Rewire Your Brain: Think Your Way to a Better Life

effortless
, she had to be
determined
to repeat her efforts. 
With this in mind, Jane accepted the opportunity to speak about 
her project again. During that presentation, a computer engineer 
in the audience asked a question that she had never considered. 
Instead of clamming up and becoming defensive, she thanked 
him for the good question and told him that she would get back 
to him. She was actually excited to get back to him later with the 
answer. His question helped her team to make important changes to 
the project. Thus, talking to the audience about the project served 
as a means by which to gather useful information. 
Jane had to remain determined to stay with her gains in public 
speaking and to follow through on other opportunities to speak in 
front of people. It wasn ’ t long before her supervisor asked her to 
speak at another meeting. Despite all her gains, she told me that she 
had “ done my bit ” and wanted to decline. I reminded her that this 
was another opportunity to share her enthusiasm for the project and 
hear useful ideas from the audience. 
Other opportunities to speak would come later, and they were 
just what she needed to get to the feeling of effortlessness when 
speaking in front of people. By developing the determination to stay 
with the practice of public speaking, Jane tore down her wall of 
anxiety that she had associated with public speaking. She rewired 
her brain so successfully that she was even sought out for public 
speaking events to express her enthusiasm for her project. 
You might not choose to become a public speaker, but I ’ m sure that 
there are other things that you might not have tried because you feel 
uneasy about them. There might also be bad habits that you want to 
break and good habits that you want to develop. You can rewire your 
brain to succeed at your goals. 
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Ta m i n g
Yo u r
A myg d a l a
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Jane ’ s story represents some key points about how to tame your 
amygdala. Her effort to feed her brain with the challenge of public 
speaking illustrates the following key points about dealing with 
stress and anxiety: 
•
Excessive anxiety often results from false alarms.
•
Moderate anxiety is actually useful for neuroplasticity.
•
You can tap into your parasympathetic nervous system and 
calm yourself down.
•
Avoiding avoidance and maximizing exposure reduces anxiety 
in the long run.
Stress and False Alarms 
Anxiety has a lot to do with fear. Jane feared embarrassing herself 
and drawing social ridicule. If you feel too much fear, an alarm is 
triggered, and you are overwhelmed with anxiety symptoms such as 
shortness of breath, rapid heartbeat, and worrying. When the alarm 
stops and it becomes apparent that there was really nothing to fear, 
you are able to say in retrospect that it was a false alarm. Dealing 
effectively with anxiety requires you to turn off a false alarm or keep 
it from turning on. 
People who come to my anxiety class often say that once they get 
a clear picture of what ’ s going in their brains, they feel more hope-
ful that their anxiety can be mastered. The unreasonable mystery 
of what was happening to them is simply swept away. You, too, can 
manage your anxiety level by understanding how it is triggered in 
your brain. 
Let ’ s start at the center of fear: the amygdala. Ideally, your amyg-
dala and your OFC maintain a harmonious relationship with each 
other. For many people, this healthy relationship is based on warm 
and nurturing relationships early in life and is maintained through-
out life. In my anxiety class, I explain the importance of taming the 
amygdala. 
In addition to setting the emotional tone of any experience, the 
amygdala can also serve as a panic button, becoming activated for 
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30 Rew i r e
Yo u r
B r a i n
false alarms as well as genuine ones. This is possible because of 
the reciprocal relationship between the amygdala and the OFC. 
When the amygdala is overactive, it can overpower the OFC. Never-
theless, the OFC can tame the amygdala. I use the word