Welcome to Joy Lab!: [00:00:00] Welcome to the Joy Lab podcast, where we help you uncover and foster your most joyful self. Your hosts, Dr. Henry Emmons and Dr. Aimee Prasek, bring you the ideal mix of soulful and scientifically sound tools to spark your joy, even when it feels dark. When you're ready to experiment with more joy, combine this podcast with the full Joy Lab program over at JoyLab.coach
Henry: Hello, I'm Henry Emmons and welcome to Joy Lab.
Aimee Prasek: And I am Aimee Prasek. So we are in our month of curiosity, our element of joy. And we have explored some really important things this month; how to tolerate uncertainty, why we worry, some ways to practice shifting out of those worrying patterns, and today as promised, we're gonna hit on some really fast acting strategies to kind of shake out a worry spiral.
Aimee Prasek: So we're gonna do four of them, [00:01:00] I think. We'll see how it shakes out. The first strategy I'm gonna share is to trigger your diver's reflex, which is...
Henry: _Diver's_ reflex?
Aimee Prasek: is a weird strategy, weird name. The mammalian divers reflex and mammalian reflex. So, I'm guessing maybe some of you have seen this on TikTok or Instagram where folks are dunking their face in a bowl of ice water.
Aimee Prasek: And the reason given is usually to like stop a panic attack. So does it work? Surprisingly, yeah, there's some science behind this and it can be super effective. So, this is also a great strategy for kind of a worry spiral. I'm gonna give you maybe other ways to do it though, but I'll explain it first.
Aimee Prasek: So, the dive reflex or dive response or mammalian dive response is basically a safety feature that we have, to help us survive longer when we get submerged in water, either accidentally or on purpose. Like free [00:02:00] divers, if we actually wanted to go diving for food or something, we would wanna be able to search for a longer period of time.
Aimee Prasek: So it's a way for us to conserve oxygen, essentially. So the response mainly does three things. It slows down our heart rate, it slows down breathing, and then it redirects blood flow from, the limbs essentially to the vital organs. So there's more focused flow on the brain and center of the body.
Aimee Prasek: And considering that anxiety, worry, panic attacks are very much associated with increased heart rate and fast breathing, it makes sense that this could be really helpful. So, what easily activates this are really two things, which is why this whole bowl of water thing started. But it's two things at the same time.
Aimee Prasek: First, the breath is held and usually on inspiration, the research seems to, you know, so it's inhale and a hold and at the same time, kind of a cold air or cold wet feeling [00:03:00] hits the face. And mainly it's a space around the nose. Or that's the latest understanding, sort of in that nose eye space. And so instead of diving face first into a lake, the trend is to get a bowl of cold water.
Aimee Prasek: Uh, take a deep breath, and then as you start to hold your breath, you dunk your face in the water and you hold it there for about, if you can, up to 30 seconds or so to allow that reflex to kick in and the heart rate to drop, and it can stop, worry. It can also stop a panic attack for some folks, and there's some good research, it is very limited, but they're looking at other ways to activate this diverse reflex instead of submerging or a bowl of water. So I think you can do it easier, for most of us. You can simply take something cold. I've used like, like a soft, ice pack for injuries, the ones that are kind of pliable. But you could use a paper towel that has ice in it that [00:04:00] you've gotten wet as well.
Aimee Prasek: You could use a bag of frozen corn or something, just a cold, something that covers this kind of nose under the eye space and then hold your breath right as you apply it. I feel like that's a lot easier when you're kind of spinning out, easier than grabbing a bowl, filling it, towel, all the things. So that can be a strategy to try. And to note, I've been hearing folks or influencers suggesting that they do this dunking their face in ice cold water as a daily practice. And doing it two to three times a day as a kind of preventive or optimization body hacking strategy. And I don't think that's helpful. I think it's a waste of water. I think it's a waste of time.
Aimee Prasek: I mean, if you dig it, fine, but, I think it's pointless. This isn't something you need as a daily routine. This is like an emergency exit. You know, this is a survival mechanism. It is like, it is like [00:05:00] an exit door really, you know, so you wanna kind of save it for worry or panic surges where you wanna use that emergency exit to get out of that state of mind.
Aimee Prasek: Also, to note, you should check with your doctor if you have an arrhythmia or diabetes or any condition that, you know, a cold shock isn't gonna be a good, perhaps, strategy. So do check with that. Henry, do you wanna dive into a second strategy or have anything to say about the driver's reflex?
Henry: You, you want me to dive into a, a second
Aimee Prasek: Oh, do it.
Henry: Well, I'll try something a little less jolting. How about?
Aimee Prasek: Yes, please.
Henry: But let me, let me just back up for a second here and, and just say that I, I know today we're talking about these kind of quick acting strategies, but I wanna
Aimee Prasek: Yeah.
Henry: remind all of us that it is possible to, for all intents and [00:06:00] purposes, to stop worrying, you know, as a, as a general thing. To train our minds essentially to, to just not, not allow it to constantly go into worry mode, sort of against our will, which is what generally happens. So, I wanna just talk about that for a moment and then I'll come back to the, the quick acting thing.
Henry: So I wanna use an analogy to talk about this.
Henry: In our last episode, we talked a little bit about how worry is a biological advantage to if a little bit of worry, not an extreme degree. So it was built into our ancestors to help alert them to danger. And it occurred to me that this is not so different from our built-in taste for sweet foods, which most of us have, right? It is there for a [00:07:00] reason. It's actually not that long ago, you know, we don't have to go back even very many generations when sweet foods were kind of a rare treat. It wasn't that common. It wasn't that accessible. And so historically the biological fact of being drawn to sweet things like ripe fruits or even root vegetables.
Henry: It was helpful because that drive kind of encouraged our ancestors to add a few extra calories. You know, we helped 'em get through the winter, or whatever.
Henry: But now, sweets are everywhere. You cannot avoid them. You have to have a will of iron, which I do not have in order to keep a sweet tooth in check.
Henry: However, is possible to train ourselves to tame that sweet tooth. It's possible to do that, but it can take a [00:08:00] while. And it takes kind of a systematic, you know, long-term effort. So, for example,
Aimee Prasek: Hmm.
Henry: You can stay on the outer aisles at the grocery store when you're shopping. You can not have sweets in your house, or you can develop a taste for healthier snacks instead of just the sweet ones. So similar to that, in today's world, compared to our ancestors, there are so many things that we can worry about, you know, we're just immersed in it. You cannot avoid them unless you became a hermit and then you'd still have your own thoughts to deal with, right? However, with time it's possible to learn to walk around some of these worries, which aren't really necessary for us to focus on. Or to limit our exposure to scary things like the news, for example, things or things that just aren't that important to us, or to train the mind [00:09:00] to develop a taste for healthier, more joyful thoughts, which is what we're trying to do in
Aimee Prasek: Hmm.
Henry: So I think for this to happen, most of us need two things to really tame our mind. One is guidance, like working with a therapist or getting some really good mindfulness training. So the other thing that we need is time. It simply takes time.
Henry: However, this is why we're doing the, the, the quick hits today. 'Cause you don't want wait until your mind is fully tamed to turn down the dial of worry, right?
Henry: So back to the quick strategies. This next one that I'm gonna offer is that... It's, it's based on the principle that the mind is not actually able to multitask. Okay. That's a myth. We think we can do it, but we [00:10:00] can't. So the mind is really only able to do one thing at a time, means if it's doing something else, it can't be worrying. So that's what we're aiming for here.
Henry: I think one of the best ways to occupy your mind is to do something with your body. And it could be anything really, any kind of movement, but it is possible to worry while you are walking or biking.
Aimee Prasek: Oh yeah.
Henry: I know this because I have done it.
Aimee Prasek: Absolutely.
Henry: So it's really best to come up with something that really absorbs your mind.
Aimee Prasek: Hmm.
Henry: That requires enough focus that there is not room to worry at the same time that you're doing it. So, for example, there are people who find knitting to really work for that, you know,
Henry: it just takes just enough of your mental focus to stay on track with that or some other kind of craft, or even working on a puzzle [00:11:00] for, for me doing a crossword it gets me out of that, you know, especially if you're doing something that's just a little bit challenging.
Henry: So it requires your mental focus. But what I really like to do is in the soil,
Aimee Prasek: Yeah.
Henry: I cannot tell you how many holes I have dug in my backyard. And I'm at the point now, I've been at this point for years where I cannot keep adding new gardens. So now I just move things around a lot.
Aimee Prasek: I love that.
Henry: And there's nothing quite as satisfying as digging up a hosta, splitting it, and spreading it around. And it's just hard enough work that it quiets my mind and probably helps me burn off some of the pent up energy while I'm doing it.
Aimee Prasek: Those Henry, that's, that's great. I love just getting in touch with nature too, right? There's, there's so many other benefits [00:12:00] there too that are associated with decreased worry,and the parallel to understanding sort of how we can work on our worry like we work on our taste buds in some ways and our tolerance for sweet foods.
Aimee Prasek: So I'm gonna go with, I'll go on that thread, a very opposite strategy to, to what you've just presented. So not a calm strategy, but that as a strategy to kind of shock your system, your senses, I should say, as a way of distraction to get you outta your thoughts. So you can cut a lemon into a quarter and take a big bite out of it.
Henry: Mm.
Aimee Prasek: You can do this with wasabi as well. Hot, spicy, sour, some type of food. There's like no real art or science to this. It's just the fact that your senses
Henry: Uhhuh.
Aimee Prasek: notice a shock and give it its full attention. It's sort of just, you know, it takes you out of the spiral,
Henry: Sure.
Aimee Prasek: with these intense [00:13:00] flavors. So, then I would say follow up with what Henry has suggested to offer yourself a little bit more nourishment and nurturing after you sort of jolt your sensory system back into the present moment.
Aimee Prasek: yeah, then follow it up with something nourishing. But you can try that, bite a lemon, bite a lime, take a lick of hot sauce or a bit
Henry: I love it. Aimee, you, you're, you're just a little edgy today with your suggestions.
Aimee Prasek: I am
Henry: I think it's great.
Aimee Prasek: Coming with the fire here. You're coming with the ease. Good balance.
Henry: Well, I am going to see your taste sensation and raise you one olfactory experience.
Aimee Prasek: Oh, yes, I got it. I got you.
Henry: in the, we're in the, the using our senses, which I think is such a great way to, to get out of worry.
Aimee Prasek: Yeah.
Henry: One reason I think it works so well is because when we're in a heightened state, like when we're [00:14:00] worrying, our senses are heightened, right?
Henry: So it's, it's like they're in, they're primed for this. They are ready to take this in. It's like they're, they're saying, "Use me. I'm, I'm here. I'm on high alert."
Aimee Prasek: Yes. Yeah. It gives them the job they're looking for. Perfect.
Henry: So I think that using, bringing the sense of smell into this might be the fastest possible way to tone down worry. Because when you breathe something in, it is on the fast track to your brain.
Aimee Prasek: Mm.
Henry: It just goes there almost immediately it's, it's kind of built in actually to what you suggested, Aimee. You know, if you're taking a bite of a lemon, you are smelling it too, right? At the same time, it's just part of the experience, especially with those strong flavors. Now, I think this is a great use for aromatherapy, so you know, if you want to try this, you can get a [00:15:00] diffuser. But you can also just put a couple of drops of essential oil on a piece of cotton or a cotton ball and hold it, know, near your nose or some people just open the bottle and kind of hold it in the vicinity of their face and breathe it in. That works perfectly fine. There are some essential oils that are, are known historically to be more calming.
Henry: Things like lavender or sweet orange. But what I think works best is to try a few things out
Aimee Prasek: Yeah.
Henry: And then choose one that really appeals to you, one that you really like, if you're experiencing something really pleasant, then you can enjoy it. You can just simply enjoy it for a few moments, and that too makes it very hard for your mind to hold onto a worry at the same time.
Aimee Prasek: I love that. I think you can also pick a smell that brings you to a place. you know, if there's [00:16:00] a, a, a smell that you associate with a good memory can kind of bring you back into that.
Aimee Prasek: so, quick strategies. I hope you've maybe found one or two that you could try, for a worry cycle. I hope these feel realistic, relatable. And then, the skills we talked about last episode, those more long term impacts and what you talked about today too, understanding, Henry, that this is a practice, that we can create new paths so that we're worrying less.
Aimee Prasek: This is, we're, we're primed to worry just enough to keep us safe and we can keep it at that. So to end our time today, I wanna share some short and sweet wisdom from Mark Twain, or at least it's attributed to him, and I think it sounds like him. So here it is. "Worrying is like paying a debt you don't owe."
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