How the Brain Makes Sense of Stress, Fear, and Courage | Dr. Andrew Huberman

Andrew Huberman (0:00)

The eyes are fundamentally the most powerful driver of what we think, what we feel, and ultimately what we can do, because they set the basic level of alertness. Vision has such a powerful effect on how we feel at a basic level, and has such a tremendous capacity to shift how we feel and how we perform, cognitively and behaviorally, that we realized that we had to study how vision drives stress, how vision drives calm, how vision drives the ability to move through complex environments or high stress environments, and really trying to understand how we see the world, how we view the world drives our experience of life, both internally and in terms of what we can do externally.

Michael Gervais (0:59)

All right, welcome back or welcome to the Finding Mastery podcast. Just gotta tell you, I love this community. I love what we are building here. And if you're new, my name is Michael Gervais by trade and training. I'm a sport and performance psychologist, as well as the co-founder of Compete to Create. And the whole idea behind these conversations is to sit with people who have dedicated their life efforts towards the nuances of their craft.

And in some cases, these conversations are really about mastery of self, other times it's a hybrid between that and mastery of craft. And really what we're doing is we're trying to understand how do they organize their inner life to explore the external world? How do they make sense of themselves and explain events that take place? What are they really searching for? And then what are the mental skills that they use to build and refine their craft?

I wanna take a minute here to announce a really exciting event that we have coming up. As you continue to navigate the challenges and opportunities of 2024, I wanna pose a question. What are you doing right now to be great with stress? How are you working with stress on your pursuit towards your most important ambitions and goals? And I just wanna get right to the heart of the key elements, one in particular, for what it takes to excel in today's high heat, high stakes world. Because stress is not the problem that we think it is. Stress is a synonym for change. And our ability to be agile with change, that is the real opportunity at hand. So if you're wanting to unlock extraordinary results and sustainable performance in your life, it's not about avoiding or reducing stress. And as simple as that sounds, it's very tricky to do, but it is about fundamentally changing your relationship with it. And that's why I'm so thrilled to invite you to a special event. It's a free virtual event that we're offering, and it's called The Power of Embracing Stress. It's on Wednesday, March 6th at 2 p.m. Pacific. So to sign up, just head over to findingmastery.com/training, whether it's advancing in your career or improving your health or cultivating stronger relationships, I think a new approach to stress can be one of the most powerful unlocks for you in your life. So join us for this free virtual training, The Power of Embracing Stress, on Wednesday, March 6th at 2 p.m. Pacific. Go to findingmastery.com/training to sign up. Once again, that's findingmastery.com/training. And I'm really excited to see you there.

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Now, this week's conversation is with Dr. Andrew Huberman, a neuroscientist and a tenured professor in the Department of Neurobiology at the Stanford University School of Medicine. Andrew's made some incredible contributions to the field of brain development, brain function, and neuroplasticity, which is fancy for just saying it's the ability for our brain and our nervous system to rewire and learn new behaviors, skills, and cognitive functioning. Now, he's a McKnight Foundation and a Pew Foundation Fellow and was awarded the Kogan Award in 2017, which is given to the scientists making the largest discoveries in the study of vision. So what does vision have to do with you and our community here on mastery?