Neuroscientist Explains How to Overcome Your Anxiety | Dr. Jud Brewer, Being Well Podcast

Dr. Jud Brewer joins @RickHanson and me to explore the habit of anxiety, mindfulness practices to heal addiction, and what we can learn from the brains of the world’s most advanced meditators.
About Our Guest: Dr. Jud is a psychiatrist, neuroscientist and New York Times best-selling author. He’s the director of research and innovation at Brown University’s Mindfulness Center, and author of "Unwinding Anxiety: New Science Shows How to Break the Cycles of Worry and Fear to Heal Your Mind."
Key Topics:
2:00 What got Jud from psychiatry to studying mindfulness?
5:45 Addiction and the structure of habits.
10:15 Mindfulness as a treatment for addiction.
14:00 Liking without wanting.
19:45 Habit formation and reward-based learning.
24:00 Awareness, and honoring your experience.
27:50 Curiosity.
29:30 The “habit” of anxiety.
32:00 Anxiety’s habit loop.
34:30 The true purpose of worrying.
39:50 Generalized vs. acute anxiety.
41:30 Anxiety and performance.
47:20 Practices for unwinding from anxiety.
56:10 Learning from the brains of experienced practitioners.
1:03:30 Recap
Who Am I: I'm Forrest, the co-author of Resilient (amzn.to/3iXLerD) and host of the Being Well Podcast (apple.co/38ufGG0). I'm making videos focused on simplifying psychology, mental health, and personal growth.
You can follow me here:
🎤 apple.co/38ufGG0
🌍 www.forresthanson.com
📸 / f.hanson

[@patricialad2326]

I have learned so much from Forrest Hanson and Dr. Rick Hanson's podcasts/KZbin presentations. The science/evidence-based discussions and skillful guests are invaluable in helping so many move forward through many of life's difficult moments. I am very grateful that they share their learned - and heartfelt - wisdom with us. This episode in particular showed up at a time of great need for me.

[@nayelimr]

Thank you again Forrest and Rick for this wonderful podcast. (I like to watch you on facebook, so I can look at your faces, and really be here while listening.) I particularly liked what I learned today: To undestand how I get anxious due to my habits, and how important is to go back to my anchor without judment and then apply BBO (kindness and curiosity) to what is happening. Thank you

[@lanaherteen1860]

Wow. The wealth of wisdom shared among the three of you (Rick, Forrest, Jud) is awe inspiring! It’s remarkable how Jud takes complex brain science and makes it accessible for daily application. I’m so grateful for the research-based information and depth of experience that flows from the conversation. It makes me wish I could hang out with you all for an afternoon. What a delight that would be!

[@jamesleahy9166]

Hello Thinkers & Feelers. I just listened to the Podcast (and I'll re-watch the KZbin again later). I thought my brain was doing really well, with understanding itself. But now it is off exploring a deeper sense of itself. How lovely. Just bought Judson's book and excited about where this new insight will lead me. Some of the BEST podcasts from you both, on a huge range of topics. Always insightful. Thanks.

[@veenavnair8410]

Thank you so much Mr Forrest. Very very informative and so helpful.thank you once again.

[@carolinemarshall9691]

I thought this was fascinating; I learned a lot which I now will digest and hopefully be able to put into practice. Thank you so much Rick and Forrest for putting these podcasts together. I look forward to them.

[@moi26praise47]

Soo profound!! I hope so many people listen to this video. Thank you sooooooo much.

[@Sashas-mom]

Such a wonderful video! You guys this was great! Thank you for rich applicable content.

[@karencaldwell7162]

An EXCELLENT podcast! Thank you so much, Forrest and Rick, for a most insightful discussion with Dr. Brewer. I am taking Rick's Positive Neuroplasticity Training and this podcast added important information. The idea of anxiety being a habit loop and the importance of curiousity is especialy helpful.

[@tessapiotrowskikristensen8058]

Incredibly useful information. Thank you.

[@reginawalsh3430]

Brilliant! Thank you!

[@KaldoniaKaldonia]

I had the good fortune to take the MBSR course at UMASS in Massachusetts with Dr. Brewer. He’s brilliant! Thank you for this episode (I’m two years late to viewing lol). ❤

[@bhavyakaushal07]

This was splendid! Great guest choice.

[@denisemoharsky5878]

Wow! This was an enlightening, beautiful, motivating discussion. I learned SO Much. This information validated a lot of what I intuitively knew. I had noticed that when I go to church, pray, meditate, or journal on scripture, there's a change in my mind and body. If I'm at church, singing the songs and focus outwards on the teaching and upward on the spiritual realm it feels like the opposite of what my focus typically is, which is inward, usually focused on things I'm worried about, or that I'm trying to understand, figure out, or control. Now I know the technical term for his is default mode network. Tapping into the spiritual realm always feels expansive, beyond my puny, limited self. It's the difference between my small (human) self versus my expansive divine Self. It's just remarkable that the neuroscience and brain imaging back this up!!!!

[@gilaprimak7554]

Forrest, thank you for asking the question at 40:50. Very perceptive as usual.

[@daryab9416]

This was awesome. I haven't finished yet. But it's just soo good

[@juliarays1271]

Thank you.

[@brandomiranda6703]

Amazing interview!!! 😍❤️💪🦁🧠🥳🤗☺️

[@i-m8249]

Thanks!

[@mernawells7839]

Thanks so much for this wonderful discussion it scientifically and psychologically validates and explains everything my yoga teacher Shimon Ben Avi has taught and which is written down in his books.

[@allpointstoone4346]

36:48 very good information, if someone could make this into a meditation. My heart is beating I'm breathing my body is ok and safe.....😀 52:20 two very good flavours 👍 that would be great meditation

[@debbiedebbie9473]

I wonder if we've made a generational error, in associating "worrying" as what preceded "figuring out what to do next to be successful." So we do "step one" assuming that step 2. will show up, ( figuring out a solution). We get stuck in step one, like a stuck button.

[@AndiAlexander1]

That is a brilliant insight, Debbie. Thank you for your comment.

[@debbiedebbie9473]

What is the app that helped reduce anxiety better than psychiatric pills ? 30:29

[@safetyfirst2345]

Is there a correlation between stress levels and productivity?

[@oolala53]

Why should people feel guilty about eating? The only reason a lot people feel bad is because they’re so ashamed of their bodies because of fat shaming and they’re so worried about other people’s opinion of them. Good Lord, people, we have little girls under five years old, saying they want to go on a diet! I think a psychiatrist shouldn’t be encouraging guilt, especially one who likely never had a true compulsive over eating problem, or wanted to kill himself over what his body looked like, and hated himself for eating even a cupcake. What’s interesting about what I’ve learned of his program so far by listening to part of his book and some videos here is that it dovetails how I changed my compulsive eating and it was basically using the model that’s used for OCD by Schwartz. I did not come at it actually for weight loss and definitely fought the conditioning that told me that my body was unacceptable. I made sure that I had an eating plan that was not too restrictive on the amount of food, but it did restrict how many meals I ate. I knew that I was feeding my body, adequate nutrition, so anytime I got an urge to eat, regarded it as the same kind of urge that people with OCD get, they’re convinced if they don’t perform a particular behavior, that they’re going to die or something terrible will happen. They’re encouraged to see that realize it’s just a weird brain pattern and challenge themselves. Over a period of time, they start seeing that not performing, the behavior is not dangerous, and they reduce, or even eliminate the habit.I’m listening to this now in his book because I want to get it clear in my mind how to use a similar process with anxiety and mild depressive thoughts.

[@adriandelacruz9970]

How about anxiety disorder bcoz of drug/meds damage/withdrawal

[@kimballscharff5913]

Adrian dela Cruz Thank you for asking this. I’m going through brain injury from going off one too fast and have insomnia..I’m thinking part of the problem may be related to anxiety that I don’t recognize as such.

[@nancyvega1785]

What app?

[@catherinemanuele8352]

💙💙💙💙💙

[@jeangraham5351]

Yes. With Forest were "we" are. Now......not one in "we". Take with U.

[@carolclark5776]

You know damn so was my depression

[@oolala53]

Can be a paradox to understand what therefore because then there can be this kind of searching and waiting for something particular to happen, in this case, and Insight, a true deep recognition of either impermanence or no Cell. We can know the concept, but not the experience that truly Changes our perspective. I’ll do respect to Dr. Judd, I’m not really convinced that he has had that perspective changing insight. Which is not to say that there is not value along the way. I don’t understand because I went to a Zen center for years never heard of some of the sign post to be looking for in my meditation that would make the claims true in my experience.

[@volvaheidrbores663]

It's a habit but it's also a condition where ur sympathetic dominant...

[@volvaheidrbores663]

Sympathetic nervous system.

[@vkrgfan]

Is this person a neuroscientist? It doesn’t appear he has a degree in neuroscience. Anxiety isn’t always linked to addictions, in fact a lot of people living with anxiety and do not engage in drugs, alcohol, emotional eating etc They may not even suffer from depression nor take any prescription medication. The primary source of anxiety could be the trauma that a person experienced in the past, physical, emotional, sexual maybe even public humiliation, so addictions can worsen the condition but they aren’t the primary source, they become coping mechanisms.