From the book, “Unwinding Anxiety: New Science Shows How to Break the Cycles of Worry and Fear to Heal Your Mind” by Judson Brewer:
I always see people talk about how our brains our wired. A part of me thinks that’s a wrong metaphor or something. I think the author is saying cuz of the way the brain works. How does software and hardware stuff from the brain relate to this?
the more shocking the news—increasing our sense of danger and feelings of fear—the more likely our brains are to remember it.
There’s a relationship here that says the more shocking the news the more likely our brains will remember it. That sounds right and wrong. Does likely mean it’s based on chance? Is it based on context? Like, because you’re afraid of x,y, and z you’re more likely going to remember the shocking news.
The quote makes sense to me in a way cuz if you get afraid of something and find it dangerous, it’s going to be hard to forget about it. I think we pay a lot of attention to the things we’re afraid cuz it could be bad for our survival. Idk
There’s this hyphenated part of the quote:
—increasing our sense of danger and feelings of fear—
I remember we were talking about sense of danger and feelings of fear. That’s the stuff that helps us learn something quickly. It’s from that example about crossing the street where you’re about to get hit and you quickly learn that it could be dangerous to cross the street. I remember as a kid learning about looking both ways to cross the street. I was slightly afraid of getting hit, but it made sense to me to remember it and try it out when I cross a street. I heard that a lot of people get hurt from not crossing one properly and I wanted to do as much as I could to cross one safely I think.
I think to tie it back to the covid example from the book: You could remember some things about covid better cuz it made you afraid and made you think that it’s dangerous. It reminds me of when I learned about people doing backflips and rolls and getting hurt. I didn’t want to get badly injured so I learned about tucking your head to the side to not bend the neck weirdly. That’s when doing a forward roll on the ground.