The Wasp Test: Is It True... or Is Your Brain Filling in the Blanks?

It started with a peanut butter and jam English muffin.

It was the first day of school, I was packing lunches, my husband was making eggs, and my seven-year-old son was happily eating one of his favourite breakfasts.

Suddenly he yelled:

"There's a wasp in the house!"

He was shaking his head, completely convinced there was a black and yellow wasp buzzing around his face.

Except...

There was no wasp.

There was a giant blob of peanut butter stuck to a strand of his hair, swinging around in front of his eyes. 😂

Once we stopped laughing, I realized we'd just witnessed something our brains do all the time.

He wasn't making up his fear.

From his perspective, the experience felt completely real.

His brain took the information it had, combined it with a previous experience of being stung, and quickly decided:

WASP. DANGER.

The wasp wasn't real.

But his fear absolutely was.

And as adults, we do versions of this too.

"My back went out before, so I can't move that way."

"My knees hurt when I run, so running must be bad for me."

"I leak when I jump, so my pelvic floor must be weak."

"I'm 45 and everything feels stiff. This must just be aging."

Our brains use past experiences, expectations, fears and beliefs to make sense of what's happening now.

Sometimes the story is accurate.

And sometimes... it's peanut butter.

In this solo episode of the Move With Ease Podcast, I'm introducing something I'm calling The Wasp Test: a simple way to pause when fear or an old story takes over and get curious about what's actually happening in the present moment.

Ask yourself:

What do I actually know to be true right now?

What am I assuming?

What is my body actually experiencing?

Is there another possible explanation?

What information could I gather before deciding what this means?

This isn't about ignoring pain, fear or what your body is communicating.

Pain is information.

Fear is information.

But our interpretation of that information isn't always fact.

Sometimes we need to become still enough to gather new information.

Pause.

Breathe.

Look.

Listen.

Feel.

Get curious.

And ask yourself:

Is this actually a wasp... or could this be peanut butter?

I also love that this funny little breakfast moment gave me an opportunity to teach my seven-year-old something he'll hopefully carry far beyond his fear of wasps.

We don't have to dismiss fear.

We can acknowledge it, regulate our bodies, gather information and learn to trust ourselves.

And maybe that's something we could all practice a little more.

Because sometimes there really is a wasp.

And sometimes...

it's just peanut butter in your hair. 😂

If this episode gave you a smile or made you think of someone who might need their own Wasp Test, send it their way.

Until next time, I'm rooting for you to Move With Ease.