The Resilient Mind - Transform Your Fear Into Action - John Assaraf

Episode Date: August 29, 2024

John Assaraf is a renowned expert featured in the influential film and book The Secret, contributing significantly to its global success. He is the founder of NeuroGym, a company dedicated to using the latest in brain science to help individuals improve their mental fitness and achieve personal excellence.Upcoming Event: How to Manage Feat and Uncertainty in Tough Times (Register Today)Take action and strengthen your mind with The Resilient Mind Journal. Get your free digital copy today: ⁠⁠⁠⁠Download Now⁠⁠ Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Welcome to the Resilient Mind podcast. In this episode, you will be listening to, Transform Your Fear into Action with John Asarraf. Get access to the Resilient Mind Journal by clicking the link in the show notes. Enjoy. Hey, this John Asrath, and is it possible to turn and use your fear as your fuel for driving success? And the answer is yes, and I'll share with you in just a moment how to do that. but this all stemmed from a meeting I had with a dear friend of mine, Dr. Sweeney Peeley from Harvard,

who was a world-renowned psychiatrist and brain imaging expert, and he and I met at the Harvard Club, and we were talking about how the 50 different types of fears hold most people back from achieving the success they want. And when he and I started talking about fear and the brain, it became very apparent to me that most people have no idea what fear is, and let alone what to do when they feel fear. So let me share with you some examples.

Let's say you have a fear of public speaking. Is it really a fear of public speaking that you have? Or is it a fear of getting up on stage and being embarrassed, ashamed, ridiculed, or judged? Hmm, let me take you to another type of fear. being buried alive. Can you imagine for just a moment if there was an earthquake or there was a natural disaster and somehow you were buried alive? Wouldn't that trigger this crazy amount of fear of dying while you were buried alive? Now why am I taking you there? I'm taking you there because fear is a subconscious

trigger whenever we feel threatened. And the threat could be a threat for our very lives. And when that happens, we move into one of four modalities. And modality number one is we try to fight this feeling. Number two is we freeze because we're in such shock. Number three, we may faint because of the neurochemistry that the fear causes, or we might run away if we can run away. Now, these neurological reactions are our brain's way of keeping us safe, which is the highest need and desire of the brain, safety above all else. So when we are looking to achieve a goal that we want to achieve, and it doesn't matter if it's, you know, to start a business or grow your business, or leave a relationship.

that you're not happy in or a job that you're miserable in. Whenever we think about the actual behavior that is required to achieve that goal, once we get motivated in doing that, that's part one of how our brain works. But right after that, our brain has to analyze if there's any real or imagined danger associated with taking that action step. So if you are going to to leave a relationship that you're not happy in, your brain is going to activate the memory circuits and discover what's in there that may have caused you pain and suffering in the past. And when that happens, whether it's a relationship you want to leave, a job that you want to leave, a goal you want to achieve, your brain is always analyzing, is there any danger here?

and when there is real or imagined danger, the amygdala part of the brain, the emotional response center in the brain, is going to fire off an amazing amount of neurochemicals like cortisol, epinephrine, or norepinephrine, and it's that rush of those neurochemicals that causes this emotion, energy in motion, we label as fear.

Now, once you have that rush, of neurochemicals in your bloodstream, that actually gives you an enormous amount of energy. But what most people never have learned how to do is how to take that energy and channel it to action versus to fighting it, freezing, or running away. And so here is two little techniques. I call them inner sizes,

and they're based on my new book called Inner Size, the new signs to unlock your brain's hidden, power and it goes like this. When you write down a goal you want to achieve and you write down a fear that you might have in achieving that goal. So it could be a fear of failure, a fear of succeeding and then failing, a fear of trying your best and it not being good enough and that's going to cause you to be embarrassed, ashamed, ridiculed, judged, etc. When you recognize a fear, I want you to do this. It's called inner size number one. It's called take six calm the circuits.

When fear neurochemicals are released in your brain, you've activated the fear or stress response center in the brain. When you just observe the emotion called fear through being quiet and breathing six times in through your nose and out through your mouth like this, you take a deep breath in for five seconds, you blow out like you're blowing out a straw. And if you do this, five seconds in, five seconds out, five seconds in, five seconds

out, with six to ten breaths, you're going to deactivate the fear response center, and that actually is going to reactivate your thinking center in your brain so that you can move on to inner size number two. Intersize number one, it takes six calm the circuits. Intersize number two is called AIA, A, I, A. And that stands for a one. awareness, intention, action. So here's how you do this. After you do the first inner size, then you move to inner size number two, and then you ask yourself in a calm, relaxed state. What am I thinking right now? What am I feeling right now? Am I calm or am I tense? am I breathing deeply or shallow?

Is my heartbeat fast or slow? And in this state of calm awareness, as you deactivate the brain's fear or stress response, you can observe what you are feeling and what you are thinking and what you were doing, and then you can ask self the next question, that is the I, what is my intention right now? Is my intention to move forward or is my intention to stay in this fearful state?

And chances are you going to say, well, I really want to move forward. And then you ask yourself, what is one action step that I can take to move forward towards my goal and dream? So this is how it works. After you do the inner size number one, to calm the circuits and to deactivate, the reactive state that fear causes, and then you move into the second intersize called Aya to move into the responsive state, awareness, intention, action,

now puts you in control of being aware of the fear, being aware, okay, of what you've been thinking, and then being at choice of what you want to do. So when you combine these two intersizes, you are now reconfiguring the new, neural network in your brain around the goal that you want to achieve and instead of allowing the real or imagine danger to control you to stop you dead on your tracks, you take one action step in a calm state and that rewires your brain so that the same reaction doesn't hold you back anymore

and that you are now able to use fear as your fuel for success. the other thing that you can use, and here's just a little added trick, is say, because I am afraid of X, Y, or Z, I'm going to take action anyway to overcome the fear. And when you choose one small action step, not 10 or 20, but one small action step towards what you want to achieve, you will neutralize that fear over time because you are being victorious over the fear

versus a victim of fear. Fear is a neurological response to real or imagine threat. Most of the time it's imagined because of something happening in your memory bank that you've read or heard or experienced. But I want you to be able to stare fear in the face in a calm way and choose your path forward so you use your fear as you'll. Thank you for tuning in. Continue strengthening your mind by listening to our other episodes.