Written by: Danny Greeves, Executive Contributor
Executive Contributors at Brainz Magazine are handpicked and invited to contribute because of their knowledge and valuable insight within their area of expertise.
Anxiety is something everyone in the modern world has experienced. Fear, which is just another word for anxiety can run the mind if left unchecked. It leads to a state of heightened arousal, a wide range of unpleasant sensations, and turns neutral events or actions into threats. The biggest challenge is that it creates the habit of constant worry ‒ it creates the anxious brain. But it doesn’t need to be this way, anyone can take five specific steps to transform the anxious brain into a calm and peaceful mind.
Let’s talk through each of the five steps:
1. Mastering your mental Imagery
The old adage goes “a picture is worth a million words” and never has this been more true than when we think about how the brain works. Although when we talk with one another we use words, our mind actually speaks the language of images.
The mental pictures and images we create can convey complex and multiple ideas in a fraction of a second, and create stronger emotion than any verbal description ever could. The images we hold in our mind’s eye are what determine the feelings we experience and the emotions we encounter.
The beauty of human consciousness is that we can take control of this process, we can create the images that will inspire, enthuse and fulfil us. However, we can also create images that scare, worry and paralyse us.
The challenge is that in the anxious brain, the focus is in the wrong place.
When you focus on what you do want, you create the images to match your desires, which triggers the release of chemicals in your brain which will assist you in feeling the same way that complements your mental imagery.
For example, if you picture a beautiful sunset, you can start to instantly feel relaxed and warm. But…
When you focus on what you don’t want to happen…
When you focus on what could go wrong…
When you focus on the worst-case scenario…
You instruct your brain to create all of the chemicals and feelings that match your scary images; leaving you feeling anxious and stressed.
The anxious brain focuses on what could go wrong. The calm brain focuses on the desired outcome.
To think about this in another way, imagine that your body is a restaurant.
Your brain is like the chef. It has all the ingredients to make any meal possible ‒ in our example, a meal is an emotion.
The chef-brain doesn’t judge the ingredients as being good or bad, positive or negative, it simply combines them to make selected dishes ‒ or feelings.
We can think of your mind as the waiter. The waiter can place an order with the chef, simply by selecting a mental image.
The mental image is then sent through to the chef, who reviews the mental image, and puts all of the chemicals together to make the feeling that matches the image. The brain ‒ or chef ‒ then sends the order out ready for delivery to the body.
The result is the bodily feelings and sensations you experience.
When focusing on what you don’t want to happen, it’s as if you’re placing an order for how you don’t want to feel, and then getting frustrated and upset when the order is successfully delivered.
Your brain is working perfectly, we just need to start placing different orders.
When you focus on what you do want, you’ll start to feel the way you want to.
2. Learning the soundtrack of anxiety
Now we know the brain first and foremost works with images, so what role does language play?
The words and language we use ‘frame’ the mental images we see.
A frame is a way of looking at things ‒ what perspective you see things through.
Think about your television set at home. The most important element is the picture. That’s what your attention is immediately directed towards and your body positioned to watch. But the sound is vital too.
We can think about the words and language we use as being the soundtrack to our mental images.
When the volume is too loud it’s easy to get overwhelmed. When the volume is muted it lacks a punch. If the speed is too fast we feel rushed, if the tone is critical we can feel deflated.
The words we use when we speak to ourselves can give or take away energy. They can encourage or drain us, they can make or break us.
The anxious brain is often stuck in cycles of overthinking, where the brain is running at 120mph. The tone and energy of the inner voice is often critical, harsh or catastrophising.
It’s too fast, too pessimistic, too exhausting.
The calm brain can slow down, it can change the soundtrack to the image. It can quieten and soften the voice.
By consciously taking charge of your mental imagery, you can then work on the soundtrack. After you’ve refocused your mind on what it is that you do want, you can modify the internal voice to encourage and support you along the way.
3. Taking decisive action
How do you know when to get started, and how do you know when it’s time to think about it some more?
Everyone has a default level of motivation when it comes to taking action. Some people tend to get started by jumping in. This often comes with little or no consideration to the task at hand. They end up being like a bull in a china shop and bulldoze ahead.
But on the other side of the spectrum, people get bogged down in their thoughts. They think, assess, analyse, consider and study things endlessly, often without actually taking any action. This level of ‘reactivity’ means you can get stuck in your head constantly replaying thoughts and ideas over and over.
This is the classical symptom of the ‘overthinker’.
This approach means people want to wait until the situation is absolutely perfect before taking action. They delay, and delay, and delay taking action waiting for the right moment, which unfortunately may never come. They end up waiting for someone else to decide or hope they get lucky.
The challenge with this approach is that with more thinking comes more internal pressure. The time invested in thinking then makes it become even more important to make the ‘right’ choice, which only serves to make it harder to achieve. This thinking causes more negative mental images, along with a negative soundtrack, and a vicious cycle begins.
It also means you are at the mercy of your environment ‒ the people and events around you. By waiting and hoping to get lucky you become disempowered.
The final result is called inertia ‒ a tendency to do nothing and remain unchanged.
Inertia creates the perfect environment for anxiety to fester.
The anxious brain becomes inert and never takes the chance to make a change. The calm brain considers the possibilities and takes firm, decisive action.
4. Resolving Emotional Memory Images
We talked at the beginning about mastering your mental images, but what about the ones that are already pre-installed?
An Emotional Memory Image (EMI) is a name that describes what your mind creates when you are involved in an intensely emotional event.
The primary purpose of the brain is to survive. Only when survival is guaranteed can we begin to focus on thriving.
An EMI is a process the mind uses to store and catalogue these intensely emotional and threatening events, so that should we encounter anything of a similar nature in the future, the alarm bells can be raised to avoid a repeat performance.
Let’s imagine that when you were 13 years old you were instructed to speak and present to your class about a project you were working on. Unfortunately, nerves got the better of you, you went bright red, stuttered your speech and the whole class started laughing at you. Add to this the teacher was very strict and criticised your ability to do anything important in life.
As a 13-year-old this is intensely emotional. Your brain perceives this as a significant threat to your survival. As a result, your mind stores a snapshot ‒ a mental image ‒ of the people in the class laughing at you and the stern face of the teacher. Your mind also stores the sound of the teacher’s voice and the meaning of their criticism.
All this information is stored in the EMI.
That night you go to sleep, you wake up and tomorrow is a new day.
But your mind had made the connection between speaking up and being laughed at, ridiculed and ostracised from the group ‒ all very threatening to the brain’s survival.
So 10, 15, even 20 years later, when your boss asks you to stand up and speak in the team meeting, you start feeling anxious, stressed, worried and uncomfortable. You aren’t quite sure why, but you know you hate speaking in front of people and dread doing it.
All this is because your mind still has the EMI from the event as a 13-year old, and until that is resolved, anxiety around speaking will continue.
The anxious brain is riddled with emotional events from the past. Anxiety continues and takes a firm hold. The calm brain is clear of Emotional Memory Images and free to be present in the moment.
5. Balancing the mental weighing scales
The brain is better, faster and more complex than any supercomputer could ever be, but when it comes to the probability of doing certain actions and behaviours ‒ a very simple equation is in control.
The probability of you doing a specific action is decided by the ratio of positives to negatives associated with the action.
If there are more positives than negatives, you will do the action. The bigger the difference of positives to negatives the easier it will be to do.
If there are more negatives than positives, you will be less likely to do the action. The bigger the difference of negatives to positives the harder it will be to do.
Imagine that inside your brain is a big set of weighing scales and the action you are considering is in the middle. Let’s use going to the gym as an example.
On the left side of the weighing scale, your brain puts all of the positives, benefits, learnings, rewards and advantages of you going to the gym.
On the other side, your brain puts all of the negatives, drawbacks, challenges, difficulties and disadvantages of going to the gym.
If the positives outweigh the negatives, not only are you likely to go, but you will feel energised and inspired to do so because of all the good that will come out of it.
But if the negatives outweigh the positives, not only will you be unlikely to go, but the thought of it will create anxiety, stress, worry and procrastination.
It’s important to note the action itself has not changed ‒ going to the gym ‒ only the frame through which we see it does. We have the power to change the frame by asking quality questions ‒ to balance or tip the scales in our favour.
The anxious brain allows the negatives to stack up and create feelings of fear and trepidation. The calm brain balances the scales and transforms them into a learning experience.
The anxious brain left unchecked will run amock and lead us to feel fearful and afraid of our mind. We then stop seeing it as a friend and trusted ally, but instead treat it with contempt.
The calm brains masters their mental imagery, changes the soundtrack, take decisive action, clear old Emotional Memory Images and see things through a balanced perspective.
The anxious brain is a brain left to its own devices in a modern world fraught with challenges. The calm brain takes the reins and becomes the driver of their vehicle.
Danny Greeves, Executive Contributor Brainz Magazine
Danny is a multi-award winning professional therapist, coach, hypnotist, author, and speaker. His mission is to change the landscape of trauma therapy and help people reduce and resolve painful or traumatic memories. Danny was featured in USA TODAY as being in the top 9 coaches globally to help you level up your life in 2022. He has published and authored multiple books including ‘Accelerated Trauma Resolution’, the step-by-step guide to overcome trauma; as well as the 5-star reviewed ‘Six Steps to Self Confidence'. Danny works with private clients on a 1-2-1 basis in addition to corporate clients including the likes of Google. He has appeared on a range of podcasts and radio shows sharing wisdom to help in the search for inner peace and confidence.
