Today we're going to talk about something we all suffer from from time to time, but almost no one has the right use case for: anxiety. And I'm not talking about hours of dicking around on a therapeutic couch, no, we're going to look at how you can completely reset that anxiety within sixty seconds.
Let's face it: you know that feeling. You wake up, you're looking forward to the day, but something is gnawing. Some input is missing for that radiant smile. And before you know it, you're in a spiral of stress or panic. But what if I told you that anxiety is often simply a biological flaw in your software? A programming error in your brain that you can fix yourself?
Grab a cup of coffee, sit back and relax as we dive into the biology of your brain.
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The trap of focus
There are a few biological factors that come into play with anxiety. The very first, and perhaps the most important, is focus.
When you focus, you become more afraid. To many people, that sounds very counter-natural. After all, all our lives we hear, "You have to focus! Focus!" And don't get me wrong, when you need to do some complicated math or want to throw a dart into the bullseye, focus is great. But when it comes to anxiety, focus is your worst enemy.
Picture this: you are driving on the highway. You feel a little uneasy, maybe it's crowded or raining hard. What are most people going to do? They're going to stare. They are going to focus on one specific thing, such as the license plate number of the car in front of them.
So what happens biologically? The moment your eyes fixate on one point, a signal goes to your brain that says, "Watch out, there's danger." Your field of vision narrows. We call this "tunnel vision. And that tunnel vision is directly linked to your survival mechanism. The more you focus on that one point, the more the fear begins to kick in. It's a vicious cycle. You focus because you are afraid, and you become more afraid because you focus.
Reality versus your projection
In any form of anxiety, we see the same pattern recurring: the reality inside your head is perceived many times larger than the reality outside your head.
Let's take a classic example: the mouse. Or a spider, if you like that better. Imagine, you are terrified of mice. In reality, such a critter is maybe only five inches tall. It is a tiny, fluffy thing that is probably more afraid of you than you are of it. But in your head? In your head, that mouse is not five centimeters. In your head, that mouse is a two-foot-tall monster with teeth like razors.
Now you may be saying, "No Edwin, in my head that mouse is not literally two feet."
Yay! Maybe not in terms of size in inches, but certainly in terms of image filling. Think about it. If there is a spider in the room and you have a phobia, what are you looking at? Only at that spider. Do you see the rest of the room? The beautiful curtains, the bookcase, the television? No. Everything disappears. Your whole picture (the 100% of what you perceive at that moment) is filled with that one spider.
For your brain, this means that spider is your whole world at that moment. If a small creature demands 100% of your attention and your image, then to your nervous system it is as big as the room itself. And yes, then you get scared. Then you jump on a chair, then you run out of the tent, then you do the most frantic things just to get away. You know intellectually that the spider won't do anything, but your emotion always wins out over your reason. Why? Because the image in your head has simply become too big[1].
The 60-second reset: How to do it.
How do we fix this? How do you reset this system? It's stunningly simple, but you have to do it. The trick is to bring context back into the picture.
Let's take that spin again. You feel that fear rising. You see that spider in your mind or in real life. In that moment, that spider is "full screen" in your mind. What you will do now is to consciously fill in the image. This is a form of active fantasy that directly affects your biology.
- See the environment: See the spider, but force yourself to also see the table it sits on. "Oh, there was no table in my panic image before, now there is."
- Zoom out: Place that table in a room. Make that room 3D in your mind.
- Add details: See the door on the other side of the room. See the window. Look out through the window, see the trees, the sky. See the couch, a painting on the wall.
- Make it small: Now what automatically happens to that spider? It must get smaller or it won't fit on that table in that room.
Suddenly that "monster" is just another little spider that is part of a much bigger picture. It's just a detail in a room full of other things. The moment you do this, your brain gets the signal, "Oh, it's just a part of the environment. There is no acute danger to life." The anxiety diminishes or even disappears completely. You have changed the context[2].
My own experience in the MRI scanner
I apply this myself, of course. The other day I had to go for an MRI scan. For those unfamiliar with it, you are shoved into a kind of narrow tube that makes a hell of a noise.
As I entered that tube, I felt for a moment that my brain wanted to protest. "Oh my, we're in a tube. We're trapped. We can't go anywhere!" Your heart rate goes up, your breathing shortens. The beginning of panic.
But then I thought, "Hey dude, you're teaching this note to other people. Apply it!"
I didn't even close my eyes completely, but I relaxed my gaze. I was looking at what we call peripheral. That means you don't focus on the point directly in front of you, but you spread your attention to the sides. You make your field of vision wide, even though you are in a small space.
In my brain, I created the space. Instead of focusing on the walls of the tube that were close to my face, I imagined the vast space of the room around it. In my mind, I saw the walls left, right, up and down. Suddenly my body felt like I was in a huge, huge ballroom instead of a cramped pipe.
The result? I became so relaxed I almost fell asleep. I laid there for 45 minutes and came out refreshed. If I had focused on the restriction, on the walls, on the "truth" of the small space, my brain would have pulled all sorts of antics. I could have panicked and perhaps even suffered a phobia. But by simply changing my focus, my whole biological response changed.
The science behind the hack: The Amygdala
Why does this work so well? It has everything to do with your amygdala. This is the fear center in your brain, your internal guardian. The amygdala is constantly scanning the environment for danger[3].
When you focus on one thing (the spider, the tube, the fear thought), the amygdala is instructed, "THIS IS THE ONLY THING!" The guardian sounds a big alarm.
But as soon as you widen your view (literally or figuratively) and start seeing your surroundings again, the amygdala thinks, "Oh, wait a minute. I also see a table, a window, a blue sky and a painting. This is just a normal, static image. There is no tiger attacking me."
The guard sits back in his chair and stops pumping around adrenaline and cortisol. The fear response stops because the image is back to "normal" for your brain.
Summary: What to do.
The next time you feel fear rising, whether you are standing in an elevator, have to give a presentation, or see a spider, do the following:
- Stop staring. Take your focus off what scares you.
- Change your visual field. Look to the sides. See the space around the object.
- Fill in the picture. Make the context bigger. Add sounds, add other objects.
- Relax your eyes. Make your gaze soft and wide.
You'll find that fear literally melts away. This is because your brain cannot simultaneously be in a state of broad, peripheral focus AND have an intense fear response. The two are biologically mutually exclusive.
Get started with it!
Ladies and gentlemen, this is the power of your own brain. You don't have to be a victim of your emotions. You have the buttons in your hands to reset your own system. Fear is often nothing more than an optical illusion of the brain that has grown too big. Make the world big again, and your problem automatically becomes small.
Now did you find this valuable? Then make sure you spread this information. There are so many people who struggle daily with anxiety and panic, when sometimes the solution can be as simple as changing your focus.
Let me know in the comments: what is your biggest "spin" that you are going to make small today?
Do you really want to go in depth? Want to learn how to not only reset your fear, but reprogram your entire mindset? Then take a look in the show notes for my books or stop by one of our trainings at the Hypnosis Institute Netherlands.
You can also attend the free master class for an introduction.
If you have a question about training, schedule a 1-on-1 consultation here .
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