I really appreciate how you’ve broken out these different levels of relating to an experience, @Glenn!
I would add one additional reframe in which labelling has been helpful for me, but without pathologizing me (the person having the experience):
-This is anxiety / anxiety is visiting me (this second phrase came from my very first meditation teacher)
I have found statement to be extremely helpful in creating a tiny bit of separation between me and the sensations + emotions (the powerful pause), especially in the most intense and overwhelming of experiences.
The label gives me the ability to understand what is happening, because then I understand that I’m having a normal/valid experience (based on my history, the trigger, the circumstances, my nervous system, etc.) When I use the label “anxiety,” I am also reminded that there are tools I can use to help me be with the experience. It can reduce my fear just enough so that I don’t totally shut down, because otherwise the place I tend to go is: “something is wrong” (I’m having a heart attack & need to go to emergency; I’m going crazy & I need to go to the psych ward).
This statement to be especially helpful in reminding me that there’s nothing wrong with me as a person just because I’m experiencing anxiety or having a panic attack.