Episode 240: Stop Stuffing It: How to Make Anxiety Your Ally
You've mastered the performance. Shoulders back, voice steady, game face on. You walk into high-stakes meetings, hard conversations, and pressure-filled decisions looking like nothing bothers you because that's what leaders do, right?
Except somewhere around 2am, it wakes you up anyway.
Here's what most leadership development won't tell you: suppressing anxiety doesn't make it go away. It makes it louder. And eventually, it leaks into your tone, your decisions, the way your team reads the room even when your words say everything is fine.
In this episode, Lauren LeMunyan, MCC, executive coach, leadership strategist, and founder of Spitfire Coach, flips the script on one of the most misunderstood emotional experiences in leadership.
Anxiety, fear, doubt, and worry aren't signs that something is wrong with you. They're signals that you don't have enough information yet, or that you don't have a plan. That's your nervous system doing exactly what it was designed to do.
The question isn't how to stop feeling it. The question is: what is it trying to tell you?
Lauren breaks down the neuroscience behind why fear and excitement are physiologically identical (and how one breath changes which one you experience), introduces the concept of PQ reps, small, somatic micro-practices drawn from Positive Intelligence that train your nervous system for high-pressure leadership and shares a simple three-question writing exercise you can use before any high-stakes moment to move from reactive to strategic.
This isn't about getting calm. Calm is a byproduct. The goal is clarity, and clarity is the leadership asset that changes everything.
IN THIS EPISODE:
→ Why stuffing your anxiety is making it worse — and what to do instead
→ The reframe that turns anxiety from a liability into strategic intelligence
→ A 3-question writing exercise to use before any high-stakes moment
→ The science of fear vs. excitement — and why the difference is one breath
→ What PQ reps are and how to start building your emotional regulation muscle today
→ Why the goal isn't calm, it's clarity
THIS EPISODE IS FOR YOU IF:
→ You lead under pressure and pride yourself on keeping it together — even when it costs you
→ You notice anxiety leaking out sideways: in your tone, your sleep, or the people around you
→ You've tried to think your way out of stress and keep ending up back in the same spiral
→ You're ready to stop managing your emotions and start using them