Welcome to Nobody Told Me. I'm Laura Owens, and I'm Jan Black. Are you a workaholic? Are you finding it extremely hard to cope with the new normal as far as work is concerned

during the coronavirus crisis? Well, if so, you're not alone. And we have some suggestions for you on

this episode as we welcome back psychotherapist Dr. Brian Robinson, who's the author of the book,

hashtag chill, turn off your job and turn on your life. Brian has built his

career on the themes of work-life balance, resilience, and well-being. Brian, thank you so much for

joining us again. Thank you. It's my pleasure to be here. If we feel like the rug has been pulled out

from under us in the last few weeks, Are we normal? Oh, yes. If you

weren't a little anxious or a little frazzled, something would be off. Anxiety is a very normal

thing to have in times of uncertainty. This whole idea of uncertainty is fascinating to me.

There's a whole psychology behind it because we all have

what's called a lizard brain. It's at the base of the brain and Mother Nature put it there

for a reason for us to survive. If we didn't have fear and anxiety, we wouldn't be talking right now.

We had all just, you know, be devastated by whatever's coming our way. So the whole

idea of a lizard brain is in times of uncertainty is to be prepared to get ready for fight or

flight. And what we're seeing, and we're going to see more of this after all, this is over,

and it's all going to be over and done with. And we'll look back on it like we did 9-11 and like we did the HIV AIDS situation and other

catastrophes but there's going to be a lot of PTSD. My recommendation for people is when you're

dealing with uncertainty don't let it use you.

Use it.

In other words, anxiety is a natural, normal thing to have in an emergency, but it can sweep you

away and throw your prefrontal cortex offline.

Your prefrontal cortex is your rational thinking.

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