The human brain is an anticipatory machine, designed to anticipate problems and keep us alive. 

In our modern times, however, there is a mismatch between the problems that face us now and how this anticipatory machine reacts to problems. Because this anticipatory machine responds to everything as a survival threat. And by survival threat, I mean an immediate, in the moment, “you need to run from that saber-toothed tiger".

We have a great brain that can be remarkably creative in solving problems. However, if that feeling of threat gets too high, the amygdala takes control and we shut down the very part of our brain that we need in order to solve the problem in front of us!

The survival focus narrows our vision, leaving us with a huge amount of energy and muscles that want to fight, flee, or freeze. That response is not congruent with a boss who is unhappy with you at work, giving a public speech, or many of the other things that make us anxious.

The good news: you can walk yourself back from panic into clear, creative problem-solving. There is also a reliable order to how this works. Here are the four steps to move your brain from a state of panic into creative and productive problem-solving.

Step One: Somatic Interventions to Reclaim Your Brain

Start with physiological techniques to calm your physical being (somatic means “in the body”). Without this, your inner fire alarm, your inner guard, will not stand down. The amygdala will not calm down enough for you to access the other parts of your brain that you need for problem-solving.

The best ways to do this:

●     Diaphragmatic breathing [Click here for diaphragmatic breathing video]

●     Grounding techniques [Click here for grounding techniques video]

●     Movement or interaction that you find calming — taking a walk in nature, petting your favorite animal, or even giving yourself a self-hug

All of these can be highly effective at lowering your blood pressure, calming your pulse rate, and helping you stay present so you can move on to the next steps.

Step Two: Utilize Your “Observer Brain”

The “observer brain” is the part of the brain that looks at your thoughts. It is not completely consumed by them. It observes and acknowledges what is happening in your brain and in your thought patterns. Metacognitions are thoughts about thoughts, and a great tool for strengthening your metacognitive abilities is labeling.

Label your thoughts. You can say to yourself, “This is anticipatory anxiety.” “This is rumination.” “This is a thought about the future. It is not happening now.”

Another tool to strengthen the observer brain is to recognize that thoughts are not truths. We can have the thought, “I'm doomed. I'm stupid. I can't cope with this,” but those are not truths. Having worked with people for twenty years as a psychotherapist, I know how difficult it can be to believe that these are NOT truths. But they are, in deed, opinions or beliefs, not facts.

Some of these thoughts are a story about the future. It could be: “If I don't get this job, I'm doomed. I'll lose my house. I'll be homeless in two weeks.” It is a story we project. I am not suggesting there is no problem behind why your brain is creating that story. There could be a serious problem, but the anticipatory anxiety is not helping you solve it. None of this is about minimizing the problem. If anything, it is the opposite: human life can be filled with real problems. We have all sorts of things to deal with. The question is how we can best deal with them.

Another tool that can help here is something called the movie technique. I released a guided visualization video last week that walks you through some of the somatic calming you need to do, and then walks you through the movie technique for moving from panic about a future event into problem-solving [link: guided visualization video].

Step Three: Cognitive Reframes for Problem-Solving

There are certain changes in your thinking that might be necessary before you move into problem-solving. (Cognitions, by the way, just means thoughts). 

Avoidance Backfires

Your emotional brain acts like a puppy, trained by little treats. When you avoid something, your anxiety level goes down — that is the treat. Long-term, however, avoidance creates a problem. That inner puppy loves the immediate relief of a treat, so if you use avoidance when something scary is coming up, your brain will want to do that more and more often. It also gets generalized to other situations. Next week I am going to release another video on avoidance, and I do have one that I put out a couple of years ago that might be worth watching [link: avoidance video]. As you go into problem-solving mode, keep in mind that avoidance backfires.

Learning to Tolerate Anxiety

Allowing ourselves to feel and sit with anxiety teaches us that we can tolerate it. By tolerating it, we prevent it from escalating. 

For people whose panic escalates into a panic attack, the biggest problem is often that a fear of fear has developed — a fear of feeling fear is what causes ongoing panic attacks. This is not an easy step, but sometimes we have to allow ourselves to feel and sit with anxiety, trusting that we can tolerate it.

Focus on What You Can Do, Not Only the Outcome You Want

This last concept might be the hardest for most people. Usually when we have anticipatory anxiety, we are very focused on an outcome that we want. This is normal. It is perfectly human. Unfortunately, we are not in control of everything, and many of our outcomes are outside of our control. Achieving a particular thing is not only about you. 

For example, often getting a particular job is outside of our control. You might apply, and the company could change its mind about whether it is hiring at all. There are so many things outside of our control that shifting our focus to what we can do now, in order to achieve the best possible outcome, is genuinely helpful. Focusing only on the outcome we want will drive the anxiety.

If talking through these concepts has made you feel more anxious, I would recommend going back and doing some of that physiological calming again — the diaphragmatic breathing, the grounding — to help yourself calm down before continuing. Talking about how we are not in control, and how we may not get the outcome we want, can make anxiety go up. Try to keep that thought in mind and keep your body calm, because those chemicals are not helpful right now, and they do not have to be linked.

I also have a free webinar called “Rewire Your Brain for Joy and Confidence,” where I talk about how our habitual patterns wire our brains in a particular way, and how we can change it Click Here for Webinar.

Step Four: Problem-Solving — Re-Engaging Your Creative Brain

This final step is about problem-solving — focused specifically on what you can do now to create the best possible outcome.

Take a piece of paper and write, at the top, what you would like to achieve. Underneath, create two columns. Label the left column “What's In My Control” and list everything within your control related to achieving what you want. Label the right column “What's Not Within My Control” and list everything outside of it.

As you work through this, keep practicing diaphragmatic breathing, keep your feet on the floor, and stay aware that you are in a safe enough place in your immediate environment.

From here, there are two different paths, depending on where you find yourself.

If You Are Still Feeling Anxious or Hopeless

If, after writing out those two columns, you are still feeling quite anxious or even hopeless about finding a solution, start a new piece of paper. This time, write down the facts of your current situation, and separately, the projections you are having.

The facts might include something like, “I get terrible social anxiety frequently.” That may well be true — but it does not mean it will always be true. The projection, by contrast, might sound like, “I'm going to go to this event. I'm going to make a fool of myself. I'll lose all my friends.” That is a projection.

Once you can see the fact as the actual problem, you can start asking what the real solution might be — in this case, perhaps targeted therapy for social anxiety itself, rather than trying to solve for this one upcoming event.

Another example: you might write, “I want a new job.” That could be a fact right now, along with related facts like, “It would help to earn more money to cover the bills,” or “I feel like I'm in a toxic environment.” Your feelings right now are also facts — the fact that you are feeling them is real, and the fact that you have wants and desires is valid. This matters because problem-solving is whole-brain thinking. It is not purely rational; it also has to account for what we genuinely want. If we try to problem-solve while ignoring our own likes, dislikes, wants, and desires, we are unlikely to land on good solutions.

The projections in that same example might sound like, “I'm going to get fired at my existing job. I'll never be able to find a job again. I'll never be able to find a job I like.” Those are projections, not facts.

One more example: someone with agoraphobia might write the fact as, “I have agoraphobia. I have a fear of crowds.” The projection is about what might happen if they go out into a crowd — but that is not the problem to solve right now. The problem to solve right now is finding treatment for the agoraphobia itself.

It can be hard to offer examples that fit everyone, because people naturally weigh these tools against whatever they are personally struggling with. My hope is simply to give you tools that work no matter what you are facing. So if the two-column exercise was not landing for you, try this direction instead: write the facts, write the projections, and practice recognizing the projections for what they are.

If You Feel You Are Ready to Access Creative Solutions

If you feel you are ready to access creative solutions, my advice might seem contradictory: put away that piece of paper until sometime tomorrow. Coming up with creative solutions can often be facilitated by disengaging from the problem and becoming occupied with something else. Do something enjoyable — even focus on a puzzle, go for a walk. Often creative solutions jump into our minds when we aren’t even thinking about the problem – while taking a shower, for example! Set yourself a time to come back, sit back down, and go through possible solutions.

I would recommend watching the video I put out last week — a guided meditation to help move you out of anticipatory anxiety and into a more productive state of mind Guided Meditation and Visualization for Anticipatory Anxiety.

See you next week.