“You cannot be serious!”
My face was red, my chest was tight. I was literally yelling at my computer screen.
Here in Australia, we have just witnessed our government do something so dumb and so damaging that it feels like a combination of disrespect, neglect, and a little bit of corruption. Maybe a lot …
And now, everyone is talking about it: friends, YouTube, the news. It’s everywhere.
And I let myself get wrapped around the axle of this story last week.
To the point where I did yell at my computer while I watched a video from one of the news channels.
This wasn’t a response. It was a reaction. And it wasn’t really ‘me’ doing it. Not consciously, anyway.
I have a nervous system.
I haven’t always been aware of that. But after all the books we’ve written about it, I’m now well aware.
I can feel it in my body. I can feel when it’s activated. And I can feel when it’s calm.
Moments after yelling at the screen, I stopped and thought, “This doesn’t feel good.”
My whole body was involved. My heart rate was up, my muscles were tense. If I maintained this state for a prolonged period, things inside me would start to break.
But some people live in this state almost permanently.
Glued to their phone, addicted to the news, constantly on edge, bombarded with stressful stimuli.
And it’s not unique to Australia. Folks reading this in the UK will have just seen MILLIONS marching through the streets with Tommy Robinson.
And my friends in America are watching with bated breath as their president shakes hands with China.
The easiest content to find online is often the worst. Because it’s SO provocative and sensationalist, and those who create this content know we can’t resist it.
But we must.
It’s not good to indulge in this chaos.
Here’s why …
The part of your brain that registers and reacts to threats is called the ‘amygdala’.
The amygdala doesn’t evaluate whether a threat is real or televised. It simply does its job.
What’s its job?
Within seconds of perceiving a threat, it floods your system with adrenaline and cortisol before you have a single conscious thought. By the time you think “I’m stressed,” your heart rate has increased, your digestion has already slowed, and your muscles are ready for a fight.
The conflct your’re watching on the screen feels the same to your amygdala as conflict in your living room.
Imagine experiencing this all day.
You check your emails: deadlines. You check your feed on X: war. You check the news: inflation.
Even brief exposure to negative news, as little as 15 minutes, increases anxiety. And those mood changes persist even after you’ve moved on to something else.
Unfortunately, for most of us, it’s impossible to insulate from all of this input.
But we can control how we respond.
We can manage our nervous system so that it doesn’t think that we’re constantly in conflict.
If we don’t do this, we’re provoking the conditions for disease.
So, what do we do?
Here are 3 things that are pretty much essential for our survival in modern-day online warfare.
And they’re EASY!
• Exhale
• Move
• Hum
EXHALE
Try this: Inhale for four counts, exhale for six.
If you do this once, it will feel good, so you’ll probably do it again. Then, one day, you’ll remember to do it when you feel stress rising. It will soothe that, and then it will become the thing you do to relieve your stress. A simple habit. Simple but profound.
Just do it now. Once. In for 4. Out for 6. Close your eyes, too.
MOVE
Let’s say you’re silly like me. You watch a silly video about the stupid government, and you start yelling at your screen. Well, don’t just stay there and bake in your own cortisol. Move. Get up, walk around, and if you really want to flush out the stress hormones, shake. Shake your whole body. This activates an in-built stress-release mechanism. Just try it with your arms and hands. Give them a shake and try to stay angry.
It works, hey!
HUM
Your vagus nerve is a massive nerve that weaves its way through your body. Starting at your brain, down your neck, through your throat, wrapping around your organs, belly, and down to your toes.
Activating this nerve sends a signal to your mind that you are safe. Then your mind stops acting as though you’re in conflict.
Activating your vagus nerve means ‘waking it up’. One of the easiest ways to wake it up is to make it vibrate along the passage it takes through your throat.
How?
Hum.
Close your mouth, exhale through your nose, and make a sound as the breath comes out. Try it now. Just make the sound and remain aware of where it’s happening in your body. Can you feel it in your throat? Yeah? Can you kind of imagine how it might be massaging the nerve that runs through your throat?
That’s the mechanics of humming at work.
So, here’s the new stress-release practice:
“Oop. This stupid news channel is stressing me out.”
“I don’t want that stress to stay in my body. I know it’s cooking me in there.”
“Time to get rid of it”
Big breath. Shake your arms. Kick your feet around a bit. Hum as you release your breath.
“But Wayne, that’s too simple to work. Surely it’s more complicated than that.”
Nope. That’s it. Just those 3 simple things will make all the difference in the world.
• Government: 0
• You: 1
LearnWell — Post 5 of 11