This Is Your Brain On Uncertainty
Our brains do not like uncertainty. Fear of the unknown triggers a flood of chemicals into our brain and body. The chemicals were designed to help us respond to physical threats. Dr. Christine Runyan explained it clearly in our podcast interview: “When we're faced with any uncertainty, small-scale or large-scale, real or imagined, our threat appraisal system is activated. We're wired for fear and survival. It's pretty primitive: our nervous system is collecting millions of bits of information outside of our awareness through our senses. Before we even have a conscious awareness that our system has appraised something as threatening, we are already activating that response and it's preparing us to move towards the threat through fight or to move away through flight. That threat appraisal system is really sensitive and it's going to fire and detect things even when it's not a real threat to us.” We get anxious in body and mind.
And so, we worry, says Runyan. Worry makes us feel like we are doing something about the uncertainty. It’s a way of meeting the discomfort that our body feels about uncertainty.
What do you do when fear of the unknown floods you with anxiety, and worry takes you into a dark place?
Business Psychologist Dr. Camille Preston offers this advice: “I think we're facing a level of uncertainty that we haven't experienced. Label it as that. This is what it is. Putting words around it and talking about it doesn't increase our emotion. It helps us activate our own internal braking system and actually helps us say, "Okay, that's what it is. What are the choices that I can make around it?"
"We have a choice about how we approach and how we engage with that uncertainty. It's going to happen, but we have agency about how we navigate." Here’s an exercise adapted from Camille (and Lauren Papp) to help you get grounded and interrupt the worry:
Take a deep breath.
Start thinking about what you'd like to create today.
Maybe texting a loved one. Maybe a phone call you're going to make this afternoon. Maybe writing or cooking. Maybe something fun. Maybe an important business decision.
In the morning, think about what you're going to create right away, and then in the afternoon, and in the evening. Think about doing it and end the thought with gratitude. What are you grateful for in your day?
You can say to yourself: “I have no idea how this is going to turn out, but this is what I want to do today, and what I’m grateful for right now.”
PS: I also love to raise my heart rate quickly- jumping around or doing a sprint for 2 minutes. Try it! It's proven to work.
PPS: The new season of The Anxious Achiever drops next week!! Catch up on previous episodes here