When you are afraid, you start going into fight or flight mode. Your body starts prioritising what is needed for immediate survival - screw routine body functions, if you don't make it past the next few moments there won't be a routine to return to. You stop digesting food. Cell repair slows or stops. You stop producing saliva, which is why your mouth goes dry when you're nervous just before making a speech or going into a difficult conversation. Your heart rate and breathing increase to ensure better blood flow. A cocktail of hormones like epinephrine and oxytocin are cued up and produced, which amplifies your body's ability to act (and remarkably, in the case of oxytocin, reminds you to seek help).
Don't be mistaken about what happens when you feel fear. Your body is readying itself to help you face what you fear in the way it knows how.
What causes us to feel fear?
1) Fear occurs to us unconsciously. Do you pause to think, hey, very angry looking snake! Maybe I should be scared. Of course not, it would be too late! Fear becomes much clearer when we examine what happens inside your brain. When you are afraid, the fear/anger/aggression/anxiety centre of your brain - the amygdalas (get used to this name, it's gonna keep popping up) lights up. And we've covered all the changes that happen in your body: your blood pressure, your hormones, your heart-rate. But remember how amygdala is like a train interchange with direct routes to different parts of your brain? There is a direct neural link between our amygdala and your pre-frontal cortex, the rational thinking part of your brain. And if we look closely enough or we think things through, sometimes we realise, argh! it's not an angry snake, it's just a prank toy that your annoying friend had thrown at you. Or if you've handled angry snakes enough times, your amygdala does not light as much. Your blood pressure and your heart rate do not increase as much, you realise what you need to do is to stay calm and slowly back away.
Finally, notice how fear, anger, aggression, and anxiety are processed by the same part of the brain, the amygdala. This is no coincidence. These 4 emotions are closely tied to one another; aggression maybe triggered because one is nervous, angry, or fearful. Being fearful may cause one to react angrily, as a self-defense mechanism. Fear, like all our emotions, happens to us. Mostly, we can't control how it originates. But we can control how it develops by understanding what exactly is causing fear and by choosing the response that dispels it
2) We fear what we are unconfident or uncertain about. Think back on your ancestors doing something they weren't confident or certain off - hunting a massive animal without a weapon, or eating a berry they've never seen before. Doing so would mean a very high chance of seriously harming themselves. Today, after many cycles of evolution, we have been wired based on these experiences.
Think about it. Are you ever fearful of something you've done before, and are good? Brushing your teeth, putting on your clothes, indulging in your favourite hobby (whatever it is)? Of course not. You know you can perform these functions easily. You are confident.
But many of us would have felt fearful and anxious the first time we ventured into something new: using a pair of chopsticks, riding a bicycle, swimming, going on a first date. We were uncertain about these functions, and we were not confident about performing them. However, once we have demonstrated to ourselves that we are able to perform these tasks, we are no longer afraid. The same applies to more challenging tasks. Some of us struggle with: public speaking, starting a business, having a very difficult conversation with the CEO... You are uncertain and unconfident if you can succeed. But once you have proven to yourself you are able to do it, even for the more challenging tasks, you are no longer afraid. People might start off feeling scared about public speaking, but after speech 3797, you're pro The catch, of course, is that sometimes, we are too scared to start.
Even if we were certain of something OR confident about something, many of us will still feel some amount of fear. We might be theoretically certain how we should use a pair of chopsticks, but if we have never succeeded in using them properly, we remain unconfident and will still feel nervous if we had to use them, especially when others are observing. You might also be confident about
3) we fear what is painful. Boxer. climbing 100 flights of stairs or doing 100 burpees. But pain is not just physical but mental. Failure is painful. Being judged is painful.
This is why you procrastinate. You either fear what you have to do bevause you don't know how to do it (you don't fear brushing your teeth for example), or you fear doing something becaue you know it will be effortful
4) we fear what we cannot control
Learn more about your amygdala, the amygdala hijack, the thalamus, the pre-frontal cortex, and how your brain works here.
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Summary:
- Fear and anxiety (and anger + aggression) are always
Our brains prefer efficiency over absolute accuracy.
We are prone to jumping to conclusions.
Try This!
1. Picture in your mind a 30cm length
2. Picture in your mind an opera singer
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3. Recall the last time you ate out. Can you remember where you were seated, how many chairs were there at your table, and what you ate?
Good. Now can you remember how many total tables and chairs you saw?
1. When you pictured the 30cm length, did you think of a ruler?
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2. What about the opera singer? Did the image of a bearded male come into your mind.. like Pavarotti?
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(Google Image "Opera Singer".... ah quite a wide variety eh?)
3. Why is it that you can remember what was at the table, but not the entire restaurant? You had with your own eyes, seen both. Some of you might immediately point out, "it's not about what you see, but what you pay attention to and what you can remember". Good. But did you notice that your brain automatically filtered out what was important and what wasn't? Did you tell your brain what to take note and remember?
Can you remember a time when you were in a crowded room, talking to
someone. You can't really hear what other people are saying. But suddenly,
someone mentions something that sounds like your name. And you were
able to pick it up. Why?
they were able to show that the brain can rapidly enhance a voice with certain characteristics to single it out from others."
Your brain
try this
Your brain is automatically making connections
Michael Jordan, Dentist
Katy Perry, nuclear scientist
Do you just read the words, o do you automatically attribute meaning - not likely? We evaluate familiarity and surprise. Look at this lady's face? You immediately associate her to be angry - you dont need to think about it. I thappens automatically and constantly. We are always evalauting emotion in the world around us.
You compute some things automatically and quickly. A and C looks alike. You don't compute some things : Same no. of blocks in 2A as in 2B.
You are automatically compute the average length. But what is the total length? Now that's weird. How do we norally compute average? we take the sum divide by the parts. Assessments that are natural and assessments that are not natural. Fear is natural. Assessing why you are fearful is not natural and requires effort.
the brain processes a lot fo shit. It's goal is to automate it, so that you can consciously decide on things which are new. If you had to evaluate every peice of information, you willg o crazy. The eyes import 2 billion peices of info per second. Imagie processing that!
But categorisation and selective attention comes at a price
Do you recall crowded room - party. soeone calls out your name. why? becase your brain is wired to hear things you are interested in.
Us vs them
Hand experiment
We get very fast answers to complicated questions - we are a machine for jumping into conclusions.
vomit - you can't help reading the word. You have no control, you just read.
There were images and memories that came into your mind. your pupils dilated and your heart rate went up by a notch, you were more likely to sweat. These happens for everybody - they increased only slightly, it was weak, but it happens for everyone. Your facial expression changed at least a little. You recoiled, just a little. You are more alert and more vigilant than previously. You are now more sensitive to words like nausea, sick, smells, stink... The power of just one word - leads to not only unconscious reactions within a second or two - but a network of associative reactions., and it is coherent set of reactions. It's not accidental. Your mind works in a network.
similarly, think of what fear has on you. It's a similar network of associative. DOUBT AND AMBIGUITY ARE reduced by the machinery of conclusion. what is needed for the acquisition of skill is feedback that is immediate and unequivocal. if feedback is delayed or ambigious, learning is retarded. Sometimes learing is not essentail (e.g. umping off a building). but skills need feedback.
Ralph Waldo Emerson Quotes. Do not go where the path may lead, go instead where there is no path and leave a trail.
And int he same way it starts noticing what it thinks is importatn to you. After you buy a Tesla, you start notcing more tesla cars. f you are looking for opportuntiies, you see more opportunities. Tony Hsieh.
And this extends to your whole frame of thinking. When Hery Ford build new cars - people wondered, what is wrong with the horse? we want faster horses.
Try This!
The following lines are missing some letters. Are you able to read them?
3. W at ar you rea in ?
"Steve is very shy and withdrawn, invariably helpful but with very little interest in people or in the world of reality. A meek and tidy soul, he has a need for order and structure. and a passion for detail. Is Steve more likely to be a librarian or a salesperson?"
Try This!
Dartmouth Scar Experiment (Prof Robert Kleck, Darmouth University)​​
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Participants were placed into rooms with no mirrors
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Participants were told that a make-up artist would proceed to draw an ugly scar on their face
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Once the scar was drawn, participants were given a short glimpse of it
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Participants were then told to go and interact with strangers, and observe how strangers responded to them
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Before they left the room, the make-up artist told the participants that they would apply a final coat of powder to prevent the scar from smearing. But what the artist actually did was to remove the make-up scar.
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Participants left the room thinking they still wore the make-up of the scar.
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Participants overwhelmingly reported that people were more rude and mean to them, and were staring at their scars.
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What has been the
There even though the part of our brain processing fear has largely remained the same. Instead of sabretooth tigers, today most of us live in large societies. We fear failure because if there is a chance of failure, i is something we are weak at. Did you have some fear the first time you went on the internet or the first time you drove on the road? probably. But after 100 times, you no longer fear this because we are confident of the outcome.
We fear failure because of uncertaitny. Awfulising. It is easier and nautral for you to think of why you shoudl be fearful than why you should not be fearful.
We also fear failure because of conformity. If someone else has done it before, surely they have put thought into it. What odes it mean if i went against society or what others are doing? And conforming is not always a bad thing. we follow everyone else by brushing our teeth before and after we go to sleep. There's no need for us to re-figure out a path because this works. The problem though is that sometimes we conform even if it doesnt make sense
Video 1
Asch experiment
Miligram experiemnt
Fear is automatic. It triggers whether we like it or not.
Fear warns us about uncertainty; you don't fear walkin down the street, but you get fearful and anxious walking in a new
Fear of judgement. We prefer to conform even if it doesn't make sense
Asch Experiment
Video is 1 min long
For most of human history, we didn't have all the information we needed to make the perfect decision. For one, we didn't know many things. We didn't know what was lightning, if the eclipse was the end of the world, when the drought would end, why fire is produced. for two, we didn't have an easy way to gather information without putting ourselves in harm: what causes certain diseases? Is the tribe on the other side friendly or adversarial? What happens in our brain one minute before we make a decision.
So our brains evolved to make quick, reasonably accurate decisions that actively avoid complete catastrophe, based on the limited information we have.
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(pay more for insurance against terrorist act than overal insurance which includes acts of terror - under heuristics.) Acts of terror carry a higher salience which makes us think that needs the most attention.