Now you have the four steps for replacing the Hungry Beast with nourishing thoughts create feelings that will help you to live your life more fully and to be YOU! Not the Hungry Beast!! (That’s the whole point of YSS).

Four steps may sound simple pimple, but in reality, fighting the Beast can feel quite challenging. The Beast tries very hard to keep us from feeling comfortable. BUT! Here’s a simple truth about life:

You will be uncomfortable at times.

Because of that, we need to be able to be uncomfortable.

Because of that, we need to be ok with that.

We need to be able to live with how unpredictable the world can be.

Otherwise you will waste a lot of time trying to control what you can’t.

So when you can’t control something, don’t listen to the Beast. Listen to your own thoughts that are both beneficial and truthful. You can tame your emotions by shifting your thinking. This will get you through the situation, even with a bit of discomfort.

Emotions release chemicals which make you jump with joy or shake with shame. But the chemicals that make you shake with shame or prepare you for fight, flight or freeze can be harmful to your brain and body in large quantities. Exercise is one of the most helpful things you can do for your mind and body, and it greatly helps to burn up the chemicals you feel when you are anxious (think of those chemicals as the left over body oder from that Hungry Beast – he smells). Exercise also provides a good mental space to work on your mindset so you can do steps 1 and 2 above (Name it to tame it, and reframe the situation)! Bonus!

If you crave more ideas on how to remove the Beast and build your sense of self, click on these links to read about empathy, mindfulness, and resilience.

Oh, and don’t forget, it is time to bury the beast – go give it an appropriate funeral. Here’s JoJo’s eulogy for FrogFace:

Ah, FrogFace. It was your time to go. You lived a big, bold life, based on lies, but your lies were big and so I’ll give you credit for that. But now you are rotting away in your ugly grave, and I couldn’t be happier! I’m glad that I met you though because now that I know that I can defeat you, I know that I can defeat anything. So thanks for the memories! LOL!!!

It helped that JoJo put a picture of FrogFace in a used tissue box and added it to the fire the next time her father built one in the family room. Just watching it go up in flames put a smile on her face. FrogFace – her anxious mind – had been burned to ashes. JoJo was equipped with strategies and steps to get her through the day. She relied more and more on the thoughts in her head to make her feel good about who she is – a teen like any other that feels uncomfortable from time to time.