Here's the twelfth in the series of excellent blogs by Lex covering the adjectives on the 20 Moodscope cards. Please don't forget we'd love you to add any ideas, tips, insights or advice you may have that you'd like to share with other Moodscope members that might be of help. Many thanks. Caroline.

Today it's the turn of the 'Scared' card. Moodscope defines this as: "Feeling alarmed about something". Moodscope has a certain amount of doubling up for psychological validity. For this reason, there are overlapping ideas. I don't see much difference between this and the 'Afraid' card. As such, I'd recommend the same strategies we all shared on that card.

So, today, I'm going to go off-piste. I love words. 'Scared' is a simple anagram of 'Sacred'! Tickled by this, I wondered, "Is being scared ever sacred?" This led my thoughts back to the evolutionary value in this state of mind and body. Should we venerate this state of vulnerability?

Being scared is a life-saver. That's its evolutionary purpose – to keep you and me safe. In the UK we talk about being a 'scaredy-cat' - because cats are really good at being scared. They have good reason to be – the Universe is not always friendly. So what does a scaredy-cat do? The cat uses all its finely-tuned senses to check out the danger. It responds to the 'alarm' that the senses have triggered. If there's something there, the cat will then move away from the danger with feline grace. If there isn't danger, the cat will often shrug off the feeling and settle down to relax.

So, next time I'm feeling scared, I'm going to treat this as sacred – something valuable to venerate – and pretend I'm like a cat. I'm going to use this card as if it was a 'Code Blue' security alarm going off. I'll check out the perceived danger then respond. I'll move away from real danger, or return to my relaxed state. Whatever the result, I'm going to perceive the feeling of being alarmed as initially helpful – a call to pay attention.

Purrfect!