Sometime in the last million years, humans evolved a new layer on top of our more primitive survival brain; neuroscientists call this the prefrontal cortex (PFC).  From an anatomical perspective, this “newer” brain region is located just behind our eyes and forehead. Involved in creativity and planning, the PFC helps us to think and plan for the future. The PFC predicts what will happen in the future based on our past experience. Yet critically, the PFC needs accurate information to make accurate predictions.

The prefrontal cortex

Anxiety is born when our PFCs don’t have enough information to accurately predict the future Without accurate information, our brains found it easy to spin stories of fear and dread, based on the latest reports that we had heard or read. And because of the way our brains are wired, the more shocking the news, increasing our sense of danger and feelings of fear, the more likely our brains are to remember it. When we can’t control our anxiety, that emotional fever spikes into panic (defined online as “sudden uncontrollable fear or anxiety, often causing wildly unthinking behavior”).

Anxiety

If information is lacking, our PFC plays out different versions of what might happen to help us choose the best path forward.  It does this by running simulations based on previous events in our lives that are most similar. For example, trucks and buses are similar enough to cars that we can safely assume we should look both ways to avoid any fast-moving vehicle.

The lack of information 

You must let the pain visit.You must allow it to teach you.You must not allow it overstay.

The anxiety and its close cousin, panic, are both born from fear. It's well known that fear’s main evolutionary function is helping us survive. Fear is the oldest survival mechanism we’ve got. Fear teaches us to avoid dangerous situations in the future through a brain process called negative reinforcement. Evolution made this really simple for us, we need only three elements in situations like this to learn: <ul><li>an environmental cue</li><li>a behavior</li><li>and a result</li></ul>

Anxiety and its close cousin

We map out how the pieces fit together and drive one another. Sometimes simply becoming aware of the habit patterns helps us step out of them, with significant results. At other times, we need a little hand-holding along the way. How often have you struggled to force yourself to overcome old habit loops and failed? How can you fix something if you don’t know how it works? Mapping out habit loops is an obvious place to start. This mapping effort is defined as the first gear.

Mapping a habit

Every time you pay attention to your actions, you become more aware of what you actually get from them.  If you notice that potato chips make you feel crappy when you eat too many, you get less excited about eating the whole bag next time. Not because you have to force yourself to not eat them, but simply because you remember what happened last time (and the time before that, and the time before that, and the time before that).  This also holds true for worry, procrastination, or any other anxiety habit loop that you’ve learned over the years.

Pay attention

In neuroscience, the default mode network (DMN), or anatomically the medial fronto-parietal network (M-FPN), is a large-scale brain network primarily composed of the medial prefrontal cortex and the posterior cingulate cortex and angular gyrus. The DMN was discovered by Marcus Raichle and his crew at Washington University in St. Louis. It was called the default mode network because this is what our minds go to whenever they are not engaged in a specific task. The DMN gets activated when our mind is wandering, thinking about things in the past or future, caught in repetitive thought

The default mode network

Worrying does not take away tomorrow’s troubles. It takes away today’s peace.

The theory sounds—and is—simple. Yet this can easily fall into the thinking trap that was mentioned in the last chapter: you can know that something is bad for you, but thinking doesn’t change behaviors on its own. It isn’t strong enough. Watch your thoughts. They become words. Watch your words. They become actions. Watch your actions. They become habits. Watch your habits. They become character. Watch your character. It becomes your destiny.

The thinking trap

A hub of the DMN called the posterior cingulate cortex (PCC) connects a bunch of other brain regions. The PCC is interesting because it gets activated when people are shown pictures that are reminders of or triggers for their addictions. For example, the PCC lights up with cocaine cues (e.g., a picture of a few lines of cocaine on a mirror) in cocaine-addicted individuals, with smoking cues (e.g., a picture of someone smoking) in nicotine-addicted individuals, and with gambling cues (e.g., a picture of someone playing roulette) in individuals addicted to gambling.

The posterior cingulate cortex

We all get anxious, it’s a part of life, yet how we deal with it is critical. If we don’t know how anxiety shows up or why, we might get caught up in temporary distractions or short-term fixes that actually feed it, creating bad habits in the process (have you ever eaten ice cream or cookies when you’re stressed?). Or we might spend our whole lives adding to our anxiety by trying to cure it (why can’t I just find why I’m anxious and fix it?).

Anxiety hides in people’s habits

There are different types of people depending on how they react when facing danger. These people can be categorized into three different groups based on their reactions. These groups are fight, flight, and freeze.

When we face dangerous situations

The instant New York Times bestseller A step-by-step plan clinically proven to break the cycle of worry and fear that drives anxiety and addictive habits We are living through one of the most anxious periods any of us can remember. Whether facing issues as public as a pandemic or as personal as having kids at home and fighting the urge to reach for the wine bottle every night, we are feeling overwhelmed and out of control. But in this timely book, Judson Brewer explains how to uproot anxiety at its source using brain-based techniques and small hacks accessible to anyone. We think of anxiety as everything from mild unease to full-blown panic. But it's also what drives the addictive behaviors and bad habits we use to cope (e.g. stress eating, procrastination, doom scrolling and social media). Plus, anxiety lives in a part of the brain that resists rational thought. So we get stuck in anxiety habit loops that we can't think our way out of or use willpower to overcome. Dr. Brewer teaches us to map our brains to discover our triggers, defuse them with the simple but powerful practice of curiosity, and to train our brains using mindfulness and other practices that his lab has proven can work. Distilling more than 20 years of research and hands-on work with thousands of patients, including Olympic athletes and coaches, and leaders in government and business, Dr. Brewer has created a clear, solution-oriented program that anyone can use to feel better - no matter how anxious they feel.

Understand yourself and those around you.

psychology

Psychology

habits

Habits

mentalhealth

Mental Health

books

Books

New York Times and Wall Street Journal bestseller A step-by-step plan clinically proven to break the cycle of worry and fear that drives anxiety and addictive habits We are living through one of the most anxious periods any of us can remember. Whether facing issues as public as a pandemic or as personal as having kids at home and fighting the urge to reach for the wine bottle every night, we are feeling overwhelmed and out of control. But in this timely book, Judson Brewer explains how to uproot anxiety at its source using brain-based techniques and small hacks accessible to anyone. We think of anxiety as everything from mild unease to full-blown panic. But it's also what drives the addictive behaviors and bad habits we use to cope (e.g. stress eating, procrastination, doom scrolling and social media). Plus, anxiety lives in a part of the brain that resists rational thought. So we get stuck in anxiety habit loops that we can't think our way out of or use willpower to overcome. Dr. Brewer teaches us to map our brains to discover our triggers, defuse them with the simple but powerful practice of curiosity, and to train our brains using mindfulness and other practices that his lab has proven can work. Distilling more than 20 years of research and hands-on work with thousands of patients, including Olympic athletes and coaches, and leaders in government and business, Dr. Brewer has created a clear, solution-oriented program that anyone can use to feel better - no matter how anxious they feel.

Judson Brewer is an accomplished writer whose work has resonated with readers around the world. Judson Brewer has published several books that explore a range of topics, from fiction to nonfiction, and has received critical acclaim for the ability to weave compelling narratives. Judson Brewer's writing style is known for its depth and authenticity, and has earned quite a loyal following of readers.

RANDY ARMSTRONG

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