Change Your Brain Every Day - Trapped in 'Worst Case Scenario': Lysa TerKeurst on Healing Emotional Trauma & Reclaiming Her Purpose

Episode Date: March 13, 2026

What happens when your mind constantly prepares for the worst—even when life looks fine on the outside? In this powerful conversation, Lysa TerKeurst opens up about living in a constant "worst case scenario" mindset, navigating deep emotional trauma, and finding clarity in the middle of heartbreak. With raw honesty, she shares how fear, betrayal, and unresolved pain can quietly shape our identity—and how healing begins by telling the truth about what we've been carrying.   We explore: The hidden toll of chronic emotional stress How trauma rewires your thoughts and reactions Letting go of survival mode Rediscovering purpose after disappointment Practical steps toward emotional and spiritual healing   This episode is for anyone who feels stuck in overthinking, bracing for impact, or wondering if peace is truly possible. Lysa's story is proof that even in your hardest chapters, purpose is still being written.

Every day you are making your brain better or you are making it worse. Stay with us to learn how you can change your brain for the better every day. So looping thoughts. Tell me about that. If I get a thought or usually it's not a thought that's originating. What usually happens is something happens that I have to think about. so an event will happen. And I find myself feeling like I can't settle down until I think this all the way through.

Sometimes I feel the pressure like nobody else seems to be worried about this. So if I don't worry about it, then who is? And so this pressure of knowing what can happen. with worst case scenarios and no one else is feeling like this could potentially ever play out like a worst case scenario. But I think because I've had so many instances where nobody thought this would be a worst case scenario and then it was for me. And I think what I'm trying to do is if this plays out to be another worst case scenario,

I want to go ahead and try to manage the fallout now before it happens so I can sort of brace for impact. So that's going to make you miserable. Sometimes it makes me feel empowered. I guess it depends on how often you do it. But there's so many awful things that can happen. Yes. That if you predict the worst all the time, it'll wear out your immune system. Yeah. The only people should really be predicting the worst all the time are contract lawyers. They should be protecting you.

But that's what happens with trauma. Some physical symptoms, tightness in your throat, shaking hands, sweating, feeling hot, feeling nervous. How often does that happen? Like every couple of months, something will happen. And either it is a legitimate concern that I feel like this is very legitimate. and I can put my finger on exactly why I'm feeling this way, or sometimes it will happen, and I cannot figure out what the source is,

or I have to work really hard to figure out why in the world am I feeling this? And in that scenario, it's usually because it's a combination of a bunch of things, and it's hard to sometimes figure out which one is really driving this feeling right now. but most times now it's when something new is happening and it's a situation that's just completely out of control with the potential to be pretty detrimental if it were to play out for space scenario. Predicting the worst. How often does that come up?

I feel like it happens often, but it's a way, it's not something that makes me just sit down and want to give up. It's more like predicting the worst so that I can better manage what I might need to do now so that it's not catastrophic later. Well, good CEOs are always planning for disaster, creating plans and then going their business. I have planned a lot of funerals that absolutely never happened. I really have. If we're really close and I try to call you, like one time, I'm like, they're busy.

Two times, I'm like, wow, they're really busy. Three times and you're not answering, I'm like, huh, this feels odd. Four times, something's happened. Five times, you're probably not here with us anymore. And nine times out of ten, they're still there. Very much still there. They left their phone at home. They're battery-guide.

Well, if you tell me, I'll try and answer. It's okay. You got four shots before I deem you funeral. Well, let's talk about your brain. So we do a study called SPAC that looks at blood flow and activity. It looks at how your brain works. And we did it twice. I'm really glad we did it twice. One at rest and one when you concentrate. And when you concentrate your brain, should activate. But at rest, it's too sleepy. So here's an example of a healthy scan. So the four images on the left, we're looking at the outside surface. And it should just be full, even, and symmetrical.

Atop left, we're looking underneath the brain, just like this, bottom, right. We're looking down from the top, and then one side on the other side. Okay. And it should just be full, even, and symmetrical. The images on the right, color does matter. Blue is average activity, red and white are the most active parts of the brain, which should be here. here in the cerebral and everything else sort of quiet. We look at your scan.

See these holes? Your frontal lobes are sleepy. It's too sleepy. And I'm like, why is it sleepy? Could it have been the concussion you had when you were young? Could it be the surgeries you had? Because general anesthesia is not great for your brain. Could it be the sleep apnea?

those would be my top three. And we're going to fix it. Okay. That sounds great. I love follow-up scans because if you do what I ask you to do, you get better. I mean, I'm really confident what we do. Okay. If you don't do what I ask you to do, probably if you came to see me 10 years from now and be worse.

That's not what you want. Nope, not what I want at all. Like, which brain do you want? The healthy one or the unhealthy one? Mm-hmm. So here is your left temporal low. How should temper? I don't think that most people would say I have a bad temper.

I think they would say I'm pretty even-tempered. And how about in your head? I think I'm pretty even-tempered until something is really wrong. Like when something is very very wrong. unfair, then in my brain I can have a whole conversation about how unfair this is. But I'll also... But you're not throwing things. No, I'm not throwing things.

Okay. No. Sometimes when I see this, it can go with temper issues, but we have to make these stronger. And then when you concentrate, it gets better. But I want it better still. Your left temporal lobe right here is still less active than it should be, could be. And what is that part of the brain? What is that? So memory, mood stability. Sometimes it can generate anxiety.

Okay. Now here's your active one and your cerebellum is beautiful. You have a great cerebellum. This is an interesting area called your posterior cigula gyrus goes with IQ. you. It's the first area that dies in Alzheimer's disease. Yours is busy, so you're not getting Alzheimer's disease anytime soon. That's so great. That's good news.

Your anxiety centers are pretty high. There's actually a trauma pattern in the brain, and I call it the diamond pattern. But you don't have the top of the diamond. You have the bottom of the diamond, but not the top. And that may have been that EMDR really helped it. And PTSD has been treated and is not currently active. The thing that's really active is the anxiety. Okay.

But you said the bottom part is out the cerebellum. Is that what you said? The cerebellum's here. I'm sorry. Let's do this again. The diamond would be here. Okay. Got it.

And I think the work you've done has really helped out. Your cerebellum, which is supposed to be busy and active, is beautiful. And how does that play out in everyday life? Sort of the great processor. And if I was explaining this to your kids, I go, your mom has a great friend. Your mom's not getting Alzheimer's disease, which is really good news for you kids. she's a creator because her frontal lobes are a little bit sleepy at rest but they're better when she concentrates so she sees the world differently than other people see it and that's been really

good for you but it can give her some challenges with focus and follow over okay that's really good and then what about on a practical level like I have no I was worried that you were going to tell me that I had dementia or something because it feels or that I had a brain tumor or something you know so it's really good to know that I don't have those but um like when I walk out of a store no matter how many times I tell myself this is where like this is where when you park you have to remember where you parked your car And I go in the store and I walk out. I cannot remember where I park. Because you didn't focus on it before you went in the store. Your mind is always elsewhere. Yes. Right?

Yes. And that's the sleepy frontal lobes you know. If I give you the supplements, your brain may be better tomorrow. I mean, that's sort of the cool thing. We have this MMA fighter. We scanned and he had really low frontal lobes. I know, I know the supplements work. I just didn't know how fast they work.

The next day, his brain was better. Now, you had to keep taking them. But let's hope. And in the supplements, let me go through them with you, it's there's something called brain and body power. There are going to be two pockets a day, multiple vitamin. It's not any multiple vitamins.

It's got 55 nutrients for your brain. It's very powerful. fish oil at a high concentration level and a brain boost that works in six different ways. It's my NFL formula. You don't need as many pills as they needed, but it's two packets a day. There are five pills in each packet, multiple vitamin, fish oil, brain boosts. So you don't need anything else because I saw you take Athletic Greens period, which is great, but you don't need it. So that is going to help repair your brain.

Okay. And then happy saffron boost your mood and your memory. And then fianning just when you feel like I need a drink to calm down the anxiety centers and the probiotic to begin to rescue your microbiot. Okay. That sounds great. So another thing I was curious about, I can stand up. And I can give a 45-minute talk and not have any notes.

And I can clearly see in my mind the outline. And, you know, I may have maybe a sticky note to remind me of a Bible verse, or I'll have my Bible and I'll turn to the verse and read that out loud. But pretty much, like, I just can do that. but then remember like I said like walk out into the parking lot and where's my car and can't remember it so what is the difference between those two well one is you're highly competent and highly passionate and this is a skill you have the other is a detail of the day okay and so it doesn't surprise me at all that you can do that because you've done it for how many years have you done that?

Almost 30. Yeah. So you're just highly competent. But I've also walked out of stores into the parking lot for 30 years and not known where your cars are. I didn't have to activate Apple Carplay. My wife says there's a way to get it to tell you where your car is. This is true. I just need to tag.

I think as I activate your frontal lobes. This is your short-term memory. Okay. Although on the test, it was fine. Okay. That's good to know. And then when we talk about trauma and how it affects people's brain, is my brain the way that it is just because it would naturally be that way anyways, just from childhood trauma? or is it that the trauma that I've experienced in the past 10 years,

has that done damage? They stack. Okay. But you've also done a lot of work. And the work, I published a study on EMDR on soldiers who are involved in shootings, and they're all developed PTSD because of it, and they all were not working. average of eight EMDR sessions they all over it. And they had that diamond pattern and they ran in a common

fit down. So I think the work you've done has been helpful. Well, good. Thank you. This is really fascinating.