On Purpose with Jay Shetty
Wendy Suzuki: 2 Powerful Tools To Use When You Feel Stressed Out (This Will Lower Your Anxiety in 1 Minute)
Mon, 17 Mar 2025
What’s one thing that’s been stressing you out lately? Have you noticed any physical signs of stress in your body? Today, Jay with renowned neuroscientist, professor, and author Dr. Wendy Suzuki to explore the science of anxiety, stress, and resilience. Wendy is the author of Good Anxiety: Harnessing the Power of the Most Misunderstood Emotion and Healthy Brain, Happy Life, where she explores how movement, mindfulness, and positive habits can enhance brain function. Jay and Wendy discuss the physiological effects of chronic stress, how it impacts key brain regions like the hippocampus and prefrontal cortex, and why movement, breathwork, and mindfulness are essential for improving brain health. They also examine why so many people ignore their own stress cues and how simple daily habits can rewire the brain for greater well-being. Wendy opens up about her personal experience with grief, explaining that the flip side of anxiety and grief is deep love. She shares why embracing these emotions, rather than avoiding them, is key to healing. Jay also reflects on his own journey of overcoming anxiety and the mindset shifts that foster growth and resilience. In this interview, you'll learn: How to Reduce Stress and Anxiety Through Breathwork How to Use Movement to Improve Brain Health How to Identify Your Personal Stress Cues How to Build Resilience After Trauma How to Create a Morning Routine for Mental Clarity How to Foster Meaningful Social Connections for Brain Health Instead of letting stress and anxiety control you, start taking small, intentional steps to rewire your mind for resilience, clarity, and joy. With Love and Gratitude, Jay Shetty Join over 750,000 people to receive my most transformative wisdom directly in your inbox every single week with my free newsletter. Subscribe here. Join Jay for his first ever, On Purpose Live Tour! Tickets are on sale now. Hope to see you there! What We Discuss: 00:00 Intro 01:11 Get to Know the Brain's Potential 02:10 What Makes a Healthy Brain? 04:35 The Complexity of the Brain 06:12 Scientific Difference Between Anxiety and Stress 09:42 Breathing Techniques for Anxiety 15:36 The Dangers of Chronic Stress 17:34 Protect Your Brain from Stress and Anxiety 19:38 What's Your Morning Routine? 21:39 Exercise Promotes Better Brain Function 23:36 Staying Focused Takes Effort 26:34 Start Small to Build a Habit 28:38 Everyday Anxiety Versus Anxiety Disorder 33:05 How to Look at Anxiety Differently 36:24 Approaching Grief with Positivity 40:03 How Resilient is the Brain? 42:57 Emotional Trauma 45:19 Can We Resilience Against Trauma? 47:29 The Joy Conditioning 52:32 The Classic Growth Mindset 57:13 What Happens in the Brain During Healing 01:00:20 The 5 Pillars of Better Brain Health 01:05:48 Find a Natural Place of Community Gathering 01:07:43 Develop the Love for Learning 01:11:37 Your Brain is Beautiful 01:14:04 Does Positive Affirmation Work? 01:15:05 4 Things That Make Memories Stick 01:19:35 How to Strengthen Your Memory 01:20:47 Wendy on Final Five Episode Resources: Wendy Suzuki | Website Wendy Suzuki | Flickr Wendy Suzuki | Instagram Wendy Suzuki | Facebook Wendy Suzuki | LinkedIn Good Anxiety: Harnessing the Power of the Most Misunderstood EmotionSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Chapter 1: What is the potential of the human brain?
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We have years of knowledge, but there is an enormous amount that we still don't know. There are brain areas we have no idea what they do. Every ping of the phone is anxiety producing, which then launches your stress response and that keeps us stressful for way too much of the day. So many people are appreciating at a higher level stress and anxiety and depression.
A little bit of that is actually good for the brain. You want to live a long, healthy, energized life. Start paying attention to all the things you need to do to make your brain work beautifully. It defines everything that we do and everything that we are.
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Wendy, thank you so much for being here. I'm so grateful to have you on On Purpose. I was really looking forward to this.
Oh, thank you.
And even just the few words we've exchanged now, I'm like, all right, click record ASAP. We need to capture all of it. Thank you so much.
Thank you for having me. I'm thrilled to be here.
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Chapter 2: How can you identify if your brain is healthy?
But I feel when we talk about the brain and what's relevant to us, I think about what does a healthy and unhealthy brain feel like?
Yes.
And how do we know whether we have a healthy or unhealthy brain?
I think that the answer to that is so many people are appreciating at a higher level their stress and anxiety and depression. A little bit of that is actually good for the brain. chronic all the time, can't get out from under the cloud or the big rock around your neck that anxiety can feel like, that is not good for your brain.
High levels of stress overall will start to first damage and then kill some neurons in your brain. That is not good. So if you are at that level, that is not good for your brain.
What about someone who says, and I'm sure you hear this all the time, Wendy, oh, you know, stress doesn't really affect me. You know, I can just keep going. I don't really notice it. What would you say to someone who says that?
I would say I said that a lot to myself. And when I sat down to write my second book, Good Anxiety, I realized how much stress and anxiety that I was dealing with in my life. And also, I think the key was there were simple tools that one could use to address not all forms of your stress and anxiety, but a lot of those forms of stress and anxiety. And so the first step is awareness.
Yeah. So becoming aware, why are we in denial about our stress?
I think, well, I live in New York City. People like to wear a badge of stress. Oh, you know, every time you answer, how are you? Oh, so stressed out. So much to do. It's like a badge of honor. So I think that that has become part of our individualistic society. And that's not good. I mean, what you should be able to say at least a good chunk of the time is actually, I'm doing well. I feel good.
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Chapter 3: What are the physiological effects of stress and anxiety?
Yeah. No matter how much you think you've got away with it up until now, it's not good to keep pushing that and testing how far the brain can go. Exactly. Walk me through the difference between anxiety and stress and why is it important to know the difference?
They are intertwined in a really complex way. So physiologically, the stress response is enacted by the sympathetic nervous system, and it's all those feelings that we are very familiar with. Increased heart rate, increased respiration rate, our eyes dilate.
There's an upset stomach because actually blood is rushing away from our digestion and reproductive systems towards our muscles because the response is to get us ready to run away, to physically flee. Now, anxiety is the emotion of fearing something that is coming up in the future that could, that we don't like, that could harm us. In its essence, it is protective.
So, you know, a woman 3.5 million years ago trying to protect her baby wanted to use those feelings of anxiety to keep that baby safe from those physical dangers that were there. The problem is that in today's world, every ping of the phone is anxiety producing, which then launches your stress response. And that keeps us stressful for way too much of the day. So the key, I think, is learning how
to turn the volume down on those anxiety cues that then launch stress. And learning what they are for yourself, but also using the tools of science to turn that volume down. It's a simple first step that everybody can take. How do we do that? So the first thing that you can do is first realize, you said, how do we know we're stressed? Self-reflect for a moment.
Am I telling everybody I'm stressed all the time? Do I not sleep well because of stress? When you do that, there are my number one and number two tools that I immediately go to. And I know you've talked about this so many times on your show. Number one, because it is immediate stress. is deep breathing, breath work. Why?
Because breath work activates the equal and opposite part of that sympathetic fight or flight system, the parasympathetic system. I told you all the things that stress activates, heart rate raise, respiration raise, you know, your blood rushing. I can't control where my blood rushes and I can't really control my heart rate, but I can control exactly how deep and profound and deep
frequent my breathing is. So that's why just deep breathing, just two or three times can, you know, try it out. It can really calm you down. And if you practice it, it gets even more powerful. That's my tool, go-to number one. And it's number one, because if I'm getting anxious about this interview, I could actually do this in the background. You don't even know.
And I can calm myself down even in the heat of a, this is not a stressful, conversation at all, but I'm pretending that, you know, it could be. Number two is moving your body. And so 10 minutes of walking outside or anywhere up and down the stairs, down the hallway has been shown to decrease your anxiety and stress levels.
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Chapter 4: How can breathwork and movement help reduce anxiety?
experience of deep tissue massage in certain places that triggered just crying in me. And I'm so sorry, what's happening? They said, no, I've just touched a point in your body that you store a lot of stress.
You mean like actually crying?
actual physical crying. I couldn't help it. It's happened just twice, but that was my very clear cue that I also store a lot of stress and anxiety in my own body. You have to go and look for that, and you have to notice it, and you have to remind yourself when you've been covering up. your own stress and anxiety, which I am also a master of. It takes a little exploration.
And I think that listening to others and actually asking a friend, do you notice times when you think I'm more stressed than others? And sometimes you might be surprised. That might be a really good moment of realization. And so then your second question was, once you realize you're in this moment, how do you remind yourself to breathe? And that's a hard one.
And I think the best way is don't wait until, say, oh, I'm anxious. I need to breathe. But never having any practice with this breathing. It is wonderful to take... to take a class time and go to a breath meditation class. You learn so much because there is literally thousands of years of breath work technique to learn. And I've been exploring that as well. But you don't have to get super fancy.
Sometimes it's just about, you said you like the inhale and exhale for a longer time. That is a very basic but powerful one. Explore that on YouTube. There are thousands of free meditations you can do that. I always send people there. Practice it. See which ones you like. Sometimes it's too long of a hold for people and you have to find the one that you like. Practice it.
Get it comfortable with yourself. And then it'll be easier to call it up when you do notice that moment coming up.
Yeah, I agree. I think that's great advice. It's you can't have something help you. It's almost like I remember being at school and they'd always train you with what happens if there was a fire. Yeah, yeah. So you're training when there isn't a fire.
Yes, yes.
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Chapter 5: What is the difference between everyday anxiety and an anxiety disorder?
Yeah.
There's nothing ahead of you. You're chopping down the trees and leaves in front of you.
Exactly.
You're building the bridge, the pathway.
Yes.
And that's why it hurts. And it's so interesting when you think about it that way.
Yeah.
Because you go, oh, okay, so every time I walk over that bridge. Yeah. it will become stronger. And every time I step on that step, that path becomes clearer. And now it's going to be easier for me every time. It's fascinating to me just how everything that's good for you seems hard and everything that's bad for you seems easy.
Well, yes. I think at a certain point of the journey, that is absolutely the case. But at a different point of the journey, when you've cut down those trees with your machete, it feels glorious to be able to have these deep conversations with your friends and build that habit with your friends and your loved ones. And Build that habit of first thing in the morning, no phone and meditation.
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Chapter 6: How can anxiety be turned into a superpower?
Yes.
And I really believe that it's like, it's a muscle that you need to develop. So I go, okay, if I'm anxious about going to this event and having to do small talk, it's because I haven't built the skill to be able to do small talk.
Yes.
So maybe if I read a book or I spoke to someone or I sat down with an expert or I listened to a podcast with an expert on how to have good conversations, all of a sudden now I know what questions to ask and at least it makes me feel comfortable.
Exactly.
Or if, hey, I'm nervous about the fact that I've been asked to do something at work and I know nothing about it. Yeah. hey, let me go and take a course on it or a class on it. And I feel I always look at anxiety as just a sign of what's a skill I don't have, a quality I haven't developed, an ability or a priority I haven't made. And now let me do that.
It could be the skill of having tough conversations, the skill of learning to say no, the skill of setting boundaries, whatever it may be. It's just this one skill away to not, not that I won't feel that anxiety ever again, but that I can actually better manage that anxiety when it arises.
Right. I love that because you've just created a new superpower of anxiety, which is the love of learning. So can you turn your anxieties into the next learning project that you have and then get better at small talk or whatever you're anxious about? I love that.
Yeah, no, it's the only thing that's ever helped me for so many years subconsciously. I've just, I've always experienced anxiety, but I've found that it just got less and less and less as my skills developed. And developing those skills was hard and that took time and effort and it wasn't easy. But as those skills grew, now it was just like, oh, I can manage this. I know I can deal with this.
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Chapter 7: How does emotional trauma affect the brain?
I'm going to tell you guys right now, I know my mother and I know my mom had a very forgiving heart. That is my story on plastic surgery. This is my truth. I think the last time I cried like that was when I lost my mom. Like that, like yelling. I was like, no. I was like, oh, and I thought, what did I do wrong?
And as always, you'll get my exclusive take on topics like love, personal growth, health, family ties, and more. And don't forget, I'll also be dishing out my best advice to you on episodes of Dear Chiquis.
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Yeah, yeah. Is it possible... to prepare for future trauma, or is the only way to be prepared for it to go through it? Can we build resilience before a traumatic event?
Yeah, I think I wouldn't recommend that everybody goes out to try and prepare for trauma, but everybody has some form of trauma. And I think... going back to your superpower of anxiety and learning, learning from that. And also realizing, this was another big realization for me, you're not going to get rid of that deep negative emotion.
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Chapter 8: How did Dr. Wendy Suzuki cope with grief and anxiety?
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You make it sound so simple in terms of what we need to do. When you talk about breathing and moving, it's as simple as that. What if we're doing breathing and moving and we're still not feeling positive benefits? What could be at play there?
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