Susan Britton explains how your brain's threat circuitry expands when you see challenges as dangers, while empowerment circuitry grows when you see them as opportunities. Cortisol spikes from setbacks derail creativity. The fix: deliberately cultivate resourceful thoughts and actions to shrink uncertainty's grip.
Lately I have heard a theme in conversations, and that theme is uncertainty. It seems that there are uncertainty headlines in the news every day around the economy, around the stock market, around what world leaders are doing or not doing. There's uncertainty around people's budgets and their bonuses. It's just a lot to be wondering about. What will happen? Will I have enough? Uncertainty is absolutely certain. And it is part of our lives. All of this talk about uncertainty, though, really makes me wonder, is there really more uncertainty going on right now, or is it a function of our brain's perception? It's hard to say, but what is certain is a simple saying about how our brains work, and that is that what we focus on grows. What we focus on grows. Our brains are primed to be on the alert, and they're primed to protect us from danger, and they're primed to protect us from things that are uncertain. So things like budget deficits or relationship conflict or time crunches, health concerns, all of those things feel like potential dangers. How we perceive them, however, is the pivot point. If we perceive them as a threat, our threat circuitry is going to grow in our brains. What we focus on grows. If we perceive them as opportunities, empowerment circuitry will grow in our brains. That perception pivot is not headline news. Anyone who's done any self-awareness work or emotional intelligence work knows that our perception can either derail or empower us. The tricky part is when we get surprised, when things are unwelcome, when things are not going the way that we thought they would. Then that cortisol spikes, it derails our good intentions, and we forget to tap into our empowered and creative and resourceful self. So it happens to all of us, and here's just a simple solution that lies within our brains. The more and more we focus on feeling, thinking, and acting creative, resourceful, empowered, the more uncertainty will dissipate in our lives. So what we focus on does indeed grow. May it be for good.
Susan’s ICF Educator Award | The Heart Behind the Impact Katy Montgomery, PCC
