Rewire the Brain, Laugh More, and Other Methods That Work
I think of myself as a health seeker, a ceaselessly curious human forever in the quest for ways to improve health, wellness, and an increasingly vital marker of wellbeing – our health span. To this end, I invite various experts in their respective fields onto my podcast to gain valuable insight into the way that our bodies and brains work. We often discuss mental health topics such as panic, anxiety, and ways in which we can deal with these. In a special montage episode of my podcast, five of my guests speak about precisely this: ways to deal with anxiety, control panic attacks, and more.
Why stress is the No 1 enemy of our wellbeing.
The more I learn, the more evidence I find that stress is the number one enemy of our health and well-being. It is no coincidence that the rate of mental health issues has spiked in recent times, and is in direct proportion to the rise of chronic stress in the general population. This is a view that my podcast guests James Nestor, Pandit Dasa, James Garrett, Shanhong Lu, and Craig Shoemaker have shared as well.
James Nestor has been on my show previously to speak about the importance of breathing. He also spoke to me about how it impacts levels of carbon dioxide in the system, which in turn can trigger panic attacks. James speaks of how a Stanford doctor was able to reduce the rates of panic attacks in her patients simply by teaching them how to breathe slower. Breath control can help to trigger the relaxation response, and this in turn helps to abate an attack, he explains.
Shanhong Lu is a doctor trained in dual medicine systems, and she also reiterates how stress has such deleterious impacts on our health and well-being. She speaks of how, in spite of how evolved the human brain is, parts of it are still primitive; that it is this primitive reptilian brain that responds to stress. According to her, it is possible to train the brain into having a more sympathetic-parasympathetic balance.
The power of the mind.
Pandit Dasa, popularly known as The Urban Monk, uses the famous quote from The Matrix –“the mind makes it real” – to speak about the power of the mind. He offers the example of how we experience genuine terror and physiological symptoms during a nightmare. A nightmare is something conjured up entirely by the mind but that doesn’t stop us from reacting as though we were in real, actual danger. He talks about reducing stress to lower the amount of anxiety a person experiences; also about how a lot of stress is self-induced because we don’t know how to press pause on our thought process. We tend to relive our trauma numerous times after we have experienced it – this causes needless suffering and hence stress, he explains.
Entrepreneur, scientist, trainer, and coach, James Garrett also has an insightful take on how the mind handles negative experiences. He speaks of something called the Negativity Bias, which is the very human tendency to dwell on that one negative experience while overlooking a hundred positive ones. He has an interesting analogy for this: positivity is like Teflon for the brain, sliding right off, and negativity is like Velcro – clinging stubbornly, latching on. James recommends a simple effective tool: savoring positivity to overcome this predisposition of the mind.
Another very interesting guest on my show is Craig Shoemaker – actor and standup comic who speaks about laughter as a healing modality. To listen in to all these interesting perspectives on panic and anxiety, check out this episode of The Adiel Gorel Show.
The power of the mind.
