If you’re having trouble enduring your anxious response and staying in the situation, drop down to a lower step on your ladder, or add some easier steps and start there. It’s essential that you endure your anxious response until it decreases on its own, without any help from you that is, without your using any anxious actions to lessen your anxiety. If that means starting at a slightly easier step on your ladder, then do that. It’s better than escaping the situation or not staying in it long enough to get the full benefit.

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