In this live Facebook broadcast, Charlie Hugh‑Jones addresses viewers in Florida, Georgia, and the Carolinas who are facing an approaching hurricane. He acknowledges his own fear and anxiety, then explains the body’s physiological fear response—fight/flight/freeze, adrenaline, norepinephrine, and cortisol—and how chronic stress and media exposure amplify cortisol levels. Charlie highlights how empathy can magnify collective anxiety, creating a group‑think effect that fuels fear. He promises seven practical tools to help manage that fear, beginning with the first two: (1) make space to breathe using a 4‑7 breathing exercise (inhale for 4 counts, exhale for 7) to calm physiological arousal, and (2) accept your feelings. Throughout, he frames the advice as actionable, empathetic, and grounded in both biology and his experience as a life‑and‑business strategist.
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Poor wireless. Hello! That was poor wireless connection. You're gonna find out in a second why. Good morning, I'm Charlie Hugh-Jones, and this is Elevenses with Charlie, but it's a bit of a different one this morning because today Abby and I, who live in Florida in Palm Beach, are right in the path of a hurricane. So this Facebook Live is How to manage your fear and anxiety when facing that kind of threat. I'm going to give you 7 steps, 7 things you can do to help manage your fear and anxiety right now. So please, if you're watching this, share this with somebody who it might be helpful for. There's going to be advice, there's going to be understanding, there's going to be empathy, there's going to be 7 tools you can use today, and over the course of this next 72 hours to help you manage that fear and concern. And the reason I wanted to do this today is because I feel scared. Just so you all know, I'm not some superhero who does not feel fear. Yeah, I feel scared today. Yes, I feel anxious for lots of reasons, but that doesn't mean I'm falling apart, and it doesn't mean I can't do what I am Purposed and skilled to do in the midst of feeling that concern, that worry, that stress, that anxiety. So that's why today's Elevens is about how to manage your fear and anxiety, particularly for those of us who are in Florida, in Georgia, in the Carolinas, who are in the path of this steadily advancing hurricane that will be probably the storm of my lifetime. To start with. So what's going on? It's real fear, folks. This is what our bodies, what our minds do when faced with a threat. We're built with a nervous system that is designed to respond to external stimulus and prepare us for action, to help us respond to a threat. And this is a real threat. We are worried that our windows will smash, our cars will get destroyed, our friends will be hurt, our family might be lost, our possessions are gonna go. So this is real fear. Often as a life and business strategist, and when I'm coaching people or working with individuals, we're dealing with fear about what they project into the future for themselves. I'm not enough, or I can't connect deeply, or people will not love me, or I won't be able to make that decision. Today, this is very different. These are fears that are existential, fears about our lifestyle, fears about our relationships, because a hurricane, category 4, category 3, even for those who are going to get hit with category 5, is absolutely devastating. So what can we do? Well, what's going on first, and then I'm going to tell you what we do. Well, we have a fight Or flight reflex. Often we also freeze, but most people commonly know about fight or flight. And we have hormones that are released by our adrenal system, by our pituitary glands, in order to prepare us to do things. The one that most people know about, you're in a car crash, you just hit something, or you're in a fight, adrenaline is pumped into your body, which is a very fast-acting hormone to prepare your body for massive, immediate physical action, to run, to hit, to defend. Whatever it is, and it floods the body. The other hormone that's like that is norepinephrine, also released immediately, and that again opens some of the capillaries so blood in the core areas of our body can flow faster. It enables our lung capacity to increase to take in more oxygen. Oxygen. It allows us to get more oxygen to the parts of our body that are going to need explosive immediate action. And it shuts down other parts of our body that are not as necessary. We often feel energy in our hands, in our forearms. We feel hollowness in our chest. We begin to sweat, our hair standing on end. These are all physical stimuli. They're called the arousal stimuli. Our body is responding with very physiological responses before we go into sort of the interpretation, the valence, as the psychologists and, and what have you talk about it, how we interpret those physical symptoms in our body. So that's what's going on when we're scared. But the one thing I've just talked about, um, adrenaline, I've talked about epinephrine. I can never say that right. Norepinephrine. But cortisol, the stress hormone. And right now, millions and millions of people like you, like me, are stressed. Cortisol is being released into our body. It's a much slower-acting hormone than adrenaline or norepinephrine, and it raises our state of awareness. It increases our ability to take in more stimulus, to focus, to be aware, to be alert. But it also has a cost on our bodies. And fear and anxiety Are fueled by cortisol. And the stuff that's coming at us, watching the news incessantly, everybody telling us we're in the cone of uncertainty, that uncertainty itself increases our cortisol level. So we feel more stressed, we feel more anxiety, we are going to feel more fear. And for some people, that fight or flight or freeze reflex is translating into behaviors of Intense self-interest, anger, and disruption, and impatience in the line at the gas station waiting for some extra fuel, or grabbing the last bit of water from the shelf in a supermarket and pushing other people out of the way. They're the negative sides of it, but the positive side is we can begin to work together more effectively. We are prepared. You see, our mind is a tool. It is not our boss. So when we begin to interpret all these physiological sensations, these fight or flight sensations, our mind is able to process those if we use some tools to help it along. So that's why I want to give you 7— that's 2 here and 5 here— 7 tools to help manage that fear, anxiety, and stress in the midst of this hurricane. And these are things I'm working through right now myself. So when I say we're facing real fear right now, it's not just 10 people or 15 people. It is millions of people in the Keys, in Miami, in Fort Lauderdale, in Palm Beach where we live, in Orlando, all the way up to Jacksonville, and then on into Georgia and the Carolinas. And we're all feeling this together. Now, if you're an empath, you will have emotional radar that is picking up what other people feel as well, and that will amplify and multiply your own feelings. So just be aware that that might be what's going on for you if you're intensely stressed in addition to your own physical concerns for your safety. We're in this situation of group feel. You've heard about groupthink where the masses and the mob all do things together. The same thing happens. We are fueling each other's fear. So what are the 7 things you can do? Because I promised you that's what I'm going to give you in this 11 Z's with Charlie. What are 7 tools you can use, 7 steps you can take, 7 things you can do to better manage how you are in the middle of this fear? First one, make space. This is number 1, make space to breathe. And yes, it is that simple. Number 1 of 7 steps is make space to breathe. Our bodies are designed to recalibrate and fix a lot of symptoms in them by centering ourselves. And there's a very special exercise which is called a 4-7 breathing exercise which you can do. You need to make space for it and then you need to do it. And I recommend to a lot of my clients who feel stress and anxiety, whether that be public speaking, whether that be before they're about to go down rapids, before they're about to jump out of a plane, or whether they're about to give a big corporate presentation to their clients, this 4-7 breathing technique is phenomenally powerful to reduce some of those physiological symptoms. The racing thoughts, the pounding in the chest, the intense feelings of energy in forearms. And this is what you do. You breathe in slowly for a count of 4, and then you breathe out. 4. out even more slowly for a count of 7. And it takes some practice, and that practice is a good thing. So step 1 is make space to breathe, and use this 4-7 breathing exercise if you can. Breathe in for a count of 4, breathe out for a count of 7. And if you can get up to 8 breaths, 10 breaths, 12 breaths doing that, you will begin to feel elements of calmness enter into you. They're not going to make you totally calm in the midst of stress, But they will allow you to focus. They will allow you to take some of these other steps I'm now talking about. So that was step 1, make space to breathe. Step 2, accept your feelings.
