Dr. Wendy Suzuki
speaker
915 appearances
5 recordings
5 series
first heard Nov 2024
last heard 7 Jan
Dr. Wendy Suzuki’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.
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recordings per month · last 12 monthsRecordings per month over the last 12 months — 2 in all, peaking in Jan 2026 with 1.
Appearances
There's an upset stomach because actually blood is rushing away from our digestion and reproductive systems towards our muscles because the response is to get us ready to run away, to physically flee. Now, anxiety is the emotion of fearing something that is coming up in the future that could, that we don't like, that could harm us. In its essence, it is protective.
So, you know, a woman 3.5 million years ago trying to protect her baby wanted to use those feelings of anxiety to keep that baby safe from those physical dangers that were there. The problem is that in today's world, every ping of the phone is anxiety producing, which then launches your stress response. And that keeps us stressful for way too much of the day. So the key, I think, is learning how
to turn the volume down on those anxiety cues that then launch stress. And learning what they are for yourself, but also using the tools of science to turn that volume down. It's a simple first step that everybody can take. How do we do that? So the first thing that you can do is first realize, you said, how do we know we're stressed? Self-reflect for a moment.
Am I telling everybody I'm stressed all the time? Do I not sleep well because of stress? When you do that, there are my number one and number two tools that I immediately go to. And I know you've talked about this so many times on your show. Number one, because it is immediate stress. is deep breathing, breath work. Why?
Because breath work activates the equal and opposite part of that sympathetic fight or flight system, the parasympathetic system. I told you all the things that stress activates, heart rate raise, respiration raise, you know, your blood rushing. I can't control where my blood rushes and I can't really control my heart rate, but I can control exactly how deep and profound and deep
frequent my breathing is. So that's why just deep breathing, just two or three times can, you know, try it out. It can really calm you down. And if you practice it, it gets even more powerful. That's my tool, go-to number one. And it's number one, because if I'm getting anxious about this interview, I could actually do this in the background. You don't even know.
And I can calm myself down even in the heat of a, this is not a stressful, conversation at all, but I'm pretending that, you know, it could be. Number two is moving your body. And so 10 minutes of walking outside or anywhere up and down the stairs, down the hallway has been shown to decrease your anxiety and stress levels.
You know, the easiest is just deep, you know, for three or four counts in, three or four counts out. But I like box breathing, which I know you know about. Deep breath in for four counts, hold at the top for four counts. Deep breath out for four counts. Hold it at the bottom for four counts. It's funny.
Every time I even say that, and I often say that in these kinds of interviews, I feel myself de-stressing as I do that because the muscle memory of when I do do that comes back.
I think to get closer to your cues, the easiest answer is breathing. to spend time in open awareness of your own cues. And just as you said, and it's the same for me, they don't suddenly appear on a list in front of you. You have to go and seek them out because for you, it was in your head, it was in your body. I'll never forget multiple times I've had the
experience of deep tissue massage in certain places that triggered just crying in me. And I'm so sorry, what's happening? They said, no, I've just touched a point in your body that you store a lot of stress.
actual physical crying. I couldn't help it. It's happened just twice, but that was my very clear cue that I also store a lot of stress and anxiety in my own body. You have to go and look for that, and you have to notice it, and you have to remind yourself when you've been covering up. your own stress and anxiety, which I am also a master of. It takes a little exploration.
And I think that listening to others and actually asking a friend, do you notice times when you think I'm more stressed than others? And sometimes you might be surprised. That might be a really good moment of realization. And so then your second question was, once you realize you're in this moment, how do you remind yourself to breathe? And that's a hard one.
And I think the best way is don't wait until, say, oh, I'm anxious. I need to breathe. But never having any practice with this breathing. It is wonderful to take... to take a class time and go to a breath meditation class. You learn so much because there is literally thousands of years of breath work technique to learn. And I've been exploring that as well. But you don't have to get super fancy.
Sometimes it's just about, you said you like the inhale and exhale for a longer time. That is a very basic but powerful one. Explore that on YouTube. There are thousands of free meditations you can do that. I always send people there. Practice it. See which ones you like. Sometimes it's too long of a hold for people and you have to find the one that you like. Practice it.
Get it comfortable with yourself. And then it'll be easier to call it up when you do notice that moment coming up.
Exactly.
And if you do do it, really think about how that made you feel. Do you feel that difference? And it's important to keep exploring how different things make you feel. Because maybe you chose just a bum breath technique. It doesn't work for you. And there are those that, you know, just won't hack it for you. So try other things, but stay aware.
And that practice of self-awareness, I think, is so important for the rest of our lives, I think.
Stress very physiologically releases stress hormone, cortisol. Cortisol goes through the blood-brain barrier, goes into the brain. And the danger is that there are key brain areas that you want to keep healthy and thriving and growing throughout your life that high levels of consistent cortisol will damage and then eventually kill cells.
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