Appreciate you digging into this — I wonder how much late stage capitalism+technology have amplified this. Also, I wondered if you have insights for neurodivergents — I’ve heard that we can receive an astronomical amount of negative messages throughout life, which can lead to shame-based internalized hypervigilance, RSD, burnout, etc. I’m also curious about links to OCD, which seems like part of a vicious cycle of seeking relief while heightening anxiety, perhaps similar to addiction.
I have been reading, and listening to, Dr Brewer for a number of years. I meditate, practice mindfulness, read and of course, follow the older lifestyle prescriptions. I do, however, have triggers that pesist, regardless of my awareness and my curiosity. I think the most important observation is the happiness, or ease, are works in progress. One can aspire to less anxiety but can not expect it.
This is fascinating and so well explained. "We hand people a flashlight and turn the lights out at the same time." Brilliant. I relate hugely to much of this. Your references to 3 am make me feel deeply seen - and not alone after all :) Your posts are always worthy of multiple readings.
The relationship with sleep changing while the hours did not is fascinating, and maybe the most worthy of further investigation for anxiety and insomnia.
Our beliefs about our thinking, sleeping etc. are a powerful driver of behaviours, and we need more interventions that target these... I am also biased, as this is my area of research...
I am a “canary in the coal mine” living proof of this. After 40 years of antidepressants, talk therapy, and even some benzos, a year with the Mindshift community has finally helped me to believe “in my bones” that I can move beyond surviving and am committed to however long it takes to “recalibrate “ my way into thriving. Thank you, Dr. Jud, and all your teams.
Making the loop visible is essentially mindfulness, yes? Dr. Judson Brewer was a guest lecturer in a Mindfulness Meditation Teacher Training Program I did several years ago with Tara Brach and Jack Kornfield. Brilliant then, brilliant now.
You said “updating the reward value of worry in the orbitofrontal cortex so that your brain stops reaching for it” but didn’t expand on what to update it with, or how. That would be an article I’d like to read!
Thank you! Fantastic article, and such a clear articulation of the case for integrating and applying mindfulness into lifestyle medicine - not "just" as a way to relax, but as a clinical intervention.
This is a really necessary perspective. We have an almost religious belief here in the States that if you just do/stop XYZ, poof! No more suffering. The reality is more complicated. And anyone who diligently does “the right things” learns this over time. (🙋🏻♀️) It can be discouraging not to have good guidance in that “now what?!” place. Good mindfulness instruction can often help to fill that gap. As the Buddhist teacher Charlotte Joko Beck has written, we don’t so much let XYZ go as we bring awareness to how XYZ plays out—and when we do this, it wears out on its own. It’s always cool to see how your research then comes in to affirm just that.
I love this! It’s true, people jump into doing and not being. It’s by being that they will see the root of the issue. The benzo part is really scary. I know a young woman with such a dependence. It is very scary.
"Between stimulus and response there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response." — Frankl
The awareness you describe works by expanding that space retrospectively. Observing the loop after it has run, updating the reward value over time. It works. But the space Frankl points at isn't created by analysis after the fact. It's already there when awareness is practiced continuously in ordinary daily activity. It's practiced not as a technique applied to anxiety events, but as an operating mode. The instrument is then ready before the trigger arrives, not after.
This really hit home it’s not about doing more right things, it’s about seeing the anxious loop you’re already stuck in.What’s one tiny moment in your day where you catch yourself worrying without even realizing it?
Jud, the reliance on willpower is the most dangerous flaw in modern medicine.
You cannot out-educate a nervous system that has spent decades wiring a survival
loop to deal with stress. We hand patients a list of lifestyle pillars and
expect them to override ancient neurobiology with sheer conscious effort.
Dismantling that architecture requires interrupting the actual reward mechanism,
not just dispensing better advice.
Dr Tom Kane
Appreciate you digging into this — I wonder how much late stage capitalism+technology have amplified this. Also, I wondered if you have insights for neurodivergents — I’ve heard that we can receive an astronomical amount of negative messages throughout life, which can lead to shame-based internalized hypervigilance, RSD, burnout, etc. I’m also curious about links to OCD, which seems like part of a vicious cycle of seeking relief while heightening anxiety, perhaps similar to addiction.
I have been reading, and listening to, Dr Brewer for a number of years. I meditate, practice mindfulness, read and of course, follow the older lifestyle prescriptions. I do, however, have triggers that pesist, regardless of my awareness and my curiosity. I think the most important observation is the happiness, or ease, are works in progress. One can aspire to less anxiety but can not expect it.
This is fascinating and so well explained. "We hand people a flashlight and turn the lights out at the same time." Brilliant. I relate hugely to much of this. Your references to 3 am make me feel deeply seen - and not alone after all :) Your posts are always worthy of multiple readings.
The relationship with sleep changing while the hours did not is fascinating, and maybe the most worthy of further investigation for anxiety and insomnia.
Our beliefs about our thinking, sleeping etc. are a powerful driver of behaviours, and we need more interventions that target these... I am also biased, as this is my area of research...
I am a “canary in the coal mine” living proof of this. After 40 years of antidepressants, talk therapy, and even some benzos, a year with the Mindshift community has finally helped me to believe “in my bones” that I can move beyond surviving and am committed to however long it takes to “recalibrate “ my way into thriving. Thank you, Dr. Jud, and all your teams.
Making the loop visible is essentially mindfulness, yes? Dr. Judson Brewer was a guest lecturer in a Mindfulness Meditation Teacher Training Program I did several years ago with Tara Brach and Jack Kornfield. Brilliant then, brilliant now.
You said “updating the reward value of worry in the orbitofrontal cortex so that your brain stops reaching for it” but didn’t expand on what to update it with, or how. That would be an article I’d like to read!
Yes, I've written about the specifics a bit in previous articles...
Tytyty
Thank you! Fantastic article, and such a clear articulation of the case for integrating and applying mindfulness into lifestyle medicine - not "just" as a way to relax, but as a clinical intervention.
This is a really necessary perspective. We have an almost religious belief here in the States that if you just do/stop XYZ, poof! No more suffering. The reality is more complicated. And anyone who diligently does “the right things” learns this over time. (🙋🏻♀️) It can be discouraging not to have good guidance in that “now what?!” place. Good mindfulness instruction can often help to fill that gap. As the Buddhist teacher Charlotte Joko Beck has written, we don’t so much let XYZ go as we bring awareness to how XYZ plays out—and when we do this, it wears out on its own. It’s always cool to see how your research then comes in to affirm just that.
I love this! It’s true, people jump into doing and not being. It’s by being that they will see the root of the issue. The benzo part is really scary. I know a young woman with such a dependence. It is very scary.
"Between stimulus and response there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response." — Frankl
The awareness you describe works by expanding that space retrospectively. Observing the loop after it has run, updating the reward value over time. It works. But the space Frankl points at isn't created by analysis after the fact. It's already there when awareness is practiced continuously in ordinary daily activity. It's practiced not as a technique applied to anxiety events, but as an operating mode. The instrument is then ready before the trigger arrives, not after.
This really hit home it’s not about doing more right things, it’s about seeing the anxious loop you’re already stuck in.What’s one tiny moment in your day where you catch yourself worrying without even realizing it?
Thank you for your insight.
Do you use the nervous system and brain interchangeably?