Rewire Your Anxious Brain book Summary

Rewire Your Anxious Brain Book Summary

Anxiety can be troublesome. It doesn't matter what aspect of your life it is—if there is anxiety, it can limit your growth. It can stop you from doing things that you want to do in your life. For example, if English isn't your first language, you might get anxious before giving a speech in front of an audience. Sometimes you don't even know why you are anxious. Your heart rate increases, your muscles feel tense, you feel hopeless all of a sudden. These all are the symptoms of anxiety.

Now imagine you are going to do an important task and suddenly anxiety strikes you. It'd be horrible, right? The worst thing is when anxiety strikes, our brain feels helpless. You don't realize what is happening and why. Not all people are psychologists. When anxiety strikes, they think that there is something wrong with them. Anxiety and fear are like sisters. When there is fear, there will likely be anxiety. The question is: how can one deal with it—or even better, how can one avoid it in the first place?

In this video, you will learn how to condition your brain to produce less anxiety-ridden thoughts and how to make the most of your life by avoiding unnecessary stress caused due to fears and anxiety. Without further ado, let's dive right in.

Lesson Number One: Anxiety Begins in Your Head Based on How You Interpret Events

The first thing you need to learn about anxiety is it begins in our heads. If you didn't have that big brain in your head, you wouldn't have any fear or anxiety to deal with. Does this mean that external factors don't have any effect? The thing is, how we interpret events largely affects how we think and feel.

Our experiences shape the structure of our brain. For instance, if a stranger is walking towards you with a bat in his hand at night, you would fear. But does this mean that there is any danger? The answer is no one knows. One can only assume in that case and take the best action.

It may happen that maybe the person was playing cricket and is returning to his home. It may also happen that the stranger is a thief and you are his target. Maybe he was following you and is now going to strike. It'll depend on how you interpret that situation.

If you think positively in that situation, chances are you won't be afraid. And if you have had a bad episode in your life, negative thoughts will fill your head. The fear will grip you again. Imagine if you didn't have your brain—how would you react? You wouldn't feel a thing, right?

The key takeaway here is the root of the anxiety is always in your head, and how you interpret events and situations affects how you think and feel.

Lesson Number Two: The Cortex and Amygdala Are Two Critical Areas of Your Brain That Produce Anxiety

If you want to reduce anxiety, you must know how these two work.

What is cortex? Simply put, it's a part of your brain that helps in logic and reasoning.

And what is amygdala? Simply put, it's the defense mechanism in our body that activates when danger is detected.

The author has explained these two pretty nicely. Most anxiety is either amygdala-based or cortex-based. In the case of amygdala-based anxiety, we experience physiological symptoms like increased heartbeat, muscle tension, etc. And in the case of cortex-based anxiety, our thoughts or interpretations of events worsen the anxiety by activating the amygdala.

So identifying the type of anxiety is crucial to cope with it. If the anxiety is amygdala-based, logical reasoning would hardly work. If the anxiety is cortex-based, strategies that work with amygdala-based anxiety won't work effectively.

One thing worth noting down is amygdala can overtake the control of the brain in a dangerous situation. For instance, if there is a wild animal in front of you, would you stand there and think or run? Of course, you won't want to write a book on wild animals then—you would escape from there and save your life.

The author says that when we face extreme danger, the amygdala takes over and shuts any logic or reasoning, and our body acts without a thought. But what if we get rid of the cortex and amygdala? Again, it wouldn't help. These parts in our brain exist to protect ourselves from danger. Our ancestors had to protect themselves from wild animals in ancient times, so these parts helped a lot back then.

Fortunately, our situation is way better now. But still, knowing this doesn't solve the problem. You need to find a way to train your cortex and amygdala so that they work when they should work and they don't interfere when they don't need to.

Lesson Number Three: Anxiety Is Neither Good Nor Bad

Is anxiety good? No one would say that.

Is it bad? Of course, everyone will agree.

But in reality, it's neither good nor bad. The reason it exists is to protect us from potential threats or dangers. It has helped humans to avoid dangers and stay alive. If you manage to learn how to deal with anxiety, it can boost your potential.

Lesson Number Four: Not All Anxiety Necessarily Means Danger

Anxiety can be troublesome, but it doesn't always indicate danger. Our imagination can cause us to anticipate events or possibilities that don't even exist.

For example, if someone's family member is not picking up the call, he might assume that something is wrong. But in reality, the person doesn't have enough data and is just making things up inside his head, which is then causing more anxiety.

The author talks about two anxiety pathways in this book: one is the amygdala pathway and the other is cortex pathway. Whenever your senses receive any information, there is a part of the brain called the hypothalamus which sends sensory information to the amygdala and cortex.

In the amygdala pathway, the information first goes to amygdala directly, and if any danger is sensed, the amygdala takes over, causing you to respond.

In the cortex pathway, the information sensed goes to cortex first. Then it depends on the reasoning or logic. If the reasoning concludes that danger exists, it activates the amygdala.

Note that cortex itself doesn't produce any anxiety. It needs other parts of the brain to do so. This is why you feel more anxious when you have more negative thoughts inside your brain.

That doesn't mean that negative thoughts shouldn't exist. Thoughts are just thoughts. If you feel that your thoughts are a full representation of reality, it's more likely to give you trouble.

Lesson Number Five: You Can Teach Your Brain to Produce Less Anxiety

Our brain has neuroplasticity. The author found that our brains can change their neural structure with time. As you gather more information or experience, your brain keeps reorganizing itself and becoming better.

It's common knowledge that the brain is the control center of our body. To reduce your anxiety, you need some way to control your anxiety-producing areas in your brain, and it's only possible through training.

Lesson Number Six: Exercise and Sleep Can Help in Reducing Anxiety Through Relaxation

First, let's talk about how exercise can reduce anxiety and panic attacks. Certainly, any exercise helps us relax our muscles. So when you exercise often, your muscle tension reduces. This helps in the cases of amygdala-based anxiety when there are physiological symptoms.

The author suggests that you do breathing exercises. Deep breathing while being anxious helps you to reduce anxiety.

Another thing that people often miss is how vital deep sleep can be for their mental health. When you don't get a night of deep sleep, you feel tired and exhausted throughout your day. Good sleep helps your brain to reset and reorganize. It might seem like a simple thing, but it has a considerable effect. The more relaxed you are, the better you can deal with anxiety problems.

Lesson Number Seven: Certain Thinking Patterns Worsen Anxiety

Our ability to think is wonderful, but when it goes out of control, it can cause panic. Now what you can do is you can write down your thoughts and try to understand which ones cause anxiety issues, then replace them with positive thoughts if possible.

Don't overthink. Try to understand logical fallacies and biases. Remember, your thoughts don't accurately represent reality. Plus, our brain helps us imagine things that haven't happened yet. So there is no guarantee that the worst-case scenario you imagine before getting anxious will happen. Just relax.

Lesson Number Eight: You Can Unlock Your Full Potential in Life After Getting Rid of Anxiety

If you are ignoring your anxiety issues, you are limiting yourself from exploring the infinite possibilities. What if you could do every single thing in your life without worrying too much about it? What if you could get rid of your unwanted fears? It'd be amazing, right?

But it's also true that you would be prone to threats if you didn't have your fear and worries. It's up to you how you deal with it. If you are smart, you can deal with anxiety-ridden thoughts and achieve your goals.

Always remember your brain has plasticity. Regardless of what your age is, you can learn and reshape it. What you say to yourself can also help you train your cortex to produce less anxiety-creating thoughts and prevent it from unnecessarily activating your amygdala.

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