The Dr. Jud Podcast

Scientists are working furiously on testing therapies and vaccines to treat the coronavirus, but it will take time and focused effort before they’re ready.  Did you know that there is already a vaccine against panic, anxiety, and selfishness?  It’s called loving kindness, and you can get vaccinated today.


References and links from this video:
-See Anderson Cooper's brain unwind anxiety on camera (1 minute clip from CBS' 60 minutes): https://drjud.com/dr-jud-on-60-minutes/
-Sharon Salzberg's loving kindness (by donation): https://www.sharonsalzberg.com/produc...
-Our paper showing loving kindness decreases default mode network (DMN) brain activity: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/f...
-Our study showing mindfulness app decreases DMN brain activity: https://www.nature.com/articles/s4138...
-Our study showing expert meditators decreasing DMN brain activity with loving kindness, breath awareness and choiceless awareness meditations: https://www.pnas.org/content/108/50/2...
-Our paper showing links between self-referential processing and getting caught up in experience: https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/...

Resources:
To ask questions or suggest future topics, please comment below or connect with me on Twitter @judbrewer

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Feeling news fatigue or even losing hope in knowing who to trust? In this episode, I’ll show you how having too many options plus bursts of excitement tricks your brain into spreading false information and leaves you burnt out. And I’ll give you one simple thing you can do about it. 

Here's what you'll learn:
-Why NPR stopped broadcasting Trump's daily briefings
-How humans spread the virus of misinformation
-Why misinformation is so much more contagious than accurate information
-How dopamine is related to consumption of sensationalized news, and the survival advantage it gave our ancestors
-How dopamine release is linked to memory
-The conflict that arises between your ancient brain and modern brain during consumption of news
-Why an overabundance of news causes our brain to shut down
-How we can leverage this information to keep hope for the future and faith in each other
-The W-A-I-T acronym and how it can stop us from being overtaken by impulses to share misinformation


References from today's episode:
Washington Post article: https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifest...

NPR editorial: https://www.npr.org/sections/publiced...

How to stop the spread of misinformation: https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/arc...

Stories of hope: https://www.obama.org/stories-hope-co...

Resources:
To ask questions or suggest future topics, please comment below or connect with me on Twitter @judbrewer

Click here to subscribe to my Youtube Channel
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCi6b...

By subscribing, you’ll be notified of future daily updates and of my free weekly "office hours" anxiety Q&A session on Mondays at noon eastern US (12:00 EST) 

Build your body awareness using mindfulness practices, like those in the free "Brea

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Have you been on an emotional rollercoaster this past week, irritable one minute and full of worry the next? Getting angry at the news but still addicted to knowing the latest information, and perhaps even panic buying more supplies than you need? I'll show you how to step out of these behaviors in this episode.

Here's what you'll learn:
-The one simple ingredient that you can add to help you work with ANY emotion that you are experiencing
-Why using self talk and willpower does not work to change negative emotions or stop bad habits
-The impact that being hungry, angry, anxious lonely or tired has on our mental faculties.
-The role of reward-based learning in changing behavior and emotions
-How mindfulness is about changing our relationship to thoughts, emotions and body sensations rather than trying to change or get rid of them.
-How to use awareness to change your relationship to pain and strong emotions
-How using awareness can show you how old habits are actually quite unhelpful to you and bring you pain
-How the phrase  "the only way out is through" applies to experiencing emotions
-How naming and noting can help you to step out of unhelpful patterns





To ask questions or suggest future topics, please comment below or connect with me on Twitter @judbrewer

Click here to subscribe to my Youtube Channel
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCi6b...

By subscribing, you’ll be notified of future daily updates and of my free weekly "office hours" anxiety Q&A session on Mondays at noon eastern US (12:00 EST)

Build your body awareness using mindfulness practices, like those in the free "Breathe by Dr. Jud" app, available on both Apple and Android devices.

Apple: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/breathe...
Android: https://play.google.com/store/apps/de...

For even more resources on anxiety, including free mindfulness exercises, visit my website: https://www.drjud.com

Follow me on Twitter:  https://twitter.com/judbrewer
Follow me on Instagram 

Let's connect on Instagram

Could some of what you’re feeling right now be grief? Do you have a sense of loss about being able to spend time with a loved one, or your job being disrupted, or just loss of close connection with other people? 

Here's what you'll learn in this episode:
-A little known type of grief, and how to work with any of the stages of grief you might be feeling right now
-The normal human response to loss
-Why grief is normal right now
-The definition of anticipatory grief
-How to work with feeling of grief, and why learning how our minds work is the first key step
-The five stages of grief, and how one of them is showing up right now at the personal, local and national level
-How the other stages are showing up, right now
-How mindfulness can change our orientation towards our experience and help us to accept what is, rather than craving what we want
-The definition of forgiveness and how that can help us get over grief and let go of things we can't control
-3 specific actions you can take today to accept, reduce and move on from your feelings of grief.


Harvard Business Review interview with David Kessler, and expert on grief : https://hbr.org/2020/03/that-discomfo...

https://www.helpguide.org/articles/gr...

https://www.fammed.wisc.edu/files/web...

https://www.psycom.net/depression.cen...

https://www.ekrfoundation.org/5-stage...

https://psychcentral.com/lib/the

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In this podcast, I talk about worry and control: Why we feel like we need to be in control, how trying to gain control over things beyond our reach can cause problems, and of course what we can do to balance all of this.

Here's what you'll learn in this video:

-What is going on in our brains when we worry or attempt to control things
-The times when this behavior is helpful, and the times when it is not
-How the need to control increases anxiety
-The science behind why we worry
-Why worry gives us an illusion of control
-The reward we get from worrying
-What worrying distracts us from
-Why worrying can be so hard to break out of once it has been reinforced
-The steps you must take to stop worrying
- The importance of practicing acceptance and how to do that, whether you are religious or not religious
-The question to ask yourself to stop worrying in its tracks
-Why "doing" something might be hurting you, and why "being" is sometimes better than doing
-How to map out the habit loops that are driving your worry, and step out of them


References from today's video:
1) Borkovec, T.D., E. Robinson, T. Pruzinsky, and J.A. DePree, Preliminary exploration of worry: Some characteristics and processes. Behaviour research and therapy, 1983. 21(1): p. 9-16.
2) Borkovec, T., W.J. Ray, and J. Stober, Worry: A cognitive phenomenon intimately linked to affective, physiological, and interpersonal behavioral processes. Cognitive Therapy and Research, 1998. 22(6): p. 561-576.
3) Freeston, M.H., J. Rhéaume, H. Letarte, M.J. Dugas, and R. Ladouceur, Why do people worry? Personality and individual differences, 1994. 17(6): p. 791-802.
4) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serenit...

To ask questions or suggest future topics, please comment below or connect with me on Twitter @judbrewer

Click here to subscribe to my Youtube Channel
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCi6b...

By subscribing, you’ll be notified of future daily updates and of my free weekly "office hours" anxiety Q&A session on Mondays at noon eastern US (12:00 EST)

Build your body awareness using mindfulness practices, like those in the free "Breathe by Dr. Jud" app, available on both Apple and Android devices.

Apple: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/breathe...
Android: https://play.google.com/store/apps/de... 

For even more resources on anxiety, including free mindfulness exercises, visit my website: 

Let's connect on Instagram

In this episode you'll learn:

-What to do when you feel the fire of anger flare up inside of you.
-The seeds of anger and where it comes from
-Why Coronavirus is creating more anger
-How to create glowing embers of warm connection, and spread these by kindness, instead of pouring gasoline on the fire and burning everything around us
-the 2 types of anger: Gasoline and Diesel. What the difference between these two is and how to recognize them
-The common emotion behind all types of anger
-How these 2 types of anger are showing up in the context of fake news around Coronavirus - both gasoline and diesel
-Why both types add fuel to the fire and neither help the situation
-Why we can't think clearly when emotions burn hot (this is related to the prefrontal cortex)
-A three step process that you use when anger flares up. This process will allow you to calm down, bring your thinking brain back online and move forward productively instead of reactively.
-How to turn anger into kindness


To ask questions or suggest future topics, please comment below or connect with me on Twitter @judbrewer

Click here to subscribe to my Youtube Channel
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCi6b...

By subscribing, you’ll be notified of future daily updates and of my free weekly "office hours" anxiety Q&A session on Mondays at noon eastern US (12:00 EST)

Build your body awareness using mindfulness practices, like those in the free "Breathe by Dr. Jud" app, available on both Apple and Android devices.

Apple: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/breathe...
Android: https://play.google.com/store/apps/de...

For even more resources on anxiety, including free mindfulness exercises, visit my website: https://www.drjud.com

Follow me on Twitter:  https://twitter.com/judbrewer
Follow me on Instagram

Let's connect on Instagram

Anxiety makes it difficult to sleep, and lack of sleep makes you more anxious. This episode will show you how it affects your nervous system, and 3 simple tips to help you fall asleep and stay asleep.

Here's what you'll learn:
-My own journey with interrupted sleep (I and my wife have been experiencing difficulty sleeping)
-The two types of interrupted  sleep that i see at my clinic
-Why anxiety is a "doubly whammy" in terms of hurting your sleep
-The questions that the National Institute of Health created to analyze sleep anxiety
-The science behind why anxiety interferes with sleep
-The first set of questions that I ask patients who come in with difficulty sleeping:
- - “when your head hits the pillow, do you have trouble shutting your brain off?
- - "Does your brain start spinning with worry thoughts about the future?"
- - "When you can’t sleep, does looking at the clock make you more anxious because you start to worry that you won’t get enough sleep?”

-The medical definition of anxiety
-How anxiety creates nervous feelings and how that impacts your ability to get to sleep
-How to practice good sleep hygiene
-Why it's important to not check the news before you go to bed
- I walk you through a body scan, step by step, which you can perform while you are lying in bed. This will help you fall asleep quickly and enjoy more peaceful sleep, even if you are anxious.
-Why a body scan works so well
-What happened when I taught the body scan to a women's golf team at Yale

Links from video:

1. Research paper on anxiety, worry and autonomic system function: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science...
2. Downloadable Sleep hygiene tips from the CDC: https://www.cdc.gov/sleep/about_sleep...
3. Guided body scan from Dr. Jud: https://youtu.be/ANZfVnjCmXk

To ask questions or suggest future topics, please comment below or connect with me on Twitter @judbrewer

Click here to subscribe to my Youtube Channel
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCi6b...

By subscribing, you’ll be notified of future daily updates and of my free weekly "office hours" anxiety Q&A session on Mondays at noon eastern US (12:00 EST)

Build your body awareness using mindfulness practices, like those in the free "Breathe by Dr. Jud" app, available on both Apple and Android devices.

Apple: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/breathe... 
Android: 

Let's connect on Instagram

In this podcast, you'll learn the science behind why panic buying spreads, and four things you can do to help. Here is a preview of what's in the video:

-Panic is driven by the "old" part of the brain
-Why lack of information leads to sudden and uncontrollable anxiety
-How to get the "new" part of the brain back online during moments of panic
-What somebody can say to you when you are panicked to help you calm down
-Why prior experience with an event can help alleviate anxiety
-Why panic is never helpful
-The perfect vector for spreading more panic
-How to talk to someone when they are panicking, and why emotion is superior to logic in such a situation
-Why we need to trust the scientists and stay home

To ask questions or suggest future topics, please comment below or connect with me on Twitter @judbrewer

Click here to subscribe to my Youtube Channel
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCi6b...

By subscribing, you’ll be notified of future daily updates and of my free weekly "office hours" anxiety Q&A session on Mondays at noon eastern US (12:00 EST)

Build your body awareness using mindfulness practices, like those in the free "Breathe by Dr. Jud" app, available on both Apple and Android devices.

Apple: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/breathe...
Android: https://play.google.com/store/apps/de...

For even more resources on anxiety, including free mindfulness exercises, visit my website: https://www.drjud.com

Follow me on Twitter:  https://twitter.com/judbrewer
Follow me on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/dr.jud

Let's connect on Instagram

This podcast teaches you to leverage your brain’s reward system to use the energy of crisis to replace division and separateness with unity and connection. Inspired by Kitty O’Meara’s poem gone viral (Oprah’s magazine dubbed her the “poet laureate of the pandemic”), Dr. Brewer explains the psychology behind shifting old entrenched mindsets to new ones based in kindness. He gives three actionable tips to practice kindness today, and how doing this “short moments, many times” throughout the day can create new mindsets of kindness and connection.

Today, leverage your awareness and pay attention to what it feels like when someone is kind to you. If you can, take a moment to pray or meditate as an act of kindness toward yourself. Notice when you’re short with your spouse or kids, eat your humble pie and immediately apologize as an act of kindness toward them. Think of one act of kindness you can do for someone else. Maybe it’s a phone call, maybe it’s a thank you to a delivery driver or grocery worker, maybe it’s something else. And pay attention to how it feels when you help out, when you connect, so you can lock that reward into your brain. Make kindness your new habit.

To ask questions or suggest future topics, please comment below or connect with me on Twitter @judbrewer

Click here to subscribe to my Youtube Channel
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCi6b...
Build your body awareness using mindfulness practices, like those in the free "Breathe by Dr. Jud" app, available on both Apple and Android devices.

Apple: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/breathe...
Android: https://play.google.com/store/apps/de...

For even more resources on anxiety, including free mindfulness exercises, visit my website: https://www.drjud.com

Follow me on Twitter:  https://twitter.com/judbrewer
Follow me on Instagram https://www.instagr

Let's connect on Instagram

In today's podcast, you'll learn how to balance your need to plan for the future in the midst of massive uncertainty.

Here's what you'll learn:

-Why our brains are set up to plan for the future
-What happens when there isn't enough information to plan (like right now, since the Coronavirus and socioeconomic situation is rapidly changing)
-Why your brain is similar to a computer, and what happens when it gets overloaded
-What causes the "what if" spinout and what to do when it happens
-Examples of the "what if" worry loop amongst students and business owners
-How to stop our brains from spinning out into endless worry loops
-"One day at a time", and why this saying (from the 12 step recovery program) is simple but effective in this time of uncertainty
-Why it's better to stay closer to the here and now
-The point at which it's ok to plan in more detail for the future
-What to do if you get nervous about planning for later on today,
-How to stay grounded in the present moment and out of that worry tailspin.

To ask questions or suggest future topics, please comment below or connect with me on Twitter @judbrewer

Click here to subscribe to my Youtube Channel
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCi6b...

By subscribing, you’ll be notified of future daily updates and of my free weekly "office hours" anxiety Q&A session on Mondays at noon eastern US (12:00 EST)

Build your body awareness using mindfulness practices, like those in the free "Breathe by Dr. Jud" app, available on both Apple and Android devices.

Apple: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/breathe...
Android: https://play.google.com/store/apps/de...

For even more resources on anxiety, including free mindfulness exercises, visit my website: https://www.drjud.com

Follow me on Twitter:  https://twitter.com/judbrewer
Follow me on Instagram

Let's connect on Instagram