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Jay Shetty Podcast

“Your Brain Is Overwhelmed! — DO THIS Tiny Habit Every Morning to Get Energy, Focus & Peace Back”

World-renowned neuroscientist Dr. Wendy Suzuki reveals groundbreaking insights about protecting your brain from chronic stress.

Jay ShettyhostDr. Wendy Suzukiguest

Mar 17, 20251h 24mWatch on YouTube

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CHAPTERS

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Chapter summaries

What We Know and Don't Know About the Brain
Jay Shetty asks Dr. Wendy Suzuki how much is known about the brain. She says there is still an enormous amount unknown, citing the claustrum and consciousness as examples.
- •Some brain areas have no known function
- •The claustrum connects to everything yet its role is unknown
- •Little is known about how consciousness works
- •The brain is described as a beautiful bag of information and mystery
Healthy vs. Unhealthy Brains and the Stress Badge of Honor
Suzuki says a little stress and anxiety is good for the brain but chronic stress is not. She and Jay discuss why people deny their stress and wear it as a badge of honor. Awareness is the first step.
- •Chronic high stress damages and then kills some neurons
- •Suzuki once told herself stress didn't affect her, until she wrote Good Anxiety
- •Busyness culture treats stress as a badge of honor
- •Saying 'I'm doing well' can feel like a sign of not working hard enough
Anxiety vs. Stress and Quick Calming Tools
Suzuki explains the physiology of the stress response and anxiety as a protective emotion about future threats. She gives her two go-to tools, deep breathing and moving the body, and describes box breathing.
- •The stress response is driven by the sympathetic nervous system
- •Anxiety is the fear of future harm and is protective in essence
- •Phone pings trigger anxiety and keep us stressed too much of the day
- •Breathing activates the parasympathetic system
- •Ten minutes of walking reduces anxiety and stress
Spotting Your Stress Cues and Practicing Breathwork
Jay describes storing stress in his body, and Suzuki shares her experience of crying during deep tissue massage. They discuss how to find your cues and practice breathing before you need it, like a fire drill.
- •Stress can be stored in the body, such as tight shoulders or neck
- •Asking a friend when they think you seem more stressed can reveal cues
- •Practice breathing techniques ahead of time, for example through classes or free YouTube meditations
- •Notice how each technique makes you feel and try others if one doesn't work
What Chronic Stress Does to the Hippocampus and Prefrontal Cortex
Suzuki explains how cortisol damages the hippocampus and prefrontal cortex. She names everyday stressors such as scary news and social media, and Jay raises the idea of leaving a gap before picking up the phone in the morning.
- •Cortisol crosses the blood-brain barrier and can damage and kill cells
- •The hippocampus is critical for memory and is attacked first in Alzheimer's
- •The prefrontal cortex handles decision-making and shifting attention
- •News and social media are everyday stressors
- •Jay describes the benefit of not rushing the brain with notifications first thing
Morning Routines, Exercise, and Meditation
Suzuki describes her morning routine of a tea meditation and a 30-minute workout. She and Jay discuss how exercise and meditation improve focus and mood rather than costing time.
- •Suzuki does about 45 minutes of tea meditation, body scans and prayers each morning
- •She follows it with a 30-minute online workout
- •Exercise improves mood, attention shifting and long-term memory
- •Meditation trains focus and the ability to listen deeply
Why Focus Hurts and Why Small Steps Work
Jay asks why focusing feels painful, and Suzuki explains that building new pathways is a metabolic effort. Jay shares the monastery practice of focusing on one bead at a time, and Suzuki recommends starting small.
- •Being pulled in many directions makes sustained focus feel hard
- •New learning stretches dendrites and is supposed to hurt
- •Focusing on one bead at a time made long meditations manageable
- •Suzuki tells everyone to start small, such as a minute of deep breathing or 10 minutes of walking
Everyday Anxiety vs. Anxiety Disorder and Anxiety's Superpowers
Suzuki says anxiety lies on a spectrum and only the highest levels that block daily life are clinical. She presents anxiety as protective and describes turning a worry list into a to-do list, while Jay describes anxiety as a sign of a skill not yet developed.
- •Everyone has anxiety, and it exists on a large spectrum
- •Clinical levels prevent normal functioning and may need help such as cognitive behavioral therapy
- •Good Anxiety invites using anxiety as a protective mechanism
- •Turning a 'what if' list into an action to-do list is a productivity superpower
- •Jay sees anxiety as pointing to a skill to develop, which Suzuki calls the love of learning
Grief, Loss, and Finding Wisdom in Pain
Suzuki says anxiety and grief point to what we hold dear, with deep love on their flip side. She shares how losing her father and then her brother within three months shaped Good Anxiety and how she approached the eulogy.
- •The flip side of anxiety and grief is deep love
- •Her father and brother died within three months of each other
- •A workout instructor's line, 'with great pain comes great wisdom', helped her reframe her grief
- •She learned her brain was more resilient than she thought
Emotional Trauma, Fear Memories, and Joy Conditioning
Suzuki explains how trauma and cortisol can create amygdala-based fear memories, and why we forget lessons from pain. She introduces joy conditioning, which uses hippocampal memory tools to relive joyful memories, and Jay shares his Bhutan 5-4-3-2-1 mental picture.
- •Lingering emotional effects can form amygdala-dependent fear memories
- •Deeper learning and sharing can replace being steered away by fear
- •Suzuki says she wouldn't recommend preparing for trauma, but self-compassion can be prepared
- •Joy conditioning means reliving joyful memories with sensory detail
- •Jay uses the 5-4-3-2-1 technique to take a mental picture
Growth Mindset, Healing, and the Five Pillars of Brain Health
Suzuki says talking about anxiety helps when it focuses on learning and a growth mindset rather than victimhood. She describes the neurochemical bubble bath of exercise and how growth factors enlarge the hippocampus, then lists five pillars of brain health and explains the neuroscience of love.
- •Talk about anxiety in terms of what you learned and what you'll do differently
- •Notice who feeds you information, and choose people with a growth mindset
- •Exercise releases dopamine, serotonin, noradrenaline, endorphins and growth factors
- •Aerobic activity helps build new hippocampal cells
- •The five pillars are exercise, stress reduction, social interaction including love, sleep and nutrition
- •Brain responses to love shift from dopamine-driven romance to a protective pattern
Community, Belonging, and the Love of Learning
Jay laments the loss of physical gathering places, and Suzuki describes how, as a dean, she fosters connection and the joy of learning. She tells how she greets students with 'you have a beautiful brain', and describes her Fluffy Brain course and its assignments.
- •Fewer places of gathering now that communities are digital
- •Universities are natural gathering places but stress pushes students to their phones
- •Suzuki assigns students a personal exercise experiment in her Fluffy Brain course
- •She greets students with 'you have a beautiful brain' to create belonging
- •Jay shares his monastery's emphasis on humility, tolerance and compassion
Positive Affirmations and How Memories Stick
Suzuki says studies show positive affirmations improve affect. Jay then asks about memory, and she explains four things that make memories stick, why people recall events differently, and how aging brings interference.
- •Affirmation studies show less negative and more positive affect
- •Repetition, association, novelty and emotional resonance make memories stick
- •Two people at the same event focus on different things and so remember differently
- •Memory varies widely, and interference makes it harder as we age
- •Making things funny and repeating them can strengthen memory
Final Five Rapid-Fire Questions
Jay asks Suzuki his closing set of questions. She answers on best and worst advice, what she wants to discover, how views on adult brain change have shifted, and the one law she would create.
- •Best advice: your brain defines who you are, so take care of it
- •Worst advice: put your head down and work as hard as you can until you reach your goal
- •She wants to discover how to enhance joyous memories more easily
- •The belief that the adult brain couldn't change has been overturned by brain plasticity
- •Her one law: make at least five deep friendships

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