In my last lesson on overcoming fear of public speaking, I talked about the part of your brain known as the amygdala, which is your fight or flight mechanism.
When faced with a life or death threat, you feel overwhelmed and go into a state of mental paralysis. You can’t think straight! That’s because your amygdala, doing what it’s supposed to do, comes to your rescue and shuts down all functions that aren’t necessary for your survival. Things like appetite, digestion, rational thinking, creative thinking, and sexual desire shut down so that all of your energies can be directed toward fight or flight.
The downside of your wonderful amygdala is that it will go into this protection mode even in Nope-Situations that threaten life. Whenever you are faced with something new or puzzling that overwhelms you, like taking an important test or having to give a speech, the amygdala kicks in and shuts down all functions that are not necessary for your survival.
The problem is that when you have to make a speech, need their creative and rational thinking abilities. You want to take decisive action but your amygdala prevents you from doing so because it thinks it has to save you!
What we have to do is tiptoe through the amygdala so as not to wake it up. We cannot alert the amygdala to danger. The way we do it is to attack the problem, problem or fear in small steps, very small steps so that the overwhelm never comes into play to activate the amygdala.
This brings us to the centuries-old Chinese technique known as kaizen. Kaizen is the art of taking small steps to achieve great things. How to use this technique is beautifully explained in a book by Dr. Robert Maurer, Ph.D., One small step can change your life Kaizen style.
The following is an example from Dr. Maurer’s book. He tells the story of a woman named Julie, a divorced mother of two under great pressure at her job, overweight, out of shape, in poor health and ultimately flirting with diabetes and heart disease.
Mauer watched Julie’s heart sink as her doctor gave her the well-worn advice to diet and exercise. She entered a state of overwhelm. Between the kids, work, and other pressures, diet and exercise were out of the question, though she knew that was the only thing that would save her! Just when she needed rational thought, motivation, and drive, his amygdala shut it all off.
The doctor was a little more than annoyed when Dr. Mauer asked Julie, “How about you walk in your place in front of the TV for one minute every day?” Julie perked up. She could do that!
Did marching in place for a minute each day make Julie the picture of health? Of course not! The important thing was that Julie had a breakthrough. If she could do one minute a day, what else was possible? Soon, Julie was marching through a full commercial break during the TV show. She then forced herself to march throughout the show. Julie is now involved in aerobics and is well on her way to facing and conquering her health issues.
Julie tiptoed past her tonsil. Starting with just one minute a day, she was not overwhelmed. Her amygdala was never alerted. She then added a little more to her routine. Then a little more and all the time, her amygdala remained asleep.
In our next lesson, we’ll apply Kaizen to overcome that speech you’re dreading!
