of your own F.E.A.R.s, but there’s no pressure to post a Recording of your own. Simply post what you feel comfortable posting. Even if it’s a simple comment to document what you did to move past your own fear that week. It’s the perfect opportunity to see & imagine what’s possible if you join us, to conquer your own fear. Whatever you decide, my complete Recordings will be posted there, and you can see me succeed or flop 🤣, as I battle the 4 F.E.A.R.s described here.

This week we’re battling (2) Perfectionism

My goal: To overcome the fear of posting my singing, to accompany the song I recorded on the piano last week:

MY SINGING:

👇🥳 Press PLAY on the Audio attached to this Substack Post! 🥳👇

Or, listen on Soundcloud!

MY MINDFUL REFLECTION:

I chose this song because the name & lyrics of the song say it all:

I LOVE how this echoes our EFT Tapping Script:

“Even though I feel X, I completely love and accept myself.”

The song’s lyrics invite us to feel the calm comfort of a warm embrace…the warm embrace we can give ourselves, inside our body.

And, the song’s tempo steadies the frantic beat of our Monkey Mind, transforming the Reactive Loop of our anxiety into a deep exhale…

Until the stress simply “melts away.”

THIS is the power of music.

Just singing these words & tapping along to the positive beat and, I’m reminded, just how much happier I can be when I remember,

“I can root myself, not only in who I am now, but also who I want to grow into, to be.”

JUST IMAGINE…

How amazing it would be…

If all of us could serenade ourselves with these words & actually mean it — to love ourselves, wholeheartedly:

I love you always forever
Near and far, closer together
Everywhere I will be with you
Everything I will do for you
I love you always forever

Now, Take a Mindful Moment, to ask yourself:

⭐️ What F.E.A.R.s have been holding YOU back?

⭐️ Have you been stuck in an Anxiety Loop of thinking-studying-preparing-and-ruminating?

⭐️ Do you hear your own Monkey Mind, beating on your amygdala’s drum?

🤔 Are YOU ready to take ACTION with me, to S.Q.U.E.E. in the face of Fear?

🤔 Are YOU ready to serenade yourself with 🎵“I love you, always forever”🎵?

🙌 Then JOIN my FREE Private Skool Community: The Mindful VICTUS Playscape! It’s FREE. It’s FUN. It’s how we BREAK FREE from our F.E.A.R.s, one by one!

Subscribe now

Plus, for a Limited Time only, the

2nd Book of The Obsidian Chronicles

(OBSIDIAN: War of Shadows)

is now on Sale for $2.99,

or read it for FREE with your Kindle Unlimited Membership!

Get BOOK 2 (OBSIDIAN: War of Shadows) here!

READ THE SYNOPSIS

Are YOU ready to use EFT to step into the new Creative YOU, in a well-regulated way with me?

Then join The Mindful VICTUS Playscape so we can

EFT-our-way-to-Freedom this day & every day!

See you inside!

• Choose a creative activity to pursue alongside me. Not necessarily the same creative practice as I’m choosing (music). But, the creative practice that YOU choose.

• Together, we will experiment and PLAY.

  • P.S. No worries if you don’t have a Creative Practice yet. I’m planning fun ways to listen-to-learn piano, by going back to basics, so beginners will be right on time!

Join Marisa Victus’s subscriber chat

When you SUBSCRIBE TO MY SUBSTACK, you’ll gain access to these 2 resources:

(1) Every week, you’ll get my free Non-Fiction Newsletter on Substack, entitled Marisa VICTUS: Science of Synergy & Self; and,

(2) You’ll be able to entrain your brain — the quick & easy way — with my Mindset & Meditation (M&M) practice.

Plus…

(3) If you’d like to see me succeed (or flop 😂) as I practice in public, SUBSCRIBE to my free YouTube Channel!

(4) JOIN our private, members-only community in The Mindful VICTUS Playscape, where we come together to Share our creative work • Celebrate our “Messy Middle” • Silence our Inner Critic • Elevate our State • Experience safety in our body by regulating our nervous system • Motivate ourselves with creative carrots, not punishing sticks • Entrain our brains to adopt unstoppable self-belief • Practice loving ourselves • Stop taking ourselves so seriously • Lower our stress • ENJOY a Life that’s full of abundance & creativity!

🤔 What if F.E.A.R. (False Evidence Appearing Real) is easier to combat than you think? 🔮 Part 1 of 4

In our STUDY, SAVOR, & SUPPORT Each Other CHAT☕️🍵, we’re doing Part 1 of 4 in our deep-dive into conquering Fear, inspired by Chapter 8 of REWIRED: The Breakthrough Tapping Method to Stop Overthinking, Calm Your Body, and Finally Feel at Ease by Nick, Jessica, & Alex Ortner.

As I said last week, Chapter 8 — 🤔 When Fear Stops You Cold — is such a critical concept that we’re going to take concrete actions to battle our greatest challenge: F.E.A.R. — False Evidence Appearing Real. In this series, we explore what we can do together, to stop thinking and actually take action to combat it this month.

Think•Do•Be the MVP in Your Own Creative Life, inside the MINDFUL VICTUS PLAYSCAPE!

I strongly believe that taking action together — in community with other people who “get it” — makes a tremendous difference. It takes the sting out of doing anything new. It’s fun. And we can keep each other accountable.

Full Recordings are posted in my FREE Private Skool Community: The Mindful VICTUS Playscape, so please join me there. You can overcome one of your own F.E.A.R.s, but there’s no pressure to post a Recording of your own. Simply post what you feel comfortable posting. Even if it’s a simple comment to document what you did to move past your own fear that week. It’s the perfect opportunity to see & imagine what’s possible if you join us, to conquer your own fear. Whatever you decide, my complete Recordings will be posted there, and you can see me succeed or flop 🤣, as I battle the 4 F.E.A.R.s described here.

This week we’re battling (1) Stage Fright.

My goal: To combat the fear of posting myself playing piano, after not taking any piano lessons for years.

I meant what I said: despite the jitters I kept feeling in my body, I forced myself to post my first piano Recording in my FREE Private Skool Community: The Mindful VICTUS Playscape.

I upheld my promise: to show myself taking the smallest step, as I’ve encouraged us to do in my Video Poem, “The Littlest Shift,” that’s posted there, too.

In addition to the EFT Tapping Script I created below, whenever Fear whispered doubts in my ear, watching this Video Poem helped my Highest Self to remember: Some of the mightiest, most powerful personal transformations can happen in the Littlest Shifts.

Can you guess the song?

I’ve posted a snippet of the piano song here on Substack and, at the last minute, I decided to record & post this Video to go along with it!

I chose this song, deliberately. The name of the song says it all.

aaAnd the key of the song — C — has no sharps or flats, signifying how quickly and easily it helps me to root myself, not only in who I am now, but also who I want to grow into, to be:

I am someone who lost my way, who abandoned formal piano lessons as a child, but who wants, more than anything, to honor the Musician inside of me. Rooted in the belief that now is the perfect time, to rediscover what moves me, what enlivens me, what brings me joy.

Sure, it is only one song. One teeny, tiny step.

But this EFT Experiment means the world to me.

It may seem small, but its effect is profound.

It’s the Littlest Shift on my journey to bypass thinking — to UNLOCK Courage in my body.

Because it’s never too late for me. And it’s never too late for you, either.

Now, let’s go on this journey together, battling one F.E.A.R. at a time…

MY MINDFUL REFLECTION:

As I prepared this 1^st recording, F.E.A.R. used all of its dirty tricks, telling me:

“You’re safer doing nothing.”

“Keep doing nothing. It won’t hurt that way.”

“Just watch: you won’t be able to do it. You don’t have a clue how to record anything!”

“Who are you kidding? You’re not a musician.”

“They’re going to laugh at you.”

So, of course, the logical, Left Hemisphere of my brain tried to take over, telling me I just needed more time to think about it, to plan and prepare and research.

Wasn’t Fear right, after all? I don’t know that much about recording equipment or recording programs.

And I did struggle to learn the logistics. The software. The wires connecting everywhere. The inputs and outputs. The mic — that’s still not ironed out. (Good thing singing’s up for next week, not this one.)

Overall, my mind was in a place called “Ughhh….”

There were so many excuses to not post. To postpone instead.

Fear just got louder, and more insidious in its tactics, whispering, “Sure, you said you’d do it, but would anyone blame you if you didn’t?”

It reminded me, “You even have a good excuse: that medical procedure you had to undergo, smack-dab in the middle of your week.”

Yup. That’s precisely how Fear was trying to keep me from…

What I actually needed: to simply DO IT.

To take action.

To stop planning or preparing.

To just press Record.

To post it, despite any mistakes.

To do the 1^st rep, knowing that it would be just one of many reps on what I intend to be a lifelong journey to explore my love for music, to find joy, and fully express my Creative Self.

What I learned: Action really is the best option.

Not because my F.E.A.R. disappeared.

But precisely because it didn’t.

And, my doing it anyway — even imperfectly — was and is the fastest way for me to actually change how I see my own identity.

But, the most interesting part was, I was able to take concrete, transformative Action before I even played even 1 piano note:

The beat began when my Monkey Mind would not shut up.

It was playing a drum beat of war, at an increasingly frightening pace, and I could feel my amygdala flooding my body with stress hormones.

I wanted to freeze.

I wanted to run.

I wanted to flop.

Then, I remembered:

EFT is the perfect way to take back control:

In the privacy of my own home.

In the couple of minutes before I placed my hand on the keys.

In the precise moment that I opened the musical score and felt that resistance.

And I did it at the same tempo as my Monkey Mind’s percussive beats, in time with the crescendo beating on my amygdala’s drum.

As I said each and every fear that I was feeling with the setup statement (“Even though I feel X, I completely love and accept myself”) while tapping on the Meridian acupressure points, I addressing my fear on a somatic level. Inside my body. That was the fastest and easiest way to disrupt my Reactive Loop of planning-researching-endlessly-preparing-and-ruminating-on-the-what ifs.

And the best part?

That EFT tapping sent a powerful message to my mind: it was an Act of Self-Love, right now.

That settled the fear, because it showed my rational brain, “I’ve got my own back.”

Fear was trying to scare me, but those were simply thoughts. Fleeting. Changeable. Malleable. And, I reminded myself, You can choose which thoughts you listen to.

YESSS! EFT Lets Us Take Control, as an earlier Action point!

And, you know me: I love to use humor to make any change happen, so I came up with this fun Acronym. I playfully call this method:

S.Q.U.E.E. in the Face of Fear!

So we can take Action, before we do “The Do” we need to do:

🔮 Safely — use the Somatic practice of EFT to soothe your nervous system to embody a felt sense of Safety that’s real at the physiological level: switching us to the Parasympathetic Nervous System’s well-regulated state of “rest and digest,” physiologically, chemically, and emotionally.

🔮 Quit — quit the Fear Loop in the present moment, right here, RIGHT NOW!

🔮 Understand — take time to give thanks and acknowledge this as the ACTION that it is: an Act of Self-Love! And bask in the loving-kindness you are actively giving your body, mind, and spirit!

🔮 Escape — like a dove you’re releasing from a cage, bring mindful awareness to YOURSELF by imagining your Highest Self opening the cage and allowing your Current Self to Escape the tyranny of this F.E.A.R. — not only right now, but FOREVER MORE! Because EFT tapping actually rewires your default, physiologically, chemically, and emotionally.

🔮 Excite! — use the power of your Ideation & Imagination to excite yourself! IMAGINE how amazing you’ll look & feel embodying the NEW Brave YOU!

🔮 In the Face of Fear — acknowledge that you’re taking action, not because Fear’s disappeared completely, but precisely because Fear is right here, knocking on your door, but you’re storming right past it. You close the door behind you, so it can’t get inside now or ever. Now you’re running fast, along the Path to Progress that YOU MINDFULLY CHOOSE, to reach the Destination of YOUR DREAMS—not anyone else’s!

Now, Take a Mindful Moment, to ask yourself:

⭐️ What F.E.A.R.s have been holding YOU back?

⭐️ Have you been stuck in an Anxiety Loop of thinking-studying-preparing-and-ruminating?

⭐️ Do you hear your own Monkey Mind, beating on your amygdala’s drum?

🤔 Are YOU ready to take ACTION with me?

🤔 Are YOU ready to SQUEE in the face of Fear?

🙌 Then JOIN my FREE Private Skool Community: The Mindful VICTUS Playscape! It’s FREE. It’s FUN. It’s how we BREAK FREE from our F.E.A.R.s, one by one!

Subscribe now

Plus, for a Limited Time only, the

2nd Book of The Obsidian Chronicles

(OBSIDIAN: War of Shadows)

is now on Sale for $2.99,

or read it for FREE with your Kindle Unlimited Membership!

Get BOOK 2 (OBSIDIAN: War of Shadows) here!

READ THE SYNOPSIS

Are YOU ready to use EFT to step into the new Creative YOU, in a well-regulated way with me?

Then join The Mindful VICTUS Playscape so we can

EFT-our-way-to-Freedom this day & every day!

See you inside!

• Choose a creative activity to pursue alongside me. Not necessarily the same creative practice as I’m choosing (music). But, the creative practice that YOU choose.

• Together, we will experiment and PLAY.

  • P.S. No worries if you don’t have a Creative Practice yet. I’m planning fun ways to listen-to-learn piano, by going back to basics, so beginners will be right on time!

Join Marisa Victus’s subscriber chat

When you SUBSCRIBE TO MY SUBSTACK, you’ll gain access to these 2 resources:

(1) Every week, you’ll get my free Non-Fiction Newsletter on Substack, entitled Marisa VICTUS: Science of Synergy & Self; and,

(2) You’ll be able to entrain your brain — the quick & easy way — with my Mindset & Meditation (M&M) practice.

Plus…

(3) If you’d like to see me succeed (or flop 😂) as I practice in public, SUBSCRIBE to my free YouTube Channel!

(4) JOIN our private, members-only community in The Mindful VICTUS Playscape, where we come together to Share our creative work • Celebrate our “Messy Middle” • Silence our Inner Critic • Elevate our State • Experience safety in our body by regulating our nervous system • Motivate ourselves with creative carrots, not punishing sticks • Entrain our brains to adopt unstoppable self-belief • Practice loving ourselves • Stop taking ourselves so seriously • Lower our stress • ENJOY a Life that’s full of abundance & creativity!

🤔 What if F.E.A.R. (False Evidence Appearing Real) is easier to combat than you think?

In our STUDY, SAVOR, & SUPPORT Each Other CHAT☕️🍵, we’re doing a deep-dive into our Book Club selection! This week is Chapter 8 of REWIRED: The Breakthrough Tapping Method to Stop Overthinking, Calm Your Body, and Finally Feel at Ease by Nick, Jessica, & Alex Ortner.

In Chapter 8, we learn what to do 🤔 When Fear Stops You Cold.

This is such a critical concept that I’m going to dive deep into our greatest challenge: F.E.A.R. — False Evidence Appearing Real — and what we can do together, to stop thinking and actually take action to combat it this month.

I invite you to join me because I’m deciding right here & right now to TAKE CONCRETE ACTION to overcome 4 of my F.E.A.R.s for the next 4 Weeks, and I strongly believe that taking action together — in community with other people who “get it” — makes a tremendous difference. It takes the sting out of doing anything new. It’s fun. And we can keep each other accountable.

And, to show you and me that I mean business, I will be forcing myself to post Recordings in my FREE Private Skool Community: The Mindful VICTUS Playscape.

Please join me there if you want to overcome one of your own F.E.A.R.s. No pressure to post a Recording of your own. Please post what you feel comfortable posting. Even if it’s a simple comment to document what you did to move past your own fear that week. Or you just want to see…to imagine what’s possible if you join us, to conquer your own fear. Or, you can just watch me succeed or flop 🤣! In any event, here are…

The 4 F.E.A.R.s I’ll be battling in these Recordings:

1. Stage Fright — Combat the fear of showing myself playing piano, after not taking any piano lessons for years

2. Perfectionism — Overcome the fear of showing myself singing while I play piano at my current not-that-good level

3. Humor, Joy, Community — Singing karaoke, as a way to embrace Joy with others who want to do it with me

4. Meditation / EFT / Music — blending meditation with EFT tapping & music for fully-embodied tactile & auditory nervous system regulation

So, STAY TUNED…Wish me luck…& Come join me!

Now, let’s get to the meat & potatoes:

What’s the best way to combat our F.E.A.R.s?

You Bypass Thinking: UNLOCK Courage In the Body

Many times, when fear rears its ugly head, the logical part of our minds knows that our fear is irrational. But, as the Ortners point out, thinking that we’re just being “silly,” compounds the problem: it makes us feel shame.

THE TRUTH:

Despite how it might feel to us — especially if we experience the fear again and again, for days, weeks, months, or years — the Ortners remind us of this fundamental truth: “That [fear is] not your permanent identity. That’s just a Fear-Based Reactive Loop….”

It’s critical for us to actively remind ourselves that the basis of our F.E.A.R. is just “old programming that can be updated” (emphasis added).

THE PROBLEM:

Problem is: Our body often vetoes the brain.

The Ortners have a name for this predicament:

“The Law of Somatic Priority — When your logical mind and your survival brain (nervous system) disagree, the survival brain always wins. You cannot think your way out of a feeling problem. Your conscious mind can have all the statistics about flight safety, but if your body feels unsafe, your body will win that argument 100 percent of the time. It has veto power. This is why positive thinking and logical reassurances fail against deep fear.”

MY MINDFUL REFLECTION:

We’ve all experienced this.

Whenever we want to accomplish a goal — especially if it’s related to something new that we’ve never done before, or even things that we have done before, but have not become a part of our regular routine — we can find ourselves in the mental trap of spending too long preparing or practicing or thinking or ruminating about it.

For example, let’s consider the all two common scenario of wanting to get fit as a New Year’s resolution.

Imagine we’re someone who doesn’t feel comfortable going to the gym. Perhaps we have overindulged over the holidays. Or maybe we have failed to prioritize our health for years. We’ve morphed into the quintessential couch potato. We could stand to lose 30 pounds which isn’t that much weight. Aside from our close family and friends, not very many people would even have noticed that our pants are fitting a bit tighter around our waist.

So, what’s the big deal?

For whatever reason, whenever we picture ourselves going to the gym, we imagine tons of extremely fit, capital H, “Hotties” on all of the machines. Everyone using the free weights looks like they’re probably about to compete in some fitness competition where they’re striking poses on the stage.

Or we imagine that when we sit down to use a machine, somebody else is breathing down our neck because that machine’s a part of their regular circuit. So our poor nervous system is trapped in anxiety, worrying that we’re gonna take too long fiddling with the setup before we even hit our sets or reading the instructions to use the machine at all. Maybe we don’t know anything about keeping the proper form and we’re worried that we’re going to look like a chicken flapping our wings instead of doing deadlifts properly.

Who knows!

Let’s just imagine that all of these “silly” thoughts are going through our mind every single time that we picture ourselves walking into our local gym at the start of the new year.

Rather than jumping straight out of bed right into our tennis shoes and driving ourselves to the gym, to walk straight into that door to get on any machine whatsoever, even the simplest machine, we decide that we “have to” work on our nutrition first. I mean, what’s the point of walking into a gym if we haven’t ended our cravings from a fun week of holiday eating?

We tell ourselves, “It’s better to pick the best diet first.”

This sends us down the path of too many choices: there’s Low-Carb, Keto, Mediterranean, Paleo, a meat-only Carnivore diet, and everything in between.

Or, maybe we worry about our appearance so much that there’s no way we could possibly just wear a simple T-shirt and shorts to the gym. We’ve got to have matching ensembles so that we can look cute every day. Because, F.E.A.R. tells us, “That’s the way that we can make our New Year’s resolution stick.”

Or, maybe we tell ourselves we couldn’t possibly go to the gym alone, so we have to wait to get our Bestie to join us. Problem is, our best friend’s in an even worse predicament: they have even less knowledge about fitness and nutrition, and they’ve worked out even less than us, for even longer than we’ve neglected to exercise.

It’s not hard to imagine how thinking all of these “silly” thoughts might lead us down the wrong path. The path that diverts us farther and farther away from the simple task of taking the first step.

And, it’s also not hard to see how thinking these thoughts would provoke anxiety.

Personally, I don’t experience these thoughts anymore. After years of exercising, I finally feel comfortable at the gym. Yet, as I was writing this, I felt my heartbeat starting to race. My palms began to feel a bit sweaty. Isn’t that amazing? I can still picture myself using a machine for the first time, I can imagine people looking over at me, watching me fiddle around like I don’t know exactly what I’m doing, and — BAM! I can feel precisely how my body actively FEELS the anxiety described in everything I’ve written.

I can see exactly how thinking these thoughts would cause me to get trapped in an Anxiety Loop and F.E.A.R. whispers, ever so subtly, “Now is not the right time. You need to prepare more. You need to research more,” before I even open that gym door.

DUH! Of course F.E.A.R. makes us Lack Courage

It’s no wonder then that, when we’re faced with something new, we often think on some level the limiting thought, “I can’t do it, it’s just not meant for me, because I’m just not like that.”

And, when we look at other people who are successful at doing these things, we also have limiting beliefs when we automatically compare ourselves to them: We label them “Special,” and we label us as somehow “less-than.”

Like, “They know what they’re doing. They’re experts. They’re confident. Not like me.”

The reality is: they are not experts because they are confident.

They are experts because they started even when they were afraid.

And guess what? That might have been a short time ago. They might’ve just started last week!

And that distinguishing factor can be far simpler and smaller than we think:

Maybe they put in their reps for five days in a row, on this one and only machine.

They haven’t even tried the rest of the machines in the circuit, but we don’t know that.

We just think we know.

Bottom line: we assume.

And our Fear tells us that we are right.

Fear tells that we are safer doing nothing.

Fear tells us to keep doing nothing to stay safe.

Fear tells us that we just need more time to think about it, to plan and prepare and research.

And that’s precisely how Fear keeps us from…

What we actually need: to simply DO IT.

To take action.

To put on whatever sneakers we have as long as they fit.

To stop planning or preparing or making lists.

To just get in the car, drive to the Gym, open the door, and get on the easiest machine ever: the treadmill.

Taking action is always the best option.

Because it’s the fastest way for us to actually change how we see our own identity.

So what can we do to take action NOW?

First, we can acknowledge, we all know how hard it can be to take action.

Intellectually, we know that taking action is the shortest distance between point A where we are, and point B where we want to be.

But our Monkey Mind that thrives in our amygdala will not shut up.

Like it’s playing a drum beat of war, at an increasingly frightening pace, and it’s flooding our bodies with stress hormones.

So we stay frozen.

Or, we flop.

For weeks, we find ourselves laying on the couch and decide to start watching the entire Yellowstone series, and all of its many spinoff shows (1883, 1923, Yellowstone 2018-2024, Marshalls, & Dutton Ranch), from beginning to end, in chronological order.

What I love about this chapter is how the Ortners encourage us to TAP with EFT instead.

For me, EFT is the perfect way to take back our control:

In the privacy of our own homes.

In the couple of minutes right after we wake up.

In the precise moment that we are feeling resistance.

Perhaps even at the same tempo as our Monkey Mind’s percussive beats on our amygdala’s drum.

As we say each and every fear that we are feeling with the setup statement (“Even though I feel X, I completely love and accept myself”) while tapping on the Meridian acupressure points, we are addressing our fear on a somatic level. Inside our bodies. And that’s a fast and easy way of disrupting our Reactive Loop of planning-researching-and-endlessly-preparing.

Yes, the Ortners emphasize, the Reactive Loop of more thinking is precisely what has to stop: “To change the fear, you must speak the language of the body. Tapping is that language.”

I love how tapping allows us to literally tap into our bodies long before we are standing in the middle of the gym, wondering what to do with ourselves. Long before we’ve opened the gym door. Before we sit in our car. Before we rev the ignition. Even before we get out of bed or brush our teeth.

And the best part?

EFT sends a powerful message to our mind: it is a Concrete Action we can take that proves our Self-Love, right now.

That settles the fear, because it shows our rational brain that we’ve got our own back.

The fear is simply a thought. And we get to choose which thoughts we listen to.

Plus, the more we put in those body-&-mind reps, the more we can see that our fears are false. They are not necessarily true.

And, the more we take the actions that we want to take, the more comfortable, we will become with taking those actions, the faster those actions will become habits, the quicker those habits will become our regular routine. Until we’ve allowed ourselves to get used to trying one new machine per week, the 30 pounds we’ve been lugging around our belly has long since disappeared…

Until, one day, we realize the gym has become our home away from home.

We wake up with pep in our step.

And we love the smile plastered on our face.

Every time we look in the mirror, knowing that we are who we have chosen to become: healthy in body, mind, and spirit.

Which brings us back — full circle — to the commitment I made at the start of this post:

I’ll be combating the 4 F.E.A.R.s listed above, from week to week, because I’m done Thinking. I’ve done enough of that.

I’m devoting myself to Doing — not because I feel “ready” — not because Fear isn’t there — but, precisely because the F.E.A.R. is there — and, ACTION’s necessary to UNLOCK Courage in my body.

So, starting next week, we’ll practice taking ACTION with EFT, and I’ll share a fun way we can remember to use it when we need it most!

Now, Take a Mindful Moment, to ask yourself:

⭐️ What F.E.A.R.s have been holding YOU back?

⭐️ Have you been stuck in an Anxiety Loop of thinking-studying-preparing-and-ruminating?

🤔 Are YOU ready to take ACTION with me?

🙌 Then JOIN my FREE Private Skool Community: The Mindful VICTUS Playscape! It’s FREE. It’s FUN. And it’s how we can BREAK FREE from our F.E.A.R.s, one by one!

Subscribe now

Plus, for a Limited Time only, the

2nd Book of The Obsidian Chronicles

(OBSIDIAN: War of Shadows)

is now on Sale for $2.99,

or read it for FREE with your Kindle Unlimited Membership!

Get BOOK 2 (OBSIDIAN: War of Shadows) here!

READ THE SYNOPSIS

YESSS, It’s finally TIME!

I have many surprises planned for you inside our 🥳 🔗 Mindful VICTUS Playscape! 🔗 🥳 on Skool, so join if you haven’t already!

🥁 Let’s Play! 🥁

Join us inside The Mindful VICTUS Playscape

A Private, Members-Only Safe Space,

where Music helps us to heal & come alive!

🥳 🎉 🔗 Mindful VICTUS Playscape! 🔗 🎉 🥳

☝️Click to join on Skool.com☝️

I strongly believe that we are stronger together. That’s why I’m encouraging us to “do the DO” as a community, in a safe & private space for members-only, where we can embrace Becoming in all of its messy glory. So, let’s BREAK FREE, together!

Simply join The Mindful VICTUS Playscape to step into a 🏡Creative Home🏡 that’s sometimes cozy, sometimes crazy, and always creative!

We’ll be using the science-backed Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT) to TAP into the power of MUSIC to regulate our Nervous System.

Are YOU ready to use EFT to step into the new Creative YOU, in a well-regulated way with me?

Then join The Mindful VICTUS Playscape so we can

EFT-our-way-to-Freedom this day & every day!

See you inside!

• Choose a creative activity to pursue alongside me. Not necessarily the same creative practice as I’m choosing (music). But, the creative practice that YOU choose.

• Together, we will experiment and PLAY.

  • P.S. No worries if you don’t have a Creative Practice yet. I’m planning fun ways to listen-to-learn piano, by going back to basics, so beginners will be right on time!

Join Marisa Victus’s subscriber chat

When you SUBSCRIBE TO MY SUBSTACK, you’ll gain access to these 2 resources:

(1) Every week, you’ll get my free Non-Fiction Newsletter on Substack, entitled Marisa VICTUS: Science of Synergy & Self; and,

(2) You’ll be able to entrain your brain — the quick & easy way — with my Mindset & Meditation (M&M) practice.

Plus…

(3) If you’d like to see me succeed (or flop 😂) as I practice in public, SUBSCRIBE to my free YouTube Channel!

(4) JOIN our private, members-only community in The Mindful VICTUS Playscape, where we come together to Share our creative work • Celebrate our “Messy Middle” • Silence our Inner Critic • Elevate our State • Experience safety in our body by regulating our nervous system • Motivate ourselves with creative carrots, not punishing sticks • Entrain our brains to adopt unstoppable self-belief • Practice loving ourselves • Stop taking ourselves so seriously • Lower our stress • ENJOY a Life that’s full of abundance & creativity!

🥳🎁It’s My Birthday, but I have Gifts for YOU!🎁🥳

Please join me in celebrating my publishing the 2nd Book in my science fiction series, THE OBSIDIAN CHRONICLES (a quick summary is below)! 

I timed this book launch to align with my birthday so I could run a FREE Book Giveaway to celebrate!

So here are the links to download Books 1 & 2 for free during the 5-Day FREE Promotion Period that starts today, Wednesday Sept. 2, and ends on Sunday Sept. 6! 

💚 Free Download — Book 1 (OBSIDIAN: Birth to Venus) https://www.amazon.com/dp/B076ZQC66X

💜 Free Download — Book 2 (OBSIDIAN: War of Shadows) https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0HFPWJ465 

Thanks so much for your friendship & support. It’s taken me a long time to honor the Creative in me, and sharing this journey with you means so much to me. 

You can read the books on any Internet browser using the free Kindle website @ https://read.amazon.com/kindle-library (Or, you can download the free Kindle App for your phone by going to your phone’s App Store and searching for “Kindle.”)

I hope you enjoy the books!

Here’s the synopsis:

The year is 2116. 

Scientists know why super-centenarians live beyond 100 years old. But, 66 years have passed since Dr. Jai Dean was born and she doesn’t look a day over 21. And, she’s only grown stronger with age. 

She can see better than a bird of prey, pinpoint the vertical position of any sound, strike a target 600 meters away, and heal wounds that cut straight to the bone. For decades, she’s had no name for it, no label to define what she is, no way to understand her body or understand the power she holds. Jai lives on the run, determined to keep her family and secret safe.

Everything changes when scientists discover the Homo sentient, a new, superior species that can siphon other people’s energy to maintain their youth. 

And for the first time, Jai’s not alone. What will she do when new friends become family, tensions rise, and humans and sentients are bent on destroying each other?

By the year 2121, the world breaks.

The War of Species between humans & Homo sentients erupts.

But, when friends become foes, who can win when the victors & the vanquished are one and the same: Americans, all?

Together, we rise.

Divided, we fall.

Jai’s future may be uncertain, but she knows who she is, and what she stands for.

For Jai, the answer is clear:

Family is defined by choice, not by birth or blood.

Family matters, and it’s worth fighting for.

Problem is, shadow forces are hunting her family from both sides, and there’s no escaping the truth:

Jai may be the most powerful sentient — and she’s still evolving — but, as strong as she is, with buried secrets, even her eyes are struggling to see

The battles we wage within are just as formidable as the ones we wage without.

THE OBSIDIAN CHRONICLES follow Jai as she’s haunted by her past and struggles to shape the future when human Homo sapiens no longer rank at the top of the food chain.

Will her psycho-obsidian blade be enough, to conquer the shadows before it’s too late?

I hope you enjoy the books!

Thank You for Your Support

If my words have ever touched you, in my non-fiction Newsletter or in my creative writing, please know how much it would mean to me to have your support.

Writing these books have been a labor of love, sweat, & tears, not only because of the creative writing itself, but what it means to me — personally — as proof that I am championing my Creative Self and finally allowing her to be seen. It’s been quite the journey.

The metaphor of writing a book and giving birth to it as an author is very accurate. The nervousness, excitement, and desire to do it with love & care are spot on!

It’s thrilling to do it wholeheartedly, and I’m grateful to be on this journey with you.

I have always said that Substack is my Creative Home and it truly is. It’s emboldened me to honor the Creative in me, and it’s been a joy to encourage you to reach for the same. No matter what dreams you may hold in your heart, I trust we can help each other to be who we want to be, who we choose to be: living our lives fully— as our truest, most Authentic Self.

Now let’s dive into Jai’s OBSIDIAN world!

Experience the Homo sentient life here, through her eyes, in this scrollable animation: https://www.marisavictus.com/obsidianchronicles/

Here’s what readers have to say!

🗣️This book is science fiction at its best; it has drama, fantasy, thrilling adventure, suspense, danger, science, romance and more! It’s a fast-paced, captivating read. The story is very well developed and well told. The characters are multifaceted, likable and “real”. I was completely drawn into the action. Highly recommend this book to anyone!

🗣️The author combines many types of action (covert ops, shoot outs, martial arts) with a suspenseful sci-fi fantasy plot, emotional side stories, and some steamy sexy scenes, making this an exciting and fun page turner. The protagonist develops a strong sense of herself in a way that’s relatable and empowering. If you’re looking for an entertaining and thought-provoking read, I highly recommend this book!

🗣️This was a fabulous sci-fi read. The story line and characters were well developed; time-line changes were done well with no adverse effect on the story line. It was easy to see what was happening due to the writer’s portrayals of the characters and action. This was a “hard-to-put-down” book, so I finished it in one setting, which included hours into the early morning. I would suggest this book to anyone who is interested in science fiction. I am looking forward to reading the next book from this author.

🗣️Fun, emotional, and exciting! I really enjoyed reading this ebook! The characters are intelligent, funny, and relatable. It’s fast paced and engaging. I found myself fully enveloped in its world. I was sad when it ended, and very much looking forward to the next one!

Join Marisa Victus’s subscriber chat

When you SUBSCRIBE TO MY SUBSTACK, you’ll gain access to these 2 resources:

(1) Every week, you’ll get my free Non-Fiction Newsletter on Substack, entitled Marisa VICTUS: Science of Synergy & Self; and,

(2) You’ll be able to entrain your brain — the quick & easy way — with my Mindset & Meditation (M&M) practice.

Plus…

(3) If you’d like to see me succeed (or flop 😂) as I practice in public, SUBSCRIBE to my free YouTube Channel!

(4) JOIN our private, members-only community in The Mindful VICTUS Playscape, where we come together to Share our creative work • Celebrate our “Messy Middle” • Silence our Inner Critic • Elevate our State • Experience safety in our body by regulating our nervous system • Motivate ourselves with creative carrots, not punishing sticks • Entrain our brains to adopt unstoppable self-belief • Practice loving ourselves • Stop taking ourselves so seriously • Lower our stress • ENJOY a Life that’s full of abundance & creativity!