Finding Your Footing When The Ground Shifts Beneath You
Imagine this: You walk into work on a normal Tuesday, coffee in hand, only to be called into an emergency all-hands meeting. Your division is being dissolved.
Or perhaps your phone alerts you to another presidential directive (https://cmsny.org/publications/essential-but-ignored-low-earning-immigrant-healthcare-workers-and-their-role-in-the-health-of-new-york-city/) that threatens your livelihood or community.
Or a routine doctor’s visit turns into a life-altering diagnosis (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rdao2OFLh4w), and treatments and medical appointments take the place of canceled plans.
Or you stare at the remains of your home after a natural disaster (https://www.urban.org/urban-wire/when-will-los-angeles-rebuild-comparing-housing-recovery-timelines-after-four-recent) tore through your region.
In an instant, everything changes. Your carefully laid plans evaporate. The future becomes a blur. Your brain, in its protective wisdom, either goes into overdrive or shuts down completely.
These scenarios have become increasingly common. When radical change strikes, most of us experience the sensation of having the rug pulled out from under us—whether through job loss, natural disaster, or events beyond our control.
When our world transforms abruptly, our brains shift into survival mode, triggering the fight-or-flight response. While this reaction evolved to address immediate threats, it becomes problematic during extended periods of uncertainty, taking a significant physical toll. Research on “the selfish brain (https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0301008217300369)” reveals that our nervous system, attempting to minimize uncertainty, prioritizes energy flow to itself at the expense of the rest of the body, reducing oxygen and glucose delivery elsewhere.
But when our instincts push us toward panic or paralysis, what actions should we take instead? Behavioral science offers a path from overwhelm to stability.
You can read the Nir And Far blog post on: Finding Your Footing When The Ground Shifts Beneath You here (https://www.nirandfar.com/stop-labeling-kids/).
Nir And Far, a podcast about business, behaviour and the brain by Nir Eyal. If you enjoy this podcast, please subscribe on iTunes and leave an iTunes review. It will greatly help new listeners discover the show. Please visit my website Nir and Far for other info about my writing, books and teaching: http://www.nirandfar.com/ (http://www.nirandfar.com/)
21 Jul 2025TRANSCRIPT
Unlock Your Potential with the Power of Belief
Your beliefs are tools, not truths.
In 2006, U.S. Team freestyle skier Michelle Roark zoomed down the slope at her first Olympics, conquering hilly terrain that not even a 4×4 could handle. At 31, she was already years older than the average Olympic freestyle skier (24 years old at the time). She had fought through massive obstacles for half her life to get there.
Roark was kicked out of her mother’s house when she was 15 and spent the next three years living in a tent in Winter Park, Colorado. She worked three jobs to support herself. At 16, she qualified for the Olympics but sustained a knee injury that kept her out of the 1994 Olympics. Two more serious knee injuries, each right before the Olympic Games in 1998 and 2002, prevented her from competing. At one point, a coach told her she was never going to make it to the Games.
But Roark knew what she wanted, believed she was capable of it, and refused to quit. She used the rehab time after her second knee surgery to pursue a degree in chemical engineering, which she eventually used to launch a business that she continues to run today. She competed in the 2010 Olympics at the age of 35.
Belief is one of the most powerful forces in our lives. Roark’s unflagging belief that she could be an Olympian brought that goal to fruition. In her mind, her Olympic future was inevitable.
You can read the Nir And Far blog post on: Unlock Your Potential With The Power Of Belief here (https://www.nirandfar.com/stop-labeling-kids/).
Nir And Far, a podcast about business, behaviour and the brain by Nir Eyal. If you enjoy this podcast, please subscribe on iTunes and leave an iTunes review. It will greatly help new listeners discover the show. Please visit my website Nir and Far for other info about my writing, books and teaching: http://www.nirandfar.com/ (http://www.nirandfar.com/)
7 Jul 2025TRANSCRIPT
The Pain Paradox: How Fear of Pain Creates More Pain
Sophie Hawley-Weld discusses her experience with chronic pain and how her fear of pain intensified her condition, ultimately discovering the power of the mind in managing it in this interview.
Inside a recent episode
Finding Your Footing When The Ground Shifts Beneath You
Published 28 Jul 2025 · Transcript excerpt
[…] But when our instincts push us toward panic or paralysis, what actions should we take instead? Behavioral science offers a path from overwhelmed to stability. One, honor your grief and accept reality. Before rushing into frantic job applications, drowning sorrows in alcohol, or drafting rigid self -improvement plans, acknowledge your need to grieve. You've experienced a significant loss. Attempting to escape your fear, panic, sense of failure, and emotional discomfort through various distractions will only prolong your struggle. Grief serves as a portal to transformation, according to psychotherapist Francis Weller, author of The Wild Edge of Sorrow, rituals of renewal, and the sacred work of grief. […]
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