wellness for nerds

Chronic stress takes your brain's decision-maker offline, turns everything into a crisis, and fogs your memory. This week we get into what's actually happening in your head, and the trainable skill that reverses it.

Rebecca breaks down the difference between acute and chronic stress and what an always-on nervous system does to the prefrontal cortex (decisions), amygdala (reactivity) and hippocampus (memory). David shares how he fixed his road rage: not with breathing hacks in the car, but with journaling, meditation and getting honest about what was underneath. Plus: the carpenter-and-sawdust test for whether you're productive or just busy, and the "Mississippi technique" for putting a gap between stimulus and response.

Your challenge this week: when something pushes your buttons, count your Mississippis before you respond. Tell us how many you needed.

(00:00) Peace & Performance

(03:04) Busy is not high performance

(08:36) Acute vs chronic stress

(09:40) What chronic stress does to your brain

(21:42) David's road rage story

(25:58) The stimulus-response gap

(29:07) The Mississippi technique

Dr Rebecca Chabot: https://drrebeccachabot.com | https://purewellnesstasmania.com

David Masterton: https://158lab.com.au

Wellness for Nerds shares general information and personal experience. It is not individual medical or mental-health advice.

A PhD scientist and a recovering corporate high performer walk into a podcast. Welcome to Wellness for Nerds: real science, honest stories, zero woo.

In episode one we introduce ourselves properly:

how a panel about performing at a high level without losing your peace turned into this show;

Rebecca's path from biochemistry to a PhD in ecology to translating science for the rest of us;

David's 4.5 years of conscious healing after realising he was financially full but emotionally empty;

why we called it Wellness for Nerds;

and the story of teaching the science of happiness to a room of cancer survivors.

If you're a high performer who rolls their eyes at the word "wellness" — this show is for you. New episodes weekly, in video on Spotify and YouTube.

Dr Rebecca Chabot: https://drrebeccachabot.com | https://purewellnesstasmania.com

David Masterton: https://158lab.com.au

Wellness for Nerds shares general information and personal experience — it's not individual medical or mental-health advice..