Life Kit Coping With Anxiety Around The News
Jan 18, 2021
Judson Brewer, a neuroscientist and mindfulness expert, shares valuable insights on handling anxiety linked to overwhelming news. He explores how current events can impact mental health and offers practical mindfulness strategies to regain control. Brewer discusses the brain's response to feeling overwhelmed and emphasizes the importance of accurate information in navigating stress. Listeners will learn about techniques like 'five finger breathing' to help manage feelings of anxiety and improve emotional regulation in today's fast-paced news environment.
AI Snips
Chapters
Transcript
Episode notes
Understanding Worry
- Worry and fear are two distinct components of anxiety.
- Fear is essential for survival, but worry is a maladaptive brain mechanism.
The Role of Information in Worry
- Fear is a helpful survival mechanism based on past experiences.
- Worry arises when our brains try to plan without accurate information.
Worry's Impact on Memory
- Worry fills up working memory in the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex.
- This makes it hard to hold other information, similar to a computer's RAM getting full.