How To Save Your Brain From The Dangers Of Stress & Anxiety - Mo Gawdat - #788

**Chris Williamson** (0:00)
What's happening, people, welcome back to the show. My guest today is Mo Gawdat. He's an entrepreneur, former chief business officer at Google and an author. We often experience stress without knowing where it's coming from. Although we feel overwhelmed, we struggle to pinpoint the source. So how should we actually go about assessing our lives and reducing our stress? Expect to learn why the modern world is so stressful for everyone, what Mo means when he says young people are comfortably numb, how to assess stress and where it's probably coming from, the things you're not aware of, which cause your emotional discomfort, the most important habits you should implement if you want to become peaceful and much more. Don't forget that you might be listening but not subscribed and that means that you will miss episodes when they go up. So if you want to support the show and if you want to make sure that you do not miss episodes when they go live and if you want to make me happy, press the subscribe button on Apple podcasts or Spotify or wherever else you are listening. It is a huge help and I thank you very much. This episode is brought to you by Element. I have started my morning every single day for the last three years the same way, which is with Element in water. It tastes fantastic. It reduces muscle cramps and fatigue. It optimizes your brain health. It regulates appetite and it helps to curb cravings. It's got a science backed electrolyte ratio of sodium, potassium and magnesium. Super simple. There is nothing fancy going on here, but it really does work. Also, they have a no BS, no questions asked refund policy. So you can buy it 100% risk-free. And if you do not like it, they will give you your money back and you don't even need to return the box. That's how confident they are that you love it. They are the exclusive hydration partner to Team USA weightlifting and rely on by tons of Olympic athletes and high performers in the NFL, NBA, NHL and FBI sniper teams, plus tech leaders and everyday athletes around the world. Head to drinklmnt.com/modernwisdom to get a free sample pack of all eight flavors with any purchase that's drinklmnt.com/modernwisdom.
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Why is the modern world so stressful for so many people?

**Mo Gawdat** (4:27)
Because we designed it that way. We designed it with a very simple statement that stress is an acceptable tax that we should pay for success in life. And yeah, I mean, in a very interesting way, we tell people that stress is the result of the events that go on in our life, but that's not true at all. You know, when I wrote Unstressible, my attempt was to compare stress in humans just as a very elementary understanding of what stress is to stress in objects, as in physics, if you want. Right? And elementary school understanding of physics is that an object is not stressed because of the force that's applied to it. We are not stressed because only of the challenges that we face. An object is stressed as the force divided by the square, the square area of the cross section of the object. Similarly, in humans, we are stressed because of the challenges that we face divided by our abilities and skills and resources that we have to deal with that stress. And if you really understand those two concepts, one, that you are not necessarily supposed to be stressed to succeed in the modern world.