Overcome Overwhelm & Anxiety with these 3 Neuroscience-Backed Tips

1. 0:00 – 0:30

   Why uncertainty feels worse than failure (and how neuroscience can help)

   1. SZDr. Shadé Zahrai0:00

      How do you cope when you're facing uncertainty? Do you find yourself feeling overwhelmed, stressed, and possibly anxious? And does this get in the way of you being able to progress towards your goals? Thankfully, neuroscience sheds light on brain processes that you can easily take advantage of to help you perform during uncertainty. [upbeat music] Hi, I'm Shade Zirai, and I help professionals to hack their careers, overcome their limiting beliefs, and confidently create the extraordinary life they deserve. In this video, I'm going to share three practical insights from recent neuroscience research

2. 0:30 – 1:25

   The electric shock study: uncertainty is uniquely stressful

   1. SZDr. Shadé Zahrai0:30

      to help you enhance your performance during uncertainty. I'm also going to be joined by my husband, Faysal, who co-produces these videos with me to help, as he also brings a wealth of experience from helping professionals and executives working at Fortune 500s. As humans, we actually find uncertainty more stressful than even the certainty of failure. A 2016 experiment highlighted this. The researchers brought in a group of people and split them into two. One group was told that they had a 50% chance of receiving an electric shock. The other group was told that they would definitely receive a shock. Which group do you think were more stressed? It was actually those with the uncertainty around whether they would receive a shock or not. The fact is that uncertainty is stressful. If we take this into a business context, it's far less taxing for a leader to deal with the anticipation of a guaranteed bad quarter based on known factors rather than having no idea what's around the corner. So let's dive into these neuroscience insights.

3. 1:25 – 1:55

   Insight #1 — Stress tunnel vision: the amygdala narrows your focus

   1. SZDr. Shadé Zahrai1:25

      Insight one: break free from stress-induced tunnel vision. The thing about uncertainty is that it threatens our innate preference for predicting future events. It elevates our stress and anxiety levels by triggering the amygdala. That's the part of the brain that's, uh, the fear center, which puts you into this tunnel-vision mode, meaning your vision literally becomes narrowed as a survival mechanism to help you focus your attention on that immediate threat. Unfortunately, this state also gets in the way of your rational thinking, which doesn't help you deal with the uncertainty. So what if I told

4. 1:55 – 2:26

   Hack #1 — Use lateral eye movement: walk to calm the threat response

   1. SZDr. Shadé Zahrai1:55

      you that your eyes can actually help you break out of that state? Research published in The Journal of neuroscience found that the lateral eye movement, side-to-side movement, during self-generated motion, like walking or cycling, has the effect of quietening the amygdala. In other words, you can hack your brain to break free from stress-induced tunnel vision by something as simple as just taking a walk in open space. When walking forward, our eyes naturally scan the space ahead laterally, and this triggers a hardwired

5. 2:26 – 3:14

   Leaning into friction: forward motion activates “boldness” circuitry

   1. SZDr. Shadé Zahrai2:26

      process that tells your brain, "Hey, there's no immediate threat ahead, so just chill out." This breaks you out of that fight or freeze by hushing your pesky amygdala, and the benefits don't end there. There's actually a brain area responsible for confronting a threat, as opposed to defaulting to a flight or freeze response. Lateralised eye movements actually engage this part of the brain, and that encourages leaning into the friction. In a recent podcast, one of the researchers, Stanford's Dr. Andrew Huberman, spoke about how forward movement in the face of agitation activates the winning circuit in the brain, which is linked to boldness and courage. So next time you find yourself experiencing uncertainty-induced stress, instead of banging your head on your laptop keyboard, peel your eyes away from that narrow screen and expand your vision with a calming stroll.

6. 3:14 – 3:44

   Insight #2 — Why prolonged uncertainty makes you want to quit: dopamine dips

   1. SZDr. Shadé Zahrai3:14

      Insight two: repurpose the struggle. In the face of prolonged uncertainty, the natural tendency is to give up. Why? Why do we reach a point where we give up? Well, neuroscience suggests that it's due to a prolonged absence of dopamine, which is the reward neurotransmitter in the brain, and that's a result of not being able to achieve goals due to unforeseen circumstances or other things that get in the way of you being able to achieve your goals. Achieving goals at work drives your momentum because it continually activates the dopamine reward pathways in your

7. 3:44 – 4:14

   Hack #2 — Repurpose the struggle by linking it to purpose (dopamine on the path)

   1. SZDr. Shadé Zahrai3:44

      brain. But what can you do to replenish your dopamine when you're not even able to have clear targets because of the uncertainty? Well, it turns out that there is a biohack around this because dopamine can also be released on the path to goal attainment. But the prerequisite is that you need to be really clear that your perseverance and the struggles are aligned with your overarching purpose. This is a really powerful insight because it indicates that if you can reframe even the suffering or pain that comes from uncertainty as part of the journey, you're able to tap into

8. 4:14 – 4:55

   Daily self-reward and a guiding question to maintain momentum

   1. SZDr. Shadé Zahrai4:14

      the reward pathways and increase your drive to cross that undefined finish line. First, you need to be really clear about your overarching purpose. Importantly, you need to continually reward these incremental steps that focus on forward progress. Take a moment to appreciate your efforts. Say to yourself, "I'm on the right track. I'm still moving towards my goal, even if they're not clear. This suffering is for a purpose." The question to ask yourself on the journey is: Is this decision, this task, this action drawing me closer to my bigger purpose? Each yes that you answer builds your capacity to keep persevering. Each step made towards the goal, when rewarded, motivates you to keep moving forward.

9. 4:55 – 5:25

   Insight #3 — Uncertainty primes the brain to learn (prefrontal cortex activation)

   1. SZDr. Shadé Zahrai4:55

      Insight three: embrace uncertainty as a learning opportunity. Professor of neuroscience at Yale, Dayal Lee, said, "We only learn when there is uncertainty, and that is a good thing." His research, published in Neuron, found that there's greater neural activity in the prefrontal cortex when faced with uncertainty, and it's in these moments that the brain is primed for learning. One implication of these findings is that while one of the natural human responses during uncertainty is to run and hide, these

10. 5:25 – 5:46

    Reframe uncertainty as fuel: perform better and inspire others

    1. SZDr. Shadé Zahrai5:25

       are situations when we can learn the most about ourselves and our hidden potential. So reframe your relationship with uncertainty so that you can see it as an opportunity to learn and discover rather than a threat, and use it as this fuel to propel you forward. It will help you regulate your state, improve your performance, and make you even an inspiration to others during challenging times.

11. 5:46 – 6:20

    Recap of the 3 neuroscience tips + call to action

    1. SZDr. Shadé Zahrai5:46

       So there you have three insights from recent neuroscience research to help you perform in uncertain times. In the comments, let us know what you thought of these insights and which ones you're going to apply immediately. And if you enjoyed this video, please like and subscribe. Make sure you hit the bell icon too so that you're notified next time we publish a video. It really helps support the channel, and it means a lot to us. I'm Shade Zirai, and I'll see you next time. [upbeat music]

Episode duration: 6:20