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Ep316 - Judson Brewer | Unwinding Anxiety

Talks at Google

CHAPTER

The Power of Paying Attention to Instincts

The prefrontal cortex from an evolutionary perspective is really the youngest and the weakest part of the brain. It's been shown pretty clearly that it goes offline when we get stressed. So here we are saying, well, just use your willpower, assuming that it's a real thing. And then it says, okay, use it at the time when you can't use it because the prefrontal cortex tends to be the seat of cognitive control. We're setting ourselves up to fail, even though it makes a lot of sense. I think that's what's really powerful, paying attention to the actual experience.

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