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Podcast Recap | TED Health: How to calm your anxiety, from a neuroscientist

July 11, 2024

Anxiety has a bad reputation, despite it being a crucial tool that’s developed to protect us from danger. Neuroscientist Wendy Suzuki explains that with the global increase of anxiety, the volume of our individual and collective anxiety levels has been elevated to the point where too much of anything – even something potentially good, like anxiety – feels uncomfortable. In this TED Health episode, Suzuki shares two scientific based tools for helping us dial anxiety back to its helpful, protective state.

Podcast length: 8 minutes

3 Key Takeaways

1. Engage in breath work. Deep, slow breaths is one of the most immediate ways to calm anxiety because it activates the parasympathetic nervous system. Suzuki recommends boxed breathing: inhale deeply for four counts and hold at the top for four counts; exhale deeply on four counts and hold at the bottom for four counts.

2. Move your body. Every time you move your body you release serotonin, dopamine, noradrenaline, and endorphins. These mood and reward boosting neurochemicals work to both increase positive mood states and decrease negative ones. Studies show that just ten minutes makes a difference. Suzuki tested this effect on her NYU students. Students took an anxiety assessment before leading them in a movement session that included movements from kickboxing, dance, yoga, and martial arts, combined with positive spoken affirmations. Upon retaking the assessment, students’ scores had decreased to normal levels.

3. Take note of what your anxiety is signaling. After you’ve connected with your body, recognize the emotion for what it has evolved to do: warn you about potential dangers. Do you feel you’ve taken on too much work? Are you feeling insecure about a particular skill set? By becoming aware of your anxieties, you can find ways to effectively and creatively address them. You will also develop the ability to recognize telltale signs of anxiety in those around you. Suzuki calls this your ”personal superpower of empathy” that might result in a smile or a kind word to someone else to help them through their feelings.

If you breathe, move, and take note of what your anxiety is signaling, you'll feel more fulfilled, more creative, more connected, and less stressed overall.

Any views, thoughts, and opinions expressed in this podcast recap are solely that of the hosts and guest and do not reflect the views, opinions, policies, or position of epocrates and athenahealth.

Source:

Ungerleider, S. (Host). (2024, July 8). TED Health. How to calm your anxiety, from a neuroscientist: Wendy Suzuki. [Audio podcast episode]. https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/how-to-calm-your-anxiety-from-a-neuroscientist-wendy-suzuki/id160904630?i=1000605411976