Good evening to people as we start to come in to. Tonight's session. And welcome to you.

My name's Doctor Mike Scanlon. Mike, for the next 6 weeks, the next 6 sessions that we, we have together, and. As people start to come into the course, I'd like to welcome those of you attending live and to those of you who will access the recordings, of course.

So harnessing neuroscience knowledge and those strategies to therapeutically, I think that's the essence, is making, making the science therapeutic is the trick, I think, to improve our own management of stress. And we do live in incredibly stressful times, don't we? You know, with the cost of living changes, with the sense of threat that we all live with, with the Some would say perhaps some of the moral decline in standards even that we experience around us.

And I think since COVID, maybe that that increased sense of threat, as I said earlier, that, that, that I think we, we, we probably live with and . So I've been working in mental health now for over 30 years, and in a variety of guises, more recently, I suppose, I've had quite an academic role, to be honest, doing lots of, work with universities, lots of work exploring, trying to find new ways of. Perhaps delivering mental health and ways of helping people, particularly with what we would call common mental health problems, depression, anxiety, stress-related stuff.

And I've become really, really interested over the last, 5 or 6 years, really, in. Beginning to look at why as well as how and when you start to look at why and how, you inevitably start to. Be drawn to neuroscience and the burgeoning evidence that is so much more available to us than it ever, ever was.

Some years ago, I remember as and, and, and being qualified and being busy, and I remember reading very early papers proposing, an understanding of neuroimmunology. And beginning, the beginnings of this discussion that the immune system in human beings could be. Affected both .

Harmoniously and dilatoriously by an exacerbation of stress and at that time it was really sort of really, you know, the brain can do that and the brain body connection is quite as as, as distinct as all that. And then what sort of happened was the burgeoning and the . The growth in FMRI scanners and the growth in technology.

And you have universities in the states, for instance, classic, Stanford University at the states with their neuropsychology departments and their neuroscience departments that are beginning to do incredible experiments, some of them with, humans, some of them. With animals, some of them with rodents, and, and, and they're, they're, they're beginning to. Broaden our understanding of the how does the brain work and why does the brain work the way it does.

And in understanding this stuff. We can change our psychologies and we can adapt the way that we. Deliver psychological interventions, which is, I suppose, what, I've become really interested in over the last few years.

And we can start to develop new technologies that will, use the science of alpha waves, for instance, to help with pain and to help calm, and to help emotional regulation. And we are learning so much about the role of the brain. And its link with managing stress, and I suppose this is relatively .

Early days still, I remember a scientist called Isaac Marks talking about mental health and saying that we were still in the toddler stage of our understanding of the brain, and that was about 15 years ago that Isaac said that at a conference I attended, and my guess would be that, and we're no longer at the toddler stage of development. It feels like we're in the early twenties because there's been a surge in understanding. So my hope is that.

Together, we can enjoy exploring and finding ways with which we can harness some of this knowledge, make sense of it, make use of it. And you guys out there and me, because, you know, I live and breathe this stuff, because I've always suffered with, anxiety and depression. All of my life, actually.

All of my life since, I suppose. Mid-twenties, I started to struggle a little bit. And so I've come at this from somebody who has struggled with some of this stuff, and somebody who's been fascinated by it and somebody who's also worked within the field at pretty pretty high levels, really, and influential levels, and I still love it.

So As I found in my life. From time to time, our mood does drop, and this is a learning course, you know, the course isn't intended to become a sort of panacea for our mental health at all. Although I really do believe that those of you that stick with the course and work with some of the concepts and some of the activities and strategies that we will explore together, you will get to a better way of living.

You really will. And, my hope is. That if anybody does struggle that you'll look at this slide and you'll use vet life, you know, as a.

As a professional group, those of you working in the veterinary profession, you do have access to this wonderful organisation, and I would just say use the helpline. And don't forget, despite the myths that are out there, that, you know, you, you just can't get hold of a GP today, I can reassure you that if you, get through. And it may take time, but once you get through to your GP if you tell them that you are overwhelmed and your capacity to cope is reduced to a level where you feel at risk, you will get help.

Sometimes it's about persistence. So, of course my hope is that people aren't going to be in this dark place, but I think we are duty bound to remind you, seek help. Never sit quietly with this stuff.

The brain doesn't like it, you know, it, it really doesn't. And when we are. We hit a level of brain overwhelm.

We just can't think with any clarity. We can't perform our daily tasks. We make mistakes.

We stop sleeping, and before we know it, we're into that vicious circle of stress and . Worry and dread, and that doesn't work for any humans. So The three layers and I am not going to pretend to you guys that I am, because I'm not a neurologist.

I am a. Mental health. Practitioner, I am a doctor of mental health.

I have a doctorate in primary care mental health. I work with most of the major mental health disorders. I teach at a few universities.

And I'm still not a neurologist. I am somebody who has learnt to. Harness My burgeoning knowledge of neurology and make it work.

Psychologically, To help people manage stress and what I know. And what we can make use of is the triune. Approach of understanding the brain and sometimes.

It really benefits us, I believe, to simplify it down into these broad functions. So the brain stem. Now so much of what you guys, what I experience as stress, as the real sort of lived experience of stress.

The autonomic nervous system stuff. This is the part of the brain right there with that brain stem, the survival level of our brain, you know, and that survival level of that brain is as old as we are, you know, and sometimes. That old part of the brain, is responsible for fear, you know, it's, it's, it's responsible for our heart beating, our, our, our, our, our.

Homeostasis, our whole body just to survive. And for some time, particularly in one of the therapy approaches that I've been trained in, in, compassion focused therapy. I remember we used to talk about the old reptilian brain, you know, which is that prior to the mammalian brain, which is that sort of sense that, you know, a reptile, the idea being that reptiles don't need any.

Affiliative functioning because the, the, the, the, the baby snake is born and it's sort of like good luck you're off on your own and it swims off. And. We kind of mistakenly talked about that in the term of the reptilian brain.

I'm not sure that's that helpful. I think what . Is more helpful is this is our surviving brain.

The brain stem is the bit that's responsible for us, making sure that we get out there in the world and we just flipping survive, you know? And then we develop this limbic system, the more emotional level, and . This is a part of the brain that.

Connects events with memories that responds emotionally, that drives our impulses, our aversions, our, our, our desires. This is where some of our fear sits as well, and I prefer to call this our thriving brain because if our limbic system is working well. As we tend to thrive as as human beings, we emote well.

We connect well. We use memories rather than be troubled by memories, and our drive system is driven towards happiness and connectedness rather than being driven to just being safe. You know, it's really important stuff, this isn't it?

And then we have our cortex, the thinking layer. And I think it's helpful to think of this bit. As may be our tricky brain, but we'll get to that.

And it's a bit responsible for consciousness, the language, which is so, so important because we are a linguistic species, you know, and we can literally talk ourselves into a dark place. We've done it. You guys can all experience this.

We can talk ourselves into feeling fear. We can talk ourselves out of it. And we can talk ourselves into all sorts of aversive situations if our survival layer and our emotional layer are largely driven by a sense of threat, and all too often that thinking layer gets very, very stuck into a place of striving.

Rather than thriving And a that striving brain is always more, more, more achieve, achieve, achieve and maybe never quite in 21st century life. Doesn't stop. And look around And let in what's happening.

Over our time over the next 6 weeks, we want to start working, making sense of some of this stuff and using it so that. Our experience of living, working, being becomes much more manageable. And especially if we are human beings that are struggling at the moment.

With stress, and my guess is if you're on the course today, that stress is something that you would like to manage, just that little bit better. If anybody has any thoughts, any questions, any comments they'd like to make, we will have time at the end. However, if you want to ask a question, as we go along, if I can, I'll always try and answer.

And if it feels like it would interrupt the flow, then when we get to the end, we'll have a look and answer any questions then. So, . You know, allow yourselves the opportunity not to sit there with, gosh, I wonder if what Mike means by that is this, ask.

It's absolutely fine. Tricky brains. We're gonna get to the first.

We don't take long on this course, you know, we, we do get into what I think is gonna be some quite helpful stuff quite early on today. And Over the years I've started to use this phrase and started to help people stop and recognise that. Evolutionary wise.

We have evolved these really tricky brains as humans. And I'm guessing, although you guys work with animals all the time, but I'm guessing that. Most of the other.

Creatures that inhabit our earth probably don't have quite such tricky brains as we do. And we are, as the slide says, an emergent species. And our brain Has evolved.

And has been designed primarily. If we go back in time to. Fulfil those biological, .

Must survive. Procreate, feed, mate, keep warm, you know, we, we, we evolutionary wise, we are hardwired to function in certain ways. And we definitely as human beings have an appetitive.

Side to us, we move towards, we make towards moves towards the stuff of life that might sustain us and might benefit us, and we tend to. Hide away from and withdraw. From stuff that might potentially harm us and the problem with our tricky brains is, is that our brains start to.

Develop oversensitivity sometimes, which means that. We start to move away from stuff that our tricky brain tells us will harm us when it really won't, you know? And the best example of that can be found, in our response to pain.

You know, we know that the human brain can produce phantom pain. We know that pain is inextricably linked to emotion, is inextricably linked to the brain. At We're beginning to make new understandings as we look at pain, and we're beginning to realise that we can influence our pain by talking to our brains, you know, and.

We, we call this somatic tracking and. The evidence base is growing daily, weekly. That we can make a We can actually start to.

Have a new relationship with our brain that helps us with pain, that helps us with stress. And as we think about this evolutionary process. So much in life that causes our suffering we haven't chosen, and it's not our fault.

It's because our brains have evolved in a way. That . Sometimes gets us into situations where we hide.

Rather than quietly meet with curiosity and if we hide too much because of stress. The world we live in begins to shrink. The more We hide the more the world shrinks for us.

The more the world shrinks for us, the less appetitive drive we have. And our happiness starts to decline because the world we live in becomes smaller and more confined, with less choice and less stimuli. So we can't allow the tricky brain to win.

So Kind of a simplistic way of looking at this would have been. That we have moved from a creature that was . Pretty much driven.

By Those baser instincts right down there 500 million years ago maybe. And we've moved with this mammalian. Development into .

A species that cares, that enjoys company. That is safer when we build alliances. That learns through play, that values status.

And We've started to develop into a species that values symbolic thought, that is able to. Develop a a clear identity of self, you know, and we do exist as very cogent individuals, just millions upon millions and millions of us, but with our own uniqueness. And possibly.

We are evolving into. Some would argue a more mindful version of humankind and Anyone can guess. Where we're going.

And maybe with the advent of artificial intelligence, with the increasing reliance on technology. And media Who knows? Where we're at, where we're headed.

One thing we do know. Is that wherever we're headed. We are going to take with us.

Our tricky brains, so let's make sense of these tricky brains. So how do we, and this, we will get to the helpful bit, promise. And, and this is the beginnings of it really.

So. I'd like to look at our tricky brains and. Make a little bit of sense of it.

So a zebra That is chaste By a lion And not caught. And the lion gives up and goes back and falls asleep. 2 minutes later.

That same zebra, top right hand corner. It's now just crazy. That zebra, .

Just isn't bothered, you know, it's, it's got away, and that's it. All it has to do now is feed again. So the priority.

The priority that showed up was escape. Fear, drive, be safe. As soon as it's safe, straight back to one of those.

Co pursuits, feeding. Grazing mating. You know, and it seems, and we, we, we presume that the zebra doesn't.

Do what we would do in that situation. So imagine us in that situation, you know, we run like mad, we escape the lion. I'm guessing we probably wouldn't.

However, in this tonight's course, let's just say we escape the lion, and then we're left with, oh my God, you know, do you know what, that, that lion could have got me. And if that lion had got me, it would have been my fault. And then the tricky brain goes, and you were so stupid.

Imagine being so stupid to walk upon there. You're a complete idiot. How could you have done that?

So then our inner critic starts to. Get involved into the conversation. And then we have a real kind of, terrible big global fear.

Oh my God, if I'd have died then, I never would have achieved everything I probably could achieve. So our minds go into a future that might not actually happen because I could have been eaten by this lion that actually didn't quite get me. And so we become.

Transfixed with shoulds, oughts, might haves, could have, what might happen in the future, labelling, negativity, and above all, almost certainty. Our brain starts to beat us up. How could you be so stupid?

Why did you possibly leave the Land Rover and walk around on the savannah when you knew there would be lions? Have you lost your mind? Was your mother-in-law right?

You are stupid. You know, and all of that old stuff, all of that. Verbal stuff just starts to emerge in us, and that friends is our tricky brain and that's why we struggle so much with stress because when stuff happens in our lives, when we get things wrong, when threat emerges, when we find ourselves in difficult places.

We overthink. And our inner critic comes in and undermines us, and we get ourselves into situations where we start to hide. And when we start to hide, we start to worry about who we're not seeing.

And it becomes this vicious circle of stress, and that's because neurologically speaking. We have tricky brains. So What can we do about this?

How can we use a course like the one we're on to try and mitigate some of this stuff? What can we do to get a little bit better? Well, we can understand that.

One way of understanding this is to. Suggest that . Building and understanding.

Of our emotional regulation, how do we emotionally regulate ourselves? Well. I like I really like this explanation.

Makes real sense. So again, neurologically speaking, we have threat. You know, the old brain.

The old brain that . Involves the amygdala, the fear centre that sends us chemicals like cortisol, adrenaline, and responds to actual and wait for it perceived stress and gets an awful lot of stuff wrong. And that old brain motivates us.

That you'd better be safe rather than sorry, so it's a restrictive. Response to this threat. And it's always switched on, even when we're asleep, you know, we hear a creak downstairs and we wake suddenly.

You know, even in sleep, it's just ticking away, scanning the environment, aware of threat, which is why when we're struggling with too much stress, we don't sleep because the amygdala doesn't sleep either. And this threat drive where the motivation is better than sorry sometimes then means that We are driven To get things done, to be on top of everything, and sometimes we're driven in a way that we call the manic defence, which is because of this sense of threat we do more and more and more to make ourselves safe and as we do more and more and more and as we achieve more and more. Our neurology of our brain becomes interesting because once again we get greater short-term releases of dopamine.

So it feels quite good in the short term. To be that busy, to be that on top of everything that we're going to do. But then we get tired.

And as we get tired, that better safe than sorry kicks in. And because we've had too much cortisol, you, you can see where this is going. So it goes into this vicious circle and sometimes we completely forget.

That as well as the motivates of better safe than sorry, as well as the motivation of achievement and building resource. We need to rest. We need to digest.

We need to connect with the needs of self and others. We need. To self soothe And all too often, that's the bit that stressed people don't do.

We don't soothe nearly enough because we get stuck with threat and drive. Let's look at this. In a way that we can use ourselves, let's take Karim.

So most of the, I've worked with so many vets. Over the years with 1 to 1 therapy which I'm doing. Much, much less of these days, just because I turned 60 last year, and still enough of it though, and, .

So I've put together a scenario based on the sort of thinking that I've come across with you guys sometimes. Because you are competitive human beings very often, . That, that's my sort of take on a great many of my GP colleagues and vets who I think are very similarly driven, it feels.

Anyway, so Kareem's, checking on Facebook as we do, when he sees a picture of his colleagues having, by the looks on their faces, a really good time at a gathering. The comment attached to the picture reads, like-minded professionals having a great time. When he sees the picture and reads the comment, his old brain sends feelings of fear.

His autonomic system kicks in. I'm adding to the slide. And he begins to feel really anxious.

And then his new brain, because the new brain is imaginative, the new brain creates scenarios, is very, very tricky. The new brain. Causes a thought to come in.

They're having such a great time. Why wasn't I invited? So that new brain, which is imaginative, which is curious, which is.

Creates stories and pictures and emotions starts to. Build into this, the new brain then sends another thought, maybe because it tries to make sense of the world. The old brain just sends the emotion and connects with the autonomic system and sends the emotion coupled with the bodily sensations of fear.

However, that new brain says, Ah, maybe I didn't get an invite because I didn't send Sarah birthday greetings last month. Karim then noticed that these sorts of thoughts and feelings have started to go round, so the new brain ruminates. Old brain sends the feelings, the emotions, and the autonomic stuff.

New brain starts to churn and make sense of and . Really? Get us into a difficult situation.

Excuse me one second, as you can hear, I've got my dog in the background, and he's just decided he wants my daughter. And so back, and somebody has very kindly come in and rescued Billy. Because he heard my daughter come in and his old brain said, food.

Anyway, so we've been . Interrupted by a dog. I'm guessing you guys are very used to that.

So then Kareem's, new brain starts to ruminate. And he does something and a bit later. It just starts to feel a little calmer and this new thought Karim I noticed has just turned into her.

A new thought shows up. And it's still not that great because he's angry now. And this is another unhelpful emotion linked to stress.

That flipping Sarah, she knew why I didn't send her a card. I explained to her at the time, and she said she understood. So a new truth develops, it must be her flipping fault.

So the old brain which sends the fear. And sends the emotion and sends the bodily sensations of stress conspires with the new brain now to create a new reality. And so Karim starts to not only feel angry at Sarah but at all of his colleagues as well.

So he sends a message to all of his colleagues. This did happen, by the way, but I've changed names and changed the scenario slightly. Sends a pretty big email to a lot of people telling them what lowlifes they all are, and how upset he was and how angry he was and how much he thought they were mates and they really weren't.

And if he thought that they were gonna, get together as they normally do as a cohort of vets in the next few weeks, then you can forget it cause he ain't flaming coming. The stress Makes him act in a certain way that absolutely is gonna cause moral stress in the future. So the old brain, and the new brain conspire unhelpfully.

Now our work this week is going to be. I'm hoping you guys are gonna be able to work in what I call loops, because let's look at this. As loops, let's see if we can make sense of this as loops.

So I sit down with Karim. As a therapist, as I'm kind of doing with you guys, and I say, OK, so let's loop this. So the first loop that happens, old brain sends autonomic fear response, .

Sharpness of breath, shallow breathing, almost certainly and probably breathing through his mouth, almost certainly. That autonomic response triggers a new brain, and the new brain comes in very unhelpfully, automatically, and because Karim is not in a great place and he's feeling very stressed and he's feeling hurt, new brain comes in, conspires with old brain. To start this chain of emotive driven thinking.

Why wasn't I invited Old brain. Ramps up the fear more cortisol, greater amygdalic activity, probably tension in the shoulders. And breathing quite shallowly maybe even holding breath.

New brain creates a new story. Maybe it was just because I forgot the card. Old brain, the anger switches over and becomes internalised and the inner critic enters the room.

You're such a crap friend. Fancy not making an effort for Sarah for her birthday. Of course this is what's gonna happen.

It's down to you. You really aren't very good at this stuff, you know, of course people have decided they don't like you. Maybe you're not that likeable.

And the inner critic comes in and starts to spin and create all of this stuff. And then What we saw, the outcome. Old brain has to let go of some of this anger, this anger has to go somewhere.

And we're not like we were, you know, all those thousands and thousands of years ago, you know, we don't go out there and. Hopefully bash someone or get rid of all of this aggression in some aggressive way. We tend to internalise it and we tend it to come out in different ways now, but it comes out and creates just as much harm because actually she knew I didn't send her a card.

She's so petty, and that's when he. Sends out to all of his mates now I reckon. If we are able to use this way of being in the next week between now and session 2, which is what I'm gonna ask you to do.

I'm gonna ask you guys to start. Talking And recognising And using a form of self talk where you identify your old brain, new brain loops. And when you identify.

Ah, why am I feeling like this? You know, why am I in such a hurry up in today's clinic? Why am I running?

Between rooms, why am I snapping at whoever's on reception? Why do I, why am I all fingers and thumbs today? Why can't I?

Concentrate, ah, old brains engaged, all brains engaged, OK. So my old brain is telling me that I'm, I'm in a place of struggle. OK.

Now, my new brain. You can either help me here or you can conspire to make me feel worse. And I would like you guys in the week.

That comes To recognise when your old brain. Is engaged and what I'd love you to try and do, and this really works. Friends on my course tonight really works.

Label it That's all Brian. The way I'm feeling now is driven by old brain. I've got it, yeah, and the motivation here is better be, better to be safe than sorry.

So I'm just going 100 miles an hour so that I'm, I'm on top. Oh, I get it. All brains engaged.

Right, well, I'm gonna breathe and I'm gonna do that breathing that Mike taught us on, Tuesday, Valentine's night. Gosh, it's Valentine's night. I'm gonna do that.

I'm gonna do, and I'm gonna soothe that old brain, and I'm gonna soothe my new brain too. And because I've got a soothed new brain, I'm not gonna allow my old brain and my, my new brain to conspire. The way Mike pointed out they so often do.

I'm gonna use my old brain and my new brain to recognise that I've got a choice of response here. Because between stimulus and response there is a space, and in that space lies our freedom. And our growth And our response rather than react.

So we need to create that space. When we create that space, we use the new brain. Do I need to be charging around like this?

Could I? Say to somebody, look, I need to take 10 minutes. I need to.

Go for a walk, I need to just sit and breathe for a while. Still feeling a bit on edge. OK, old brain, you're not quite there yet.

Let's . Soothe and quietly do some emotional labelling which we'll look more at next week. OK, now I'm feeling a bit more like.

Why am I feeling upset today? Because the new brain. Is curious, but curiosity is a higher new brain function.

You know, and as soon as we go curious, why am I feeling this way? And is it helping me? You know, and then we remind ourselves.

In the scenario with Karim's, now actually Sarah's important and I matter too, you know, and the new brain starts to find. Ways of moving forward that make more sense and maybe. Just maybe if we can start.

To Soothe Our old brain and our new brain. Through language. Through breath work Through labelling.

If we can start to. Use loops. And recognise when we're going into.

And helpful loops where old brain. Nearly always meets. Inner critic, cause the inner critic wants you to get things done.

It's goal directed, wants you to get things done, wants you to pursue accomplishment, success, status, to be liked. And if you're not, the, the, the, the, the drive is, well, why not, you know, and the threat is increased and we forget to soothe. So.

We need to in the next week. My, my ask of you guys is start to recognise old brain, new brain activity. And if it's conspiring against you, stop.

And breathe So If we want to calm the old brain, I'm gonna cut right through an awful lot of the, neurology of the breath for a moment, and I want to try and kind of sell you guys the physiological side. So what's the sigh? When we sigh as a physiological side.

It's too short inhales through the nose followed by a longer exhale through the mouth. And then Very quickly you will calm because A typical sigh is sort of what it's signalled to the brain from a cluster of, neurons that are contained in the brain stem. You know, that, that oldest part of the brain, brain stem stuff.

And that surge of oxygen that we get with the two short inhales fills the alveoli in our lungs. That's how it works. And with the expansion and the oxygen that this increased oxygen, because it's too.

Pretty quick short breaths in through the nose, surges into the bloodstream and releases unneeded CO2. When that unneeded CO2 is released, we then have a longer exhale, and we use more carbon dioxide than a typical exhale is released. This process produces this desirable feelings of relaxation just by sigh.

We are going to activate our parasympathetic nervous system, which is our cue for calm. Now don't get me wrong, our brain stem already because it's pretty brilliant. Controls this function.

What I want you guys to do is intentionally practise. A purposeful sigh loads in the next week because purposeful. Physiological sighing.

Will produce relief. And soothing We're beginning to think in our understandings of this stuff that the physiological side is probably the most effective and. For you guys who are time conscious always.

Time efficient. Stress management skill that you will probably ever ever. Learn and get brilliant at.

Let's have a go. So it's too short, and what I like to do is, use my hands a bit to sort of help me early on. So it's almost as though, I pop a hand on the tummy and a hand on the chest.

So it's too short inhales. The first one into the tummy, and then the second one into the upper chest. And then a long Another one into the tummy.

Through the nose Inhale through the nose twice long sigh. And If we can Master The physiological sigh and and it's so easy. Too short inhales through the nose.

We're we're oxygenating so quickly. And then that longer exhale. Is going to stimulate parasympathetic nervous activity every time.

Now if we build this into our loops. We can start To think with greater clarity, we can start to soothe and rather than old brain new brain conspiring. We can start to make old brain and new brain begin the process of working well.

So rather than finding. Anger Blame in a critic. We can find warmth, self compassion.

Curiosity and choice. Still the old brain and the new brain. But we're in more charge of the way that we're going to use it.

So The evidence seems to be to make a real difference with this stuff. As the slide says, we need to start to move towards, creating new habits, because as we create new habits and new conversations with our own brain every day. We start this process of neuroplasticity, we start to change and help our brains.

Develop new neural pathways that will work for us, rather than against us. And what I'm gonna ask you to do is if you can at some point. In the Early morning, sort of before, sort of about 11 o'clock in the morning, get outside, sit down.

Or stand maybe close your eyes. If it's sunny, get the sun onto your face and. Sit there and Just sigh, gentle breath in through the nose.

Another one. For 55 minutes. Set your timer.

And then get on with your day. Karma. Intersperse.

Physiological sighing between the tasks into your day. And whenever you notice old brain activity, that's that autonomic nervous system threat based stuff. Or we notice new brain.

Whirring in an unhelpful way, start labelling aha, right, that's old brain. What's the new brain doing? Oh God, the new brain's getting into all that.

You're rubbish, you're terrible. They're useless, they're crap. It's, it's, no, old brain and new brain are conspiring.

I don't want them conspiring. I want them working well. OK, what are my choices?

Breathe, find a better response. And over the next few weeks, we're gonna build on this, and we're gonna develop this and we're gonna start to. Help you guys turn into.

Happier humans. And possibly help you guys. Manage stress so, so much better and we start with labelling, looping, breathing.

And talking. To yourselves, really, really important quiet conversations with our self, right, I've got you old brains in. Old brain is driving me to better be safe than sorry stuff.

Old brain's giving me palpitations, old brain's wanting that. OK, let's get the new brain involved. OK, what's my old brain trying to tell me?

What's the, what, what, where's the threat coming from? Is it really a threat? Is this something I need to worry about?

What are my choices here? So the way we speak to ourselves, the very tone of the way we speak to ourselves, starts to change. Look at Karim here.

The tone of this. Imagine the sound of his voice here. Why wasn't I invited?

We can hear the tension and the threat in his voice. Oh, just cause I forgot the card, we can hear the the anger. Here It's quieter.

It's calmer. The language is better. The tone is soothing.

And that this works. That doesn't This works. And we need to be really using this physiological side, like it's going out of fashion.

So we're gonna ask you 5 minutes sighing practise into your mornings. And build that breathwork into your day. Lots and lots of physiological sighs.

Whenever you've completed a task. Quick sigh, parasympathetic nervous system, find the calm, soothe, soothe that brain. And whenever you notice your old brain becoming activated, soothe it down and start that.

Loops conversations where you are recognising old brain and new brain. Old brain, remember, always going to be autonomic stuff, and emotion. You know, fear, anger.

Dread Love Want Appetite New brain Curious Imagination. Rolling into the future. Self-oriented, mindful.

Start building those conversations. So well done everybody. We've started and we've got an absolutely cracking session coming together for you guys next week and .

Some really exciting neurological developments that we're going to share and make use of that will result in you sleeping better and functioning better as humans. And, any questions, bung them into the Q&A and . Oh, that's so sweet.

That was so useful, mate. Could have done with it last week. Yeah.

Well, do you know what? I'll bet some of the stuff that came up last week will come up this week again, and that's when you use this stuff. You know, and you're.

You know, and it also sometimes helps, you know, to remember. We have tricky brains. I quite like for myself like oh hang on a minute, tricky brain stuff.

Yeah, old brain, new brain conspiring, and that doesn't work, you know, I wish I was a zebra. At times OK doke, . If you have questions in between, you're very welcome to send them via the webinar bet, and they will always send them on to me so I know what you're thinking in between sessions.

So, same time next week, really looking forward to seeing you. And, yeah, Dawn at the webinart.com.

So if you do have questions, just come back to us. So thank you so much for being part of tonight's session. It was really good having you.

Thank you, Kirsty. Yeah, I'm really looking forward to next week. Next week's session, this was a bit of a sort of get us going and but it was massively important what we were talking about.

Looping, soothing, it's core stuff, you know. Being compassionate to self makes such a difference. So have wonderful Valentine's nights.

Go off and gaze into the eyes of someone you love perhaps or. Whatever you're doing tonight, but be happy. And please, please, practise, practise, practise this stuff.

Thank you guys. Mike, we just have one question in the box. I don't know whether you can see that.

Ah, when you have so much anxiety and pains. How do you cope? Oh, I think you start.

With old brain, new brain conversations there, so I think you start where we've started, it makes a huge, huge difference this stuff, and you start with breathing, you really do, and. You remember I talked about between stimulus and response there's a space. Finding that space of response, building the breathwork into there, beginning the process of labelling, and if you are living with so much stress and so much pain, so much of what we're going to do in this six weeks, Stella is going to be helpful for you, so.

Stay with us. You will be helped. Thanks very much, everybody.

And Thank you, Dawn for that. I don't think there's anybody else coming in. So thank you to those of you accessing via the recordings and see you all next week.

Bye bye everybody.