Good anxiety and brain-changing benefits
SANTA BARBARA, Calif. - Good anxiety. There is such a thing and it is the focus of a community event at the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History.
"We are complex humans with a whole beautiful kaleidoscope of emotions. We were not made to (only) live in the happy zone," said Dr. Wendy Suzuki, Professor of Neural Science and Psychology at New York University. "In fact, all of those uncomfortable emotions are there for a reason. By learning how to pay attention to them and use them in a new way, we really get a new lease on life."
Laguna Blanca is hosting a free, community talk Wednesday night featuring Suzuki.
The author and TED Talk speaker (more than 40 million views) has specialized her research in brain plasticity. She did her undergraduate work at UC Berkeley under Dr. Professor Marian Diamond, a pioneer of neuroscience. (Diamond was perhaps best known for studies of Albert Einstein's brain.) She did her graduate work at UC San Diego before attaining a faculty position at NYU.
Suzuki's willingness to share her expertise couldn't come at a better time as the world feels topsy turvy, to say the least, and emotions are running high.
"Anxiety can be not that thing that hangs around your neck like a weight but something that you can harness the energy of and make your life better, to actually, ultimately decrease the stress and the worry in your life."
Suzuki said we all have the tools and the ability to harness the power of our anxiety. She calls it a type of "Jiu-Jitsu move." She's planning to teach those steps to Wednesday night's audience.
She shared three tips or "tricks" beforehand with the News Channel 3-12 team. These simple methods turn the volume down on anxiety.
"Tip number one: breath work. Breathing deeply in and out literally activates the de-stressing part of your nervous system called 'the parasympathetic nervous system,'" said Suzuki.
Suzuki said trick number two is moving your body.
"Physical activity literally releases a whole bunch of neural chemicals in your brain that I like to call a "neural chemical bubblebath."
That "bubblebath" consists of serotonin, dopamine, noradrenaline endorphins. Suzuki said those naturally decrease levels of anxiety, depression and hostility.
She said tip number three is mindset.
"Power of your mind to believe that, for example, anxiety isn't there to weigh me down. Instead, anxiety is there to help me build resilience."
If you've never tried using these simple tools and coping skills -- that you already have and are free -- Suzuki said now is the time.
"In society and the world, anxiety levels have never been higher. Anxiety is there for a reason. It's not there to annoy you. It's not there to pull you down, it's there as a warning system. I think it's so important that every single person learn these tools to be able to shift their anxiety from bad to good."
Wednesday's free community talk about anxiety starts at 6:00 p.m. at the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History. Those in attendance must wear a mask.
