The passion surrounding the 2024 election was monumental, and as I observed my fellow Americans, the overarching emotion that simmered to the surface, no matter the party affiliation, was fear.

Remember jumping rope on the playground? Two kids (usually tall ones) would swing the ropes setting the cadence of the game. We would study and memorize the rhythm as the ropes slapped the pavement creating a beat that we would attempt to replicate in our body. Then, just at the right moment:  ready, set, GO we would jump in!

Remember the game of bloody knuckles? You pretended to strike your friend with your fist and if they reacted with a nervous movement you shouted, “you flinched!” and then you got to punch them on the arm as their punishment? Ahh, good times! This instinctive reaction reveals a little more when we look at it under the energetic microscope and apply it to how we can change our conditioned responses to situations that bring us pain.