Dr. Martha Beck

Oh, my gosh. It makes everybody who's ever studied creativity knows that any anxiety at all just shuts it down immediately. Even telling people who are solving a creativity problem that if they do it right, they'll be paid creates enough anxiety that they can't think. They just can't think anymore. When we get anxious, we can't relate to other people. We project our fear of danger onto them.

Oh, my gosh. It makes everybody who's ever studied creativity knows that any anxiety at all just shuts it down immediately. Even telling people who are solving a creativity problem that if they do it right, they'll be paid creates enough anxiety that they can't think. They just can't think anymore. When we get anxious, we can't relate to other people. We project our fear of danger onto them.

Oh, my gosh. It makes everybody who's ever studied creativity knows that any anxiety at all just shuts it down immediately. Even telling people who are solving a creativity problem that if they do it right, they'll be paid creates enough anxiety that they can't think. They just can't think anymore. When we get anxious, we can't relate to other people. We project our fear of danger onto them.

And as a coach, I'm often on the receiving end of this. So I had a woman who was criticized by both her parents growing up, very traumatized by it. And at a certain point, we were doing something outside. And I said, are you an athlete? Because you move really beautifully. It's a pleasure to watch you move. You're so athletic. And she got very silent.

And as a coach, I'm often on the receiving end of this. So I had a woman who was criticized by both her parents growing up, very traumatized by it. And at a certain point, we were doing something outside. And I said, are you an athlete? Because you move really beautifully. It's a pleasure to watch you move. You're so athletic. And she got very silent.

And as a coach, I'm often on the receiving end of this. So I had a woman who was criticized by both her parents growing up, very traumatized by it. And at a certain point, we were doing something outside. And I said, are you an athlete? Because you move really beautifully. It's a pleasure to watch you move. You're so athletic. And she got very silent.

And for the rest of the day, she wouldn't talk. She sort of hunkered away from the group. And finally, I said, what? What happened? And she said, well, I was fine until you told me I should have been an athlete. Like that's how our relationships start to go when we're living in a state of continuous anxiety. It's horrible.

And for the rest of the day, she wouldn't talk. She sort of hunkered away from the group. And finally, I said, what? What happened? And she said, well, I was fine until you told me I should have been an athlete. Like that's how our relationships start to go when we're living in a state of continuous anxiety. It's horrible.

And for the rest of the day, she wouldn't talk. She sort of hunkered away from the group. And finally, I said, what? What happened? And she said, well, I was fine until you told me I should have been an athlete. Like that's how our relationships start to go when we're living in a state of continuous anxiety. It's horrible.

And then we go to work and we can't tune into our customers or into the efficient processing of physical objects or into our coworkers. It's just very counterproductive. And yet we see it as a driver of productivity.

And then we go to work and we can't tune into our customers or into the efficient processing of physical objects or into our coworkers. It's just very counterproductive. And yet we see it as a driver of productivity.

And then we go to work and we can't tune into our customers or into the efficient processing of physical objects or into our coworkers. It's just very counterproductive. And yet we see it as a driver of productivity.

Yeah, yeah, it absolutely what fires together wires together in the brain. So if we're constantly being shunted by the negativity bias into the left hemisphere of the brain where most of the storytelling goes on, the right hemisphere doesn't really use language much. And that story keeps feeding back to our amygdala.

Yeah, yeah, it absolutely what fires together wires together in the brain. So if we're constantly being shunted by the negativity bias into the left hemisphere of the brain where most of the storytelling goes on, the right hemisphere doesn't really use language much. And that story keeps feeding back to our amygdala.

Yeah, yeah, it absolutely what fires together wires together in the brain. So if we're constantly being shunted by the negativity bias into the left hemisphere of the brain where most of the storytelling goes on, the right hemisphere doesn't really use language much. And that story keeps feeding back to our amygdala.

We are living in a fundamentally different brain than if we knew how to let anxiety subside and bring ourselves into a regulated nervous system.

We are living in a fundamentally different brain than if we knew how to let anxiety subside and bring ourselves into a regulated nervous system.

We are living in a fundamentally different brain than if we knew how to let anxiety subside and bring ourselves into a regulated nervous system.

Yeah, I call it the anxiety spiral because ultimately, I mean, what people who have phobias become more afraid of, they may be afraid of going outside, but what they're really afraid of is the panic attack that once got to them outside. So it's this really intense escalated sense of fear in the brain that actually frightens us the most, as well it should.

Yeah, I call it the anxiety spiral because ultimately, I mean, what people who have phobias become more afraid of, they may be afraid of going outside, but what they're really afraid of is the panic attack that once got to them outside. So it's this really intense escalated sense of fear in the brain that actually frightens us the most, as well it should.