This is Hidden Brain, I'm Shankar Vedanthan.

Hundreds of millions of people have spent the last year waiting.

Waiting for it to be safe to enter workplaces.

Waiting to see if loved ones will survive their stay in a hospital.

Waiting to see if lost jobs will return.

Perhaps you have caught yourself daydreaming about the moment everything returns to normal.

When we can go about our lives without masks,

sit in a crowded theatre without worry, meet friends in our homes without fear.

What will it feel like that day?

Will there be a surge of joy or will it be better sweet?

This week on Hidden Brain, the agony of waiting

and the strange things that happen in our minds when we experience relief.

Experience Relief

In books and movies, the experience of relief usually follows a period of waiting.

We're going to mix up that order on today's show.

We'll look at relief first.

And later in the show, we'll explore the psychology of waiting and what new research reveals about how we can wait well.

Our story about relief comes from Jamie Spurway.

For five years, Jamie walked as a tour guide, mostly in the Middle East and Europe, but also in South Africa.

One of the places he often brought to us was called the Garden Route.

With a safari's boast, an incredible range of big game.

You're seeing an extraordinary array of animals, zebra, giraffe, rhino, hippopotamus, and pala.

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