Mollie Trainor, who is currently working towards her master’s degree in psychology from the University of Edinburgh, recently discussed the phenomenon, which she said “blows [her] mind,” in a viral TikTok, where she explained how simple it is to use the method.
“Did you know that if you have pre-performance anxiety for something coming up, maybe you’re nervous for a presentation or something, you can trick yourself into thinking you’re excited rather than nervous by just saying out loud to yourself: ‘I am excited,’” Trainor said. “That’s it. That’s all it takes.”
Trainor then goes on to explain that the reason the two feelings are so easily interchanged is that excitement and nervousness are “high-arousal states”.
“Physiologically, what’s happening to you between the two of them is pretty similar,” Trainor said. “So it’s easy to get your brain to reinterpret those signals as excitement rather than nervousness, as compared to telling yourself to calm down because calmness is a low-arousal state.”
