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Decade-old Brics ambition to push local currency remains a pipe dream
Decade-old Brics ambition to push local currency remains a pipe dream

Business Standard

time07-07-2025

  • Business
  • Business Standard

Decade-old Brics ambition to push local currency remains a pipe dream

By Martha Beck and Mirette Magdy Brics countries once again failed to make significant strides in the cross-border payments system for trade and investment they've been discussing for a decade. In a statement released as they kicked off their meeting in Brazil Sunday, leaders committed to additional talks on the potential for greater trade integration of the 10-nation bloc. 'We task our ministers of finance and central bank governors, as appropriate, to continue the discussion on the Brics Cross-Border Payments Initiative,' the statement reads. A survey prepared by the Brazilian central bank will be presented at the two-day Rio de Janeiro summit. It's a missed opportunity for Brics as the dollar comes under continued pressure from President Donald Trump's erratic policies. The greenback had the worst start to a year since 1973 as Trump's trade war and attacks on the Federal Reserve's hesitancy to lower interest rates roiled markets, calling into question the longstanding outperformance of US assets and sending investors fleeing in search of alternatives. It's created a boon for emerging markets that traders expect to extend further. While all members are supportive of the idea of cross-border payments, first cited in the statement of the bloc's 2015 summit, the technical aspects of integration are complicated. Central bank systems in some countries are not yet ready, three people familiar with the discussions said. It will take time to adapt those, they said, adding that it's unlikely to happen anytime soon. Roadblocks Discussions involve payment mechanisms, types of currencies used, how to implement infrastructure and how to share costs. There are security concerns about the integrated systems, two people said, adding that the Brics bloc's recent expansion has also caused delays. The fact that several of the bloc's currencies are non convertible, and existing sanctions on member states Iran and Russia further complicate discussions, one person said. Some countries may argue that the cost involved in setting up and maintaining a unified system would not be justified given what they already have in terms of bilateral trade, another added. All asked not to be identified sharing details of private conversations. China, for one, has taken advantage of the US disarray and launched a sweeping campaign to promote the yuan's global role. In a speech last month, Chinese central bank governor Pan Gongsheng outlined a vision in which the country's financial markets are more open and the yuan plays a central role in the world's capital flows. Beijing is exploring the launch of the country's first domestic currency futures, which could compete with similar hedging tools in offshore markets like Singapore and Chicago, and is expanding its own payment system, known as CIPS, to cover more foreign banks. Trump pushback Brics leaders also reaffirmed their commitment to expand local currency financing, diversify funding sources and strengthen cooperation in trade to promote inclusive growth and sustainable development. A document obtained by Bloomberg that outlines the latest thinking by the bloc shows that discussions around a new investment platform dubbed NIP are similarly stalled. The platform is seen as potentially filling a gap in development finance, providing more flexibility and reducing the dependency on hard currency financing. But 'given the variety of approaches and proposals raised, and the complex nature of the issues involved, further technical dialogue will be essential to advance a common understanding of the Platform's potential added value and operational framework,' it reads. Trump has threatened to slap 100 per cent levies on Brics if they ditch the dollar in bilateral trade. The pushback, in turn, has spurred interest in developing local payment systems and other instruments that can facilitate commerce and investment between the nations. The idea of abandoning the dollar and setting up a common currency for the bloc isn't under discussion, several officials have said. The US leader's response has not delayed Brics conversations for the integrated systems, three people said. 'One of the ways to bring countries closer together is to reduce financing costs for trade operations. And one of the ways is to use more local currencies,' Tatiana Rosito, secretary for international relations at Brazil's Finance Ministry, said in an interview. 'Banks say that, depending on the period in which you carry out the operation, they may need to use the rate converting renminbi to dollars. But the goal in the end is you one day don't have it.' If there's a liquid market, 'you will have a direct exchange rate real-renminbi, real-rupee, real-rand,' she said. 'But this will depend on whether you have a critical mass and a volume of trade investments.' High rates The Brics statement also references the added challenge presented by 'fluctuations in financial and monetary policies in some advanced economies' for countries already grappling with high debt levels. 'High interest rates and tighter financing conditions worsen debt vulnerabilities in many countries,' it reads. The bloc is also in discussions to establish a multilateral guarantees initiative which would focus on improving 'creditworthiness in the Brics and the Global South.' The initiative, dubbed BMG, will be incubated within the NDB and start without additional capital contributions, according to the statement.

Anxiety can be debilitating. Controlling it starts with this simple step
Anxiety can be debilitating. Controlling it starts with this simple step

CNN

time15-02-2025

  • General
  • CNN

Anxiety can be debilitating. Controlling it starts with this simple step

Gun violence, the climate crisis, political division and brain-hijacking technology make today's society a breeding ground for anxiety. Disrupting the cycle of constant worry requires big shifts in how we relate to the world, argues Martha Beck. Searching for ways to curb her own off-the-charts anxiety led the sociologist and best-selling author to discover that curiosity and creativity can act as antidotes. Evidence shows a kind of toggle effect between creativity and anxiety, she explained in her new book, 'Beyond Anxiety: Curiosity, Creativity, and Finding Your Life's Purpose.' 'When one is up and running, the other seems to go silent.' Our brain's natural programming makes it easy to slip from calm into catastrophizing, wrote Beck in her book. So, mounting a defense against the 'infinite, subtle and powerful' cultural forces that amplify our anxiety demands that we nurture new brain pathways to cultivate 'curiosity, wonder, connection, compassion and awe.' She shares strategies designed to soothe anxiety, which she describes as a 'frightened creature in your brain,' while liberating the creative genius inside us all. This conversation has been edited and condensed for clarity. CNN: Why are people so anxious these days? Martha Beck: People have always been anxious. Our brains have a negativity bias that makes us very attentive to anything that might harm us. But today, we're in the unprecedented situation where innumerable cultural forces are spinning our brains into fear-based thinking that not only leads to anxiety but also teaches us to use the anxiety-prone parts of our brain. Once you're in an anxiety spiral, it's hard to get out; natural brain function leads to an unregulated feedback loop that tends to make anxiety increase indefinitely rather than subside. CNN: What do you mean by 'negativity bias'? Beck: I call it the '15 puppies and a cobra' story. If you walk into a room with 15 puppies and a cobra, your attention will focus on the cobra because it's the potential threat. This bias helped keep our ancestors safe, but in modern life, it can lead to unrelenting anxiety. Even if the cobra exists only on our news feed, our brains respond as if the threat is real and present. Then, our brain compounds the problem when it interprets our nervousness as evidence that we should be nervous, reinforcing the pattern. So far as we know, humans are the only animal that can take an imagined fear and turn it to a consistent, sustained experience of anxiety. We can get stuck in a fear-filled 'hall of mirrors' that keeps escalating. CNN: How is anxiety different from fear? Beck: Healthy fear is a response to something dangerous that we experience as an intense burst of energy that subsides almost immediately when the danger passes. Anxiety is a response to our thoughts. We feel fear responses to things that are not present, may not have happened, may never happen. The feelings can linger even when we're completely safe. Anxiety is like being haunted. CNN: What is the 'secret door' out of anxiety, and how can we access it? Beck: First, let's talk about what never works. Often, our first attempt is to try to attack our anxiety. We want it gone, so we charge at it, trying to banish it. But anxiety is a frightened animal. Running after it saying, 'I want to end you' does not calm it down. Instead, curiosity can be the first step toward calm. Tap into your self-compassion, even if you don't feel it. Say, 'I'm listening. I hear you. I see you're afraid. Tell me everything.' It doesn't even matter if you mean it, at first. Just forming the thought moves you into a different way of thinking. Neurologically, curiosity pulls our attention away from the mechanisms that cause anxiety, generating the beginning of the end of the spiral. We are programmed to attend to what makes us anxious. Turning our attention toward curiosity and away from anxiety helps us to expand instead of contract our lives. If you can get curious enough about your own anxious thoughts to ask yourself whether they are true — whether they're setting you free or keeping you captive — you're already on your way out. CNN: How does creativity help us to manage anxiety? Beck: Creativity engages the right hemisphere of the brain, which helps to shift our attention away from left-hemisphere-located anxiety. Instead of crunching us into a tiny prison of fear, creativity motivates learning, opening us to the whole universe. It grants access to a pathway to transcendence, which comes when a creativity spiral formulates an experience of flow that is the opposite of fear. I believe that's the way we should be living most of the time. CNN: But wouldn't it be dangerous if we stayed in a flow state, creating? Wouldn't we lose track of the cobra? Beck: It would be absolutely unlivable. We'd just run out into the street and be dead in seconds. But here's the thing: The right hemisphere, where creativity resides, never rules out the data from the left. It sees the cobra and it says, 'What creative thing could we do to deal with this cobra? Could we wall it off? Could we make a little snake-catching unit?' Today, we're facing a whole lot of never-happened-befores. We live in a world with unprecedented knowledge transfer and technology, and right now, we're cooking the earth. If we just run around in a panic about these things, we can't do anything helpful. We must let our right hemispheres take the wheel — to allow our creativity to engage in the process of invention. CNN: How can creativity ease anxiety in everyday life? Beck: Anytime I get anxious, I ask myself, 'What could I make?' Not 'What shall I do?' but 'What can I make?' That immediately puts me into a different state of being. Left hemisphere-dominated behaviors are so fundamental to our culture. We live in a society that assumes anxiety helps solve problems. Actually, good solutions never come from anxiety or panic. They come from curiosity, calm and creativity. Our anxiety has led to an obsession with control — a focus on trying to count, analyze, measure and label everything that has taken us away from nature's rhythms. So many of us are stuck in a left-hemisphere trap that leaves us creatively starved. Making art, especially hands-on work, can reconnect us with our biology, balancing our whole selves. CNN: What about for people who aren't artistic? Beck: I believe all people are born creative geniuses before socialization convinces us that we're not. By art, I mean anything that we make, create or originate. The moment you pick up a lump of clay, for example, and start to make something, your brain's right hemisphere lights up. It helps to start with self-compassion and curiosity about your own experiences as you engage in art and creative activities that use your hands. Focus on the process instead of the product. We don't go to the gym thinking, 'My whole job is to lift this weight and keep it in the air.' No, you're lifting it for the effect it has on you. Paint not for the painting itself but because it reinforces the neurons going into the creative part of your brain. Coloring a mandala, for example, has a levitating effect on your mood, immune system and all the positive parts of your psyche. So, color a mandala for 20 minutes, then throw the damn thing away (if you want to). It's not about the coloring but the good mood you take away from it. It also helps to find community with others who are also engaging in creative pursuits and connect with them. CNN: What ripple effects could creativity bring to the world? Beck: I think we could save the world. Anxiety is contagious, but so is calm. Humans co-regulate with the calmest person they can find. Our brains are electrical, and if two people meet each other in a state of deep regulation, the field of their calm expands way beyond them, extending it to other people. Making art is one way to reach deeper states of calm that can serve as an anchor, for yourself and for others. A line attributed to the 14th century Persian poet Hafez has had such an effect on me: 'Troubled? Then stay with me, for I am not.' That's what we can be for each other. The world needs untroubled people more than it ever has. Jessica DuLong is a Brooklyn, New York-based journalist, book collaborator, writing coach and the author of 'Saved at the Seawall: Stories From the September 11 Boat Lift' and 'My River Chronicles: Rediscovering the Work That Built America.'

Want to find your anxiety's off switch? Martha Beck can help
Want to find your anxiety's off switch? Martha Beck can help

CNN

time15-02-2025

  • General
  • CNN

Want to find your anxiety's off switch? Martha Beck can help

Gun violence, the climate crisis, political division and brain-hijacking technology make today's society a breeding ground for anxiety. Disrupting the cycle of constant worry requires big shifts in how we relate to the world, argues Martha Beck. Searching for ways to curb her own off-the-charts anxiety led the sociologist and best-selling author to discover that curiosity and creativity can act as antidotes. Evidence shows a kind of toggle effect between creativity and anxiety, she explained in her new book, 'Beyond Anxiety: Curiosity, Creativity, and Finding Your Life's Purpose.' 'When one is up and running, the other seems to go silent.' Our brain's natural programming makes it easy to slip from calm into catastrophizing, wrote Beck in her book. So, mounting a defense against the 'infinite, subtle and powerful' cultural forces that amplify our anxiety demands that we nurture new brain pathways to cultivate 'curiosity, wonder, connection, compassion and awe.' She shares strategies designed to soothe anxiety, which she describes as a 'frightened creature in your brain,' while liberating the creative genius inside us all. This conversation has been edited and condensed for clarity. CNN: Why are people so anxious these days? Martha Beck: People have always been anxious. Our brains have a negativity bias that makes us very attentive to anything that might harm us. But today, we're in the unprecedented situation where innumerable cultural forces are spinning our brains into fear-based thinking that not only leads to anxiety but also teaches us to use the anxiety-prone parts of our brain. Once you're in an anxiety spiral, it's hard to get out; natural brain function leads to an unregulated feedback loop that tends to make anxiety increase indefinitely rather than subside. CNN: What do you mean by 'negativity bias'? Beck: I call it the '15 puppies and a cobra' story. If you walk into a room with 15 puppies and a cobra, your attention will focus on the cobra because it's the potential threat. This bias helped keep our ancestors safe, but in modern life, it can lead to unrelenting anxiety. Even if the cobra exists only on our news feed, our brains respond as if the threat is real and present. Then, our brain compounds the problem when it interprets our nervousness as evidence that we should be nervous, reinforcing the pattern. So far as we know, humans are the only animal that can take an imagined fear and turn it to a consistent, sustained experience of anxiety. We can get stuck in a fear-filled 'hall of mirrors' that keeps escalating. CNN: How is anxiety different from fear? Beck: Healthy fear is a response to something dangerous that we experience as an intense burst of energy that subsides almost immediately when the danger passes. Anxiety is a response to our thoughts. We feel fear responses to things that are not present, may not have happened, may never happen. The feelings can linger even when we're completely safe. Anxiety is like being haunted. CNN: What is the 'secret door' out of anxiety, and how can we access it? Beck: First, let's talk about what never works. Often, our first attempt is to try to attack our anxiety. We want it gone, so we charge at it, trying to banish it. But anxiety is a frightened animal. Running after it saying, 'I want to end you' does not calm it down. Instead, curiosity can be the first step toward calm. Tap into your self-compassion, even if you don't feel it. Say, 'I'm listening. I hear you. I see you're afraid. Tell me everything.' It doesn't even matter if you mean it, at first. Just forming the thought moves you into a different way of thinking. Neurologically, curiosity pulls our attention away from the mechanisms that cause anxiety, generating the beginning of the end of the spiral. We are programmed to attend to what makes us anxious. Turning our attention toward curiosity and away from anxiety helps us to expand instead of contract our lives. If you can get curious enough about your own anxious thoughts to ask yourself whether they are true — whether they're setting you free or keeping you captive — you're already on your way out. CNN: How does creativity help us to manage anxiety? Beck: Creativity engages the right hemisphere of the brain, which helps to shift our attention away from left-hemisphere-located anxiety. Instead of crunching us into a tiny prison of fear, creativity motivates learning, opening us to the whole universe. It grants access to a pathway to transcendence, which comes when a creativity spiral formulates an experience of flow that is the opposite of fear. I believe that's the way we should be living most of the time. CNN: But wouldn't it be dangerous if we stayed in a flow state, creating? Wouldn't we lose track of the cobra? Beck: It would be absolutely unlivable. We'd just run out into the street and be dead in seconds. But here's the thing: The right hemisphere, where creativity resides, never rules out the data from the left. It sees the cobra and it says, 'What creative thing could we do to deal with this cobra? Could we wall it off? Could we make a little snake-catching unit?' Today, we're facing a whole lot of never-happened-befores. We live in a world with unprecedented knowledge transfer and technology, and right now, we're cooking the earth. If we just run around in a panic about these things, we can't do anything helpful. We must let our right hemispheres take the wheel — to allow our creativity to engage in the process of invention. CNN: How can creativity ease anxiety in everyday life? Beck: Anytime I get anxious, I ask myself, 'What could I make?' Not 'What shall I do?' but 'What can I make?' That immediately puts me into a different state of being. Left hemisphere-dominated behaviors are so fundamental to our culture. We live in a society that assumes anxiety helps solve problems. Actually, good solutions never come from anxiety or panic. They come from curiosity, calm and creativity. Our anxiety has led to an obsession with control — a focus on trying to count, analyze, measure and label everything that has taken us away from nature's rhythms. So many of us are stuck in a left-hemisphere trap that leaves us creatively starved. Making art, especially hands-on work, can reconnect us with our biology, balancing our whole selves. CNN: What about for people who aren't artistic? Beck: I believe all people are born creative geniuses before socialization convinces us that we're not. By art, I mean anything that we make, create or originate. The moment you pick up a lump of clay, for example, and start to make something, your brain's right hemisphere lights up. It helps to start with self-compassion and curiosity about your own experiences as you engage in art and creative activities that use your hands. Focus on the process instead of the product. We don't go to the gym thinking, 'My whole job is to lift this weight and keep it in the air.' No, you're lifting it for the effect it has on you. Paint not for the painting itself but because it reinforces the neurons going into the creative part of your brain. Coloring a mandala, for example, has a levitating effect on your mood, immune system and all the positive parts of your psyche. So, color a mandala for 20 minutes, then throw the damn thing away (if you want to). It's not about the coloring but the good mood you take away from it. It also helps to find community with others who are also engaging in creative pursuits and connect with them. CNN: What ripple effects could creativity bring to the world? Beck: I think we could save the world. Anxiety is contagious, but so is calm. Humans co-regulate with the calmest person they can find. Our brains are electrical, and if two people meet each other in a state of deep regulation, the field of their calm expands way beyond them, extending it to other people. Making art is one way to reach deeper states of calm that can serve as an anchor, for yourself and for others. A line attributed to the 14th century Persian poet Hafez has had such an effect on me: 'Troubled? Then stay with me, for I am not.' That's what we can be for each other. The world needs untroubled people more than it ever has. Jessica DuLong is a Brooklyn, New York-based journalist, book collaborator, writing coach and the author of 'Saved at the Seawall: Stories From the September 11 Boat Lift' and 'My River Chronicles: Rediscovering the Work That Built America.'

Want to find your anxiety's off switch? Martha Beck can help
Want to find your anxiety's off switch? Martha Beck can help

Yahoo

time15-02-2025

  • General
  • Yahoo

Want to find your anxiety's off switch? Martha Beck can help

Shift Your Mindset is an occasional series from CNN's Mindfulness, But Better team. We talk to experts about how to do things differently to live a better life. Gun violence, the climate crisis, political division and brain-hijacking technology make today's society a breeding ground for anxiety. Disrupting the cycle of constant worry requires big shifts in how we relate to the world, argues Martha Beck. Searching for ways to curb her own off-the-charts anxiety led the sociologist and best-selling author to discover that curiosity and creativity can act as antidotes. Evidence shows a kind of toggle effect between creativity and anxiety, she explained in her new book, 'Beyond Anxiety: Curiosity, Creativity, and Finding Your Life's Purpose.' 'When one is up and running, the other seems to go silent.' Our brain's natural programming makes it easy to slip from calm into catastrophizing, wrote Beck in her book. So, mounting a defense against the 'infinite, subtle and powerful' cultural forces that amplify our anxiety demands that we nurture new brain pathways to cultivate 'curiosity, wonder, connection, compassion and awe.' She shares strategies designed to soothe anxiety, which she describes as a 'frightened creature in your brain,' while liberating the creative genius inside us all. This conversation has been edited and condensed for clarity. CNN: Why are people so anxious these days? Martha Beck: People have always been anxious. Our brains have a negativity bias that makes us very attentive to anything that might harm us. But today, we're in the unprecedented situation where innumerable cultural forces are spinning our brains into fear-based thinking that not only leads to anxiety but also teaches us to use the anxiety-prone parts of our brain. Once you're in an anxiety spiral, it's hard to get out; natural brain function leads to an unregulated feedback loop that tends to make anxiety increase indefinitely rather than subside. CNN: What do you mean by 'negativity bias'? Beck: I call it the '15 puppies and a cobra' story. If you walk into a room with 15 puppies and a cobra, your attention will focus on the cobra because it's the potential threat. This bias helped keep our ancestors safe, but in modern life, it can lead to unrelenting anxiety. Even if the cobra exists only on our news feed, our brains respond as if the threat is real and present. Then, our brain compounds the problem when it interprets our nervousness as evidence that we should be nervous, reinforcing the pattern. So far as we know, humans are the only animal that can take an imagined fear and turn it to a consistent, sustained experience of anxiety. We can get stuck in a fear-filled 'hall of mirrors' that keeps escalating. CNN: How is anxiety different from fear? Beck: Healthy fear is a response to something dangerous that we experience as an intense burst of energy that subsides almost immediately when the danger passes. Anxiety is a response to our thoughts. We feel fear responses to things that are not present, may not have happened, may never happen. The feelings can linger even when we're completely safe. Anxiety is like being haunted. CNN: What is the 'secret door' out of anxiety, and how can we access it? Beck: First, let's talk about what never works. Often, our first attempt is to try to attack our anxiety. We want it gone, so we charge at it, trying to banish it. But anxiety is a frightened animal. Running after it saying, 'I want to end you' does not calm it down. Instead, curiosity can be the first step toward calm. Tap into your self-compassion, even if you don't feel it. Say, 'I'm listening. I hear you. I see you're afraid. Tell me everything.' It doesn't even matter if you mean it, at first. Just forming the thought moves you into a different way of thinking. Neurologically, curiosity pulls our attention away from the mechanisms that cause anxiety, generating the beginning of the end of the spiral. We are programmed to attend to what makes us anxious. Turning our attention toward curiosity and away from anxiety helps us to expand instead of contract our lives. If you can get curious enough about your own anxious thoughts to ask yourself whether they are true — whether they're setting you free or keeping you captive — you're already on your way out. CNN: How does creativity help us to manage anxiety? Beck: Creativity engages the right hemisphere of the brain, which helps to shift our attention away from left-hemisphere-located anxiety. Instead of crunching us into a tiny prison of fear, creativity motivates learning, opening us to the whole universe. It grants access to a pathway to transcendence, which comes when a creativity spiral formulates an experience of flow that is the opposite of fear. I believe that's the way we should be living most of the time. CNN: But wouldn't it be dangerous if we stayed in a flow state, creating? Wouldn't we lose track of the cobra? Beck: It would be absolutely unlivable. We'd just run out into the street and be dead in seconds. But here's the thing: The right hemisphere, where creativity resides, never rules out the data from the left. It sees the cobra and it says, 'What creative thing could we do to deal with this cobra? Could we wall it off? Could we make a little snake-catching unit?' Today, we're facing a whole lot of never-happened-befores. We live in a world with unprecedented knowledge transfer and technology, and right now, we're cooking the earth. If we just run around in a panic about these things, we can't do anything helpful. We must let our right hemispheres take the wheel — to allow our creativity to engage in the process of invention. CNN: How can creativity ease anxiety in everyday life? Beck: Anytime I get anxious, I ask myself, 'What could I make?' Not 'What shall I do?' but 'What can I make?' That immediately puts me into a different state of being. Left hemisphere-dominated behaviors are so fundamental to our culture. We live in a society that assumes anxiety helps solve problems. Actually, good solutions never come from anxiety or panic. They come from curiosity, calm and creativity. Our anxiety has led to an obsession with control — a focus on trying to count, analyze, measure and label everything that has taken us away from nature's rhythms. So many of us are stuck in a left-hemisphere trap that leaves us creatively starved. Making art, especially hands-on work, can reconnect us with our biology, balancing our whole selves. CNN: What about for people who aren't artistic? Beck: I believe all people are born creative geniuses before socialization convinces us that we're not. By art, I mean anything that we make, create or originate. The moment you pick up a lump of clay, for example, and start to make something, your brain's right hemisphere lights up. It helps to start with self-compassion and curiosity about your own experiences as you engage in art and creative activities that use your hands. Focus on the process instead of the product. We don't go to the gym thinking, 'My whole job is to lift this weight and keep it in the air.' No, you're lifting it for the effect it has on you. Paint not for the painting itself but because it reinforces the neurons going into the creative part of your brain. Coloring a mandala, for example, has a levitating effect on your mood, immune system and all the positive parts of your psyche. So, color a mandala for 20 minutes, then throw the damn thing away (if you want to). It's not about the coloring but the good mood you take away from it. It also helps to find community with others who are also engaging in creative pursuits and connect with them. CNN: What ripple effects could creativity bring to the world? Beck: I think we could save the world. Anxiety is contagious, but so is calm. Humans co-regulate with the calmest person they can find. Our brains are electrical, and if two people meet each other in a state of deep regulation, the field of their calm expands way beyond them, extending it to other people. Making art is one way to reach deeper states of calm that can serve as an anchor, for yourself and for others. A line attributed to the 14th century Persian poet Hafez has had such an effect on me: 'Troubled? Then stay with me, for I am not.' That's what we can be for each other. The world needs untroubled people more than it ever has. Jessica DuLong is a Brooklyn, New York-based journalist, book collaborator, writing coach and the author of 'Saved at the Seawall: Stories From the September 11 Boat Lift' and 'My River Chronicles: Rediscovering the Work That Built America.'

Want to find your anxiety's off switch? Martha Beck can help
Want to find your anxiety's off switch? Martha Beck can help

CNN

time15-02-2025

  • General
  • CNN

Want to find your anxiety's off switch? Martha Beck can help

Gun violence, the climate crisis, political division and brain-hijacking technology make today's society a breeding ground for anxiety. Disrupting the cycle of constant worry requires big shifts in how we relate to the world, argues Martha Beck. Searching for ways to curb her own off-the-charts anxiety led the sociologist and best-selling author to discover that curiosity and creativity can act as antidotes. Evidence shows a kind of toggle effect between creativity and anxiety, she explained in her new book, 'Beyond Anxiety: Curiosity, Creativity, and Finding Your Life's Purpose.' 'When one is up and running, the other seems to go silent.' Our brain's natural programming makes it easy to slip from calm into catastrophizing, wrote Beck in her book. So, mounting a defense against the 'infinite, subtle and powerful' cultural forces that amplify our anxiety demands that we nurture new brain pathways to cultivate 'curiosity, wonder, connection, compassion and awe.' She shares strategies designed to soothe anxiety, which she describes as a 'frightened creature in your brain,' while liberating the creative genius inside us all. This conversation has been edited and condensed for clarity. CNN: Why are people so anxious these days? Martha Beck: People have always been anxious. Our brains have a negativity bias that makes us very attentive to anything that might harm us. But today, we're in the unprecedented situation where innumerable cultural forces are spinning our brains into fear-based thinking that not only leads to anxiety but also teaches us to use the anxiety-prone parts of our brain. Once you're in an anxiety spiral, it's hard to get out; natural brain function leads to an unregulated feedback loop that tends to make anxiety increase indefinitely rather than subside. CNN: What do you mean by 'negativity bias'? Beck: I call it the '15 puppies and a cobra' story. If you walk into a room with 15 puppies and a cobra, your attention will focus on the cobra because it's the potential threat. This bias helped keep our ancestors safe, but in modern life, it can lead to unrelenting anxiety. Even if the cobra exists only on our news feed, our brains respond as if the threat is real and present. Then, our brain compounds the problem when it interprets our nervousness as evidence that we should be nervous, reinforcing the pattern. So far as we know, humans are the only animal that can take an imagined fear and turn it to a consistent, sustained experience of anxiety. We can get stuck in a fear-filled 'hall of mirrors' that keeps escalating. CNN: How is anxiety different from fear? Beck: Healthy fear is a response to something dangerous that we experience as an intense burst of energy that subsides almost immediately when the danger passes. Anxiety is a response to our thoughts. We feel fear responses to things that are not present, may not have happened, may never happen. The feelings can linger even when we're completely safe. Anxiety is like being haunted. CNN: What is the 'secret door' out of anxiety, and how can we access it? Beck: First, let's talk about what never works. Often, our first attempt is to try to attack our anxiety. We want it gone, so we charge at it, trying to banish it. But anxiety is a frightened animal. Running after it saying, 'I want to end you' does not calm it down. Instead, curiosity can be the first step toward calm. Tap into your self-compassion, even if you don't feel it. Say, 'I'm listening. I hear you. I see you're afraid. Tell me everything.' It doesn't even matter if you mean it, at first. Just forming the thought moves you into a different way of thinking. Neurologically, curiosity pulls our attention away from the mechanisms that cause anxiety, generating the beginning of the end of the spiral. We are programmed to attend to what makes us anxious. Turning our attention toward curiosity and away from anxiety helps us to expand instead of contract our lives. If you can get curious enough about your own anxious thoughts to ask yourself whether they are true — whether they're setting you free or keeping you captive — you're already on your way out. CNN: How does creativity help us to manage anxiety? Beck: Creativity engages the right hemisphere of the brain, which helps to shift our attention away from left-hemisphere-located anxiety. Instead of crunching us into a tiny prison of fear, creativity motivates learning, opening us to the whole universe. It grants access to a pathway to transcendence, which comes when a creativity spiral formulates an experience of flow that is the opposite of fear. I believe that's the way we should be living most of the time. CNN: But wouldn't it be dangerous if we stayed in a flow state, creating? Wouldn't we lose track of the cobra? Beck: It would be absolutely unlivable. We'd just run out into the street and be dead in seconds. But here's the thing: The right hemisphere, where creativity resides, never rules out the data from the left. It sees the cobra and it says, 'What creative thing could we do to deal with this cobra? Could we wall it off? Could we make a little snake-catching unit?' Today, we're facing a whole lot of never-happened-befores. We live in a world with unprecedented knowledge transfer and technology, and right now, we're cooking the earth. If we just run around in a panic about these things, we can't do anything helpful. We must let our right hemispheres take the wheel — to allow our creativity to engage in the process of invention. CNN: How can creativity ease anxiety in everyday life? Beck: Anytime I get anxious, I ask myself, 'What could I make?' Not 'What shall I do?' but 'What can I make?' That immediately puts me into a different state of being. Left hemisphere-dominated behaviors are so fundamental to our culture. We live in a society that assumes anxiety helps solve problems. Actually, good solutions never come from anxiety or panic. They come from curiosity, calm and creativity. Our anxiety has led to an obsession with control — a focus on trying to count, analyze, measure and label everything that has taken us away from nature's rhythms. So many of us are stuck in a left-hemisphere trap that leaves us creatively starved. Making art, especially hands-on work, can reconnect us with our biology, balancing our whole selves. CNN: What about for people who aren't artistic? Beck: I believe all people are born creative geniuses before socialization convinces us that we're not. By art, I mean anything that we make, create or originate. The moment you pick up a lump of clay, for example, and start to make something, your brain's right hemisphere lights up. It helps to start with self-compassion and curiosity about your own experiences as you engage in art and creative activities that use your hands. Focus on the process instead of the product. We don't go to the gym thinking, 'My whole job is to lift this weight and keep it in the air.' No, you're lifting it for the effect it has on you. Paint not for the painting itself but because it reinforces the neurons going into the creative part of your brain. Coloring a mandala, for example, has a levitating effect on your mood, immune system and all the positive parts of your psyche. So, color a mandala for 20 minutes, then throw the damn thing away (if you want to). It's not about the coloring but the good mood you take away from it. It also helps to find community with others who are also engaging in creative pursuits and connect with them. CNN: What ripple effects could creativity bring to the world? Beck: I think we could save the world. Anxiety is contagious, but so is calm. Humans co-regulate with the calmest person they can find. Our brains are electrical, and if two people meet each other in a state of deep regulation, the field of their calm expands way beyond them, extending it to other people. Making art is one way to reach deeper states of calm that can serve as an anchor, for yourself and for others. A line attributed to the 14th century Persian poet Hafez has had such an effect on me: 'Troubled? Then stay with me, for I am not.' That's what we can be for each other. The world needs untroubled people more than it ever has. Jessica DuLong is a Brooklyn, New York-based journalist, book collaborator, writing coach and the author of 'Saved at the Seawall: Stories From the September 11 Boat Lift' and 'My River Chronicles: Rediscovering the Work That Built America.'

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