Episode 264: A Mindful Moment to Change the Neurobiology of Fear and Anxiety
Join Kelli and Erica as they chat about a short and simple "off the cushion" (a.k.a you don't have to be seated with your eyes closed on a cushion chanting ommmmm, unless you want to!) mindfulness exercise to change the neurobiology of fear and anxiety. What does woobling and bird watching have to do with changing the neurobiology of fear? You'll have to tune in to find out!
To tune into the episode, listen on iTunes or Spotify.
Show Notes
Kelli and Erica chat about the neurobiology of fear and anxiety. Kelli and Erica discuss:
Big Bang Theory is a great show no matter what Erica says.
Nerdy nerd nerd: different fancy sounding parts of your brain have different jobs.
When we are distressed, some of those parts of our brain stop communicating with one another. Check out this wonderful video from Tara Brach that we reference.
Mindful moments - when we bring an open compassionate curiosity to our experience, we change the neurobiology of fear and help integrate the different parts of our brain again.
Next time you’re plagued by distressing intrusive thoughts, try this exercise
Notice and name the thought.
Example: “I’m having the thought that I’m not good enough" or “I’m having the thought that I’m going to lose my shit on the airplane.”
Then see if you can step out of the context of the thought and notice what emotions are coming up in your body. Fear? Shame? Sadness? Defeated? What are the characteristics of the emotion, in other words how do you know it’s fear or sadness?
Mindfulness re-establishes and reinforces a solid communication connection between the prefrontal cortex and the limbic system, allowing the prefrontal cortex to become more adept at down-regulating fight or flight when anxiety and overwhelm arise.
A study from UCLA found that when we consistently name an emotion and drop into its felt sense in our body, like we did in the quick exercise earlier, rather than get caught up in the content of our thoughts, it activates the prefrontal cortex and deactivates the limbic system, meaning more balance and presence and less fear.
If anyone know how to wooble and can tell Kelli how to make Doug the pug’s snout, she’ll be eternally grateful.
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