Latest / Dr. Derek H. Suite MD - The SuiteSpot / Embracing the Threat (1/7): The Cold Pool Effect: Why Diving Into Your Fears Works. #MakingMovesMonday.

Transcript

Embracing the Threat (1/7): The Cold Pool Effect: Why Diving Into Your Fears Works. #MakingMovesMonday. · Dr. Derek H. Suite MD - The SuiteSpot

• 0:06
  Speaker 1: Greetings, greetings and welcome back, beautiful souls.
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: Welcome back to the sweet spot.
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: Yes, another week for us to tackle, to go on this journey we call life together.
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: So this week, on the sweet spot, we're going to tackle a theme called embracing the threat.
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: What a perfect theme for a Making Moves Monday episode here on the Sweet Spot.
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: So, embracing the threat, that's what our series is going to be called.
• 0:37
  Speaker 1: And just before I begin, I want to remind you that last week we talked about running the risk and reaping the rewards.
• 0:45
  Speaker 1: What a powerful interaction we had that week.
• 0:48
  Speaker 1: And the week before we talked about when you stand, you win.
• 0:54
  Speaker 1: And the week before that we talked about the power of contagious courage.
• 0:59
  Speaker 1: So if you haven't listened or heard those, or you would like to revisit them, I invite you Check them out.
• 1:08
  Speaker 1: This week, however, here on Making Moves Monday, we're talking about embracing the threat.
• 1:13
  Speaker 1: That's what our series title is going to be, and how we can live the life we want to live at the level we want to live it by embracing the threats we face.
• 1:26
  Speaker 1: And I give Darcelle, my wife, all the credit for this one, because I actually didn't think that I could put together a weeks-long series here on embracing the threat.
• 1:38
  Speaker 1: But as I reflected on what she shared with me, I realized what a compelling and psychologically rich title for a motivational series, and I think you're going to enjoy it.
• 1:52
  Speaker 1: So, as you know, I'm Dr Derek Sweet.
• 1:56
  Speaker 1: I'm a board certified psychiatrist.
• 1:57
  Speaker 1: I work with high performance situations and people, situations and people, and more than that.
• 2:08
  Speaker 1: What I enjoy most is really eliciting from everyone what it takes to live the life one wants to live at the level they want to live it with love, joy, peace and resilience.
• 2:17
  Speaker 1: That's what I'm about.
• 2:18
  Speaker 1: So this embracing the threat theme has so many layers to it that I just wanted to talk about why we're talking about this.
• 2:28
  Speaker 1: Why did we choose embracing the threat?
• 2:32
  Speaker 1: Well, the phrase itself, in my view.
• 2:35
  Speaker 1: Even though I didn't appreciate what my wife first told me about it, I reflected and what I got was this when you say embrace the threat, not just face it, you're also including acceptance, not weak acceptance, but the acceptance that.
• 2:53
  Speaker 1: Okay, this is what I have in front of me, this is what I have to deal with.
• 2:58
  Speaker 1: I fully understand it, but there's going to be a way that I'm going to transform it.
• 3:04
  Speaker 1: Understand it, but there's going to be a way that I'm going to transform it.
• 3:08
  Speaker 1: So embracing the threat already has built into it the idea of acceptance and transformation the level of acceptance you need to face and handle the threat, but also the transformation that comes because you're going to take this threat and turn it into an opportunity to grow, to learn, to achieve and these are really important core principles that you could find in many motivational theories or psychological theories.
• 3:34
  Speaker 1: It's a mindset shift and that's the advantage of using a phrase like embracing the threat.
• 3:42
  Speaker 1: It's a mindset shift.
• 3:45
  Speaker 1: It takes us from fear to growth.
• 3:49
  Speaker 1: A title like this embracing the threat encourages us to shift from being defensive and fear-based to being curious and being empowered.
• 4:03
  Speaker 1: Instead of putting your hands over your eyes, you actually kind of peek out and want to look around the corner to see what's possible here.
• 4:11
  Speaker 1: And this mindset shift kind of aligns with the research showing that when we as human beings reframe threats as opportunities or challenges, what it does is it boosts our motivation, it makes us become more resilient and it sort of generates problem-solving skills inside of us Just the idea that you would take a threat, look at it and say you know what?
• 4:39
  Speaker 1: This is an opportunity, there's something here that I'm going to be able to get out of this that I'm not seeing, that I'll be able to do and take care of and handle and it's going to make me better.
• 4:50
  Speaker 1: Just that alone can make us more motivated, more resilient and a better problem solver.
• 4:57
  Speaker 1: And you know the neuroscience and you know I love talking about neuroscience.
• 5:00
  Speaker 1: I'm not going to bore you with too much of that today, but the neuroscience and positive psychology theory actually support this idea of embracing the threat.
• 5:10
  Speaker 1: You see, when we go around embracing rather than avoiding threats, it engages the higher order level thinking in the brain, like the prefrontal cortex.
• 5:23
  Speaker 1: I promised I wasn't going to say that, but I had to.
• 5:25
  Speaker 1: That's the brain CEO that I always talk about.
• 5:29
  Speaker 1: When you embrace a threat and you don't avoid it, your brain's higher order thinking and your emotional regulation, the parts of your brain that regulate and handle emotion, get better, they get stronger, they broaden and they build on themselves and it makes you more positive and this approach can help you expand your repertoire to be able to handle any threat.
• 5:59
  Speaker 1: It builds on itself.
• 6:00
  Speaker 1: It's the weirdest thing, right, like, if you're afraid, think about this.
• 6:04
  Speaker 1: When you're afraid and you don't want to do something and you don't do it.
• 6:08
  Speaker 1: What happens is the mind, the amygdala, the threat center of the brain that you already know from previous podcasts.
• 6:15
  Speaker 1: The brain has this threat center that it's like a security guard.
• 6:20
  Speaker 1: It's constantly looking for what might be wrong here.
• 6:22
  Speaker 1: And the more you avoid and the more you run away from things and the more you put them off, the more it feels that there's a problem.
• 6:32
  Speaker 1: Brain is always watching us, and so the idea is, when we embrace the threat, it sends the brain a message that hey, it's okay, guess what, he can handle this, she can do this and she's got some strength here, and it builds in either direction.
• 6:48
  Speaker 1: So you find that when you put something off that you're running from or you're afraid of or you're not going to do, well, what happens is that your brain gets better at that and vice versa.
• 6:59
  Speaker 1: Every time you take a step out, like the first time you kind of jump into a pool, or you take a first step in a race or something you build momentum to keep it moving.
• 7:09
  Speaker 1: So embracing the threat leverages neuroscience, it leverages positive psychology, it shifts your mind from fear to growth.
• 7:20
  Speaker 1: Just by embracing it, just by saying I will embrace this threat and I will handle it, and you know, when you embrace threat is another thing that happens.
• 7:34
  Speaker 1: It taps into a sort of a motivational kind of dynamic where the action you take creates a pathway that's not available to you until you actually take the action.
• 7:52
  Speaker 1: The best way to explain it is that until you put your foot into that cold pool of water, you really don't know what it feels like, until you do it, and then you get to be able to say, ah, that's not so bad, okay, I can put my other foot in or I can go a little deeper, right.
• 8:10
  Speaker 1: So you do need to embrace the threat, to tap into this dynamic, that catalytic action that you can take, action based on the actions you're taking.
• 8:22
  Speaker 1: It's like a trigger that builds on itself, and so that's why it's important to think about how you think about threats, right, so that you can have actionable strategies, that you will no longer just back down, run away and hide, but you will be looking for opportunities and ways that you can actually overcome, that you can handle it.
• 8:48
  Speaker 1: There's a book called the Obstacle is the Way that you would make the obstacle work for you.
• 8:54
  Speaker 1: Look, everyone faces threats, and they can be personal, they can be professional, they can be societal.
• 9:02
  Speaker 1: We live in a world full of threats, but you know what?
• 9:07
  Speaker 1: We also live in a world full of opportunity, full of possibilities.
• 9:13
  Speaker 1: And when you embrace it sounds like a soft term but it's an active verb it suggests that you have agency and intentionality.
• 9:26
  Speaker 1: Once you say I'm going to embrace this, it implies that you can choose your response to this threat and you can foster a sense of, or just have a sense of self-efficacy and self-control here, that I'm not just going to be in a fight or flight response, I'm not going to just let my brain go buck wild.
• 9:50
  Speaker 1: And it's Making Moves Monday.
• 9:51
  Speaker 1: So here's how you connect the dots this is Making Moves Monday on the Sweet Spot.
• 9:56
  Speaker 1: So the dots are connected.
• 9:58
  Speaker 1: Very simply, action this action of embracing the threat, when you take it on, action is the antidote to the threat.
• 10:06
  Speaker 1: Making Moves Monday, as you know, is all about initiating action and building momentum at the start of the week.
• 10:14
  Speaker 1: Here it's Monday, all right.
• 10:17
  Speaker 1: So embracing whatever threat or challenge you face aligns with this, because it encourages you not to avoid or to run away from challenges, but to actively engage them and face them.
• 10:31
  Speaker 1: I saw this from my mom and my dad, but especially my mom, who tackles anything that she faces head on.
• 10:40
  Speaker 1: When you embrace a threat, what I've learned from watching her is that you transform it into a source of strength.
• 10:50
  Speaker 1: You are no longer paralyzed by it and you become decisive.
• 10:58
  Speaker 1: And at the end of it invariably at the end of facing these threats you feel so much better for having faced them and having dealt with the challenge and having it behind you.
• 11:11
  Speaker 1: So this is Making Moves Monday, and I want you to think about what threat.
• 11:18
  Speaker 1: I want you to do.
• 11:20
  Speaker 1: Four things.
• 11:21
  Speaker 1: To me, there's a four-step approach I want to give you this week.
• 11:23
  Speaker 1: Identify a threat or a challenge, something internal or external here at the top of the week, something that you're facing, that you're avoiding, that you're putting off, that you don't want to do, that you don't want to face, that you've been really just sort of not being your brave self with.
• 11:44
  Speaker 1: Identify it and give it a name.
• 11:47
  Speaker 1: And once you've identified what it is that's a threat or a challenge or something you're avoiding I want you to take step two and reframe it as an opportunity for growth or learning.
• 12:00
  Speaker 1: Say to yourself I'm facing this challenge, I'm facing this threat, I'm facing this problem, but you know there's an opportunity here that I'm not seeing.
• 12:09
  Speaker 1: And here's the opportunity.
• 12:10
  Speaker 1: If I tackle it, this is what can work possibly well for me.
• 12:14
  Speaker 1: This is how I'll grow through this.
• 12:17
  Speaker 1: This is what I'm going to learn here.
• 12:19
  Speaker 1: This is what's going to happen for me.
• 12:23
  Speaker 1: And then, step three take a specific, actionable step.
• 12:27
  Speaker 1: It's Making Moves.
• 12:29
  Speaker 1: Monday, make a move towards engaging with this threat, however small.
• 12:34
  Speaker 1: It could be simply writing down what your steps are going to be.
• 12:40
  Speaker 1: It could be simply sending an email, making a phone call, deciding that you're going to go visit this doctor, you're going to make the appointment.
• 12:46
  Speaker 1: Whatever that step is going to be, do it today.
• 12:50
  Speaker 1: Take a step.
• 12:51
  Speaker 1: I'm not saying get up the entire staircase, just take the step.
• 12:56
  Speaker 1: What is the one step that you can do?
• 12:58
  Speaker 1: And then, step four Reflect on the progress and how this action that you're taking is transforming your anxiety into motivation.
• 13:11
  Speaker 1: That's all I want you to do.
• 13:13
  Speaker 1: Identify it, name it, reframe it.
• 13:16
  Speaker 1: Take one step towards it.
• 13:19
  Speaker 1: Reflect on how you feel having taken just that one step.
• 13:23
  Speaker 1: Just that one step.
• 13:26
  Speaker 1: That's all I'm asking you to do.
• 13:28
  Speaker 1: You'll be surprised that how the threat center in your brain will calm itself down once you have taken action, once it sees you taking action it knows.
• 13:39
  Speaker 1: Don't make her more afraid, don't make him more afraid.
• 13:44
  Speaker 1: Name the threat, reframe it, choose a small, concrete action and then you journal about it, reflect about it and become stronger for having done it.
• 13:57
  Speaker 1: Look, if you don't like the neuroscience, let's go with some ancient wisdom.
• 13:59
  Speaker 1: And I'm going to close.
• 14:00
  Speaker 1: I love ancient wisdom.
• 14:04
  Speaker 1: I love reading the word, you know why?
• 14:06
  Speaker 1: Because it gives you another perspective.
• 14:09
  Speaker 1: All right, maybe you're not so convinced by the threat detection center in the brain and the amygdala and the prefrontal cortex, but how about this?
• 14:15
  Speaker 1: In the word, it says that have I not commanded you to be strong, to be brave, and that I will be with you to the end?
• 14:25
  Speaker 1: I will fight your battles for you and I will be there with you.
• 14:26
  Speaker 1: Fear thou not, I shall be with you to the end.
• 14:27
  Speaker 1: I will fight your battles for you and I will be there with you.
• 14:28
  Speaker 1: Fear thou not, I shall be with you.
• 14:32
  Speaker 1: You know, if we only knew who and what was beside us when we face any challenge, we would never shrink and never back down.
• 14:49
  Speaker 1: That's just the way it is in the big, spiritual, spooky world, okay, is that there's something bigger, something more powerful that we can trust in than ourselves.
• 15:02
  Speaker 1: Even when we feel a fear or we feel afraid, we can take something with us, something accompanies us so that we can feel the fear, but do it anyway, all right.
• 15:15
  Speaker 1: Okay, my friends, it's Making Moves Monday.
• 15:17
  Speaker 1: We're embracing threats this week.
• 15:19
  Speaker 1: There's a lot to cover.
• 15:20
  Speaker 1: There is a lot to cover, so think about it and start thinking about how you're going to take action.
• 15:26
  Speaker 1: Action is the foundation.
• 15:30
  Speaker 1: Picasso, the famous painter, said that action is the foundational key to all successes.
• 15:37
  Speaker 1: When we act, when we move from fear to faith and growth, every threat becomes an invitation for us to stretch, to become stronger, to have experience and to look back and know how powerful we can be.
• 15:56
  Speaker 1: God bless you.
• 15:58
  Speaker 1: This isn't just about feeling brave, it's about stepping forward.
• 16:02
  Speaker 1: It's about taking action.
• 16:03
  Speaker 1: It's about trusting that you're not alone in the process.
• 16:06
  Speaker 1: I'm right, here with you.
• 16:07
  Speaker 1: Action is faith in motion.
• 16:09
  Speaker 1: And today's Making Moves Monday, I'm Dr Sweet.
• 16:13
  Speaker 1: I'm walking with you, dm me, email me, text me, let me know how you took action this week.
• 16:19
  Speaker 1: What did you do, what did you face, and give me your testimony of how well it went.
• 16:25
  Speaker 1: And if it didn't go well, what plan do we have to keep moving forward Love and blessings.
• 16:34
  Speaker 1: I'll see you tomorrow for Take Action Tuesday and if you're feeling this, please subscribe to the YouTube channel.
• 16:41
  Speaker 1: Like, but more than that, share it with someone who can use this message about embracing, embracing threat, embracing challenge and living a life they love.