Using distraction to change the channel can immediately reduce anxiety in a given situation.

Learn the skills of slowing your breathing and relaxing your muscles in order to turn off your sympathetic nervous system and activate your parasympathetic nervous system, as discussed in chapter 6.

When you listen to music you enjoy, you directly engage your right hemisphere in positive emotional responding.

You might be successful in interrupting a thought by specifically telling yourself “Stop!” This technique is called thought stopping.

scientist John Lubbock (2004, 188) noted, “A day of worry is more exhausting than a week of work.”

The nucleus accumbens is a pleasure center in the brain that’s involved in hope, optimism, and the anticipation of rewards. It’s where the neurotransmitter dopamine is released, and studies have shown that when brain levels of dopamine are higher, negative expectations are reduced and optimism increases (Sharot et al. 2012).

Use relaxation, sleep, and exercise to reduce sympathetic nervous system activation.

Next, focus your attention on cortex-based strategies as needed. Review chapter 10 to remind yourself of the types of anxiety-igniting thoughts that are most problematic for you, and use the approaches described in chapter 11 to combat those thoughts. Practice monitoring and modifying your thoughts until you’re able to think in more productive

Keep the three elements in mind: event, interpretation, and resulting emotion.