Calm the Chaos of Your Stress Response - With Sarah Falk, LCSW

Calming the Chaos of the Stress Response – Interview with Sarah Falk, MSW, LCSW, Author, CoachCalming the Chaos welcomes Sarah Falk, Licensed Clinical Social Worker, Author and Certified Coach in Illinois. Sarah shares her story about how the chaos of cancer led her to earn a Masters degree in Social Work and land her dream job at a cancer support center. After experiencing crippling panic and anxiety on the job, Sarah took time off to heal. In the process, she learned how to heal her relationship with her stress response by making anxiety her Superpower. She now provides coaching to people around the world to help them do the same. 1.      Introduction to Sarah and her storya.      Anxiety and first cancer diagnosis at age 17b.      Anxiety in childhood and “feeling safe”                                                   The anxiety response is triggered by any perceived threat to safety                                                     Good stress and Bad Stress 2.      The Stress Responsea.      A survival instinct that happens when there is a real or perceived threat to safety in our environmentsb.      Our systems react (adrenaline, cortisol, blood sugar, survival instinct)c.       We are triggered everywhere: perceiving threats everywhered.      Tracy’s own description of her stress response today – “My body is activated”3.      Sarah’s work: How to use the Stress Response as a Superpowera.      Anxiety is a survival instinct that you need – let’s work with it!b.      How Sarah had to quit her dream job due to crippling panic and chaos on the jobIdentifying Cancer Treatment as a trigger                                                        Recognizing                                                          Acknowledging  Shifting the energy to powerful and positive action vs. actions based on negativity and fear                                                      “In reality…what control do we really have?”Move past the obsessing, and toward holding things loosely (“a posture of surrender”) as opposed to holding on tightly to an idea or expectationc.       You have very little...