How to defeat your amygdala: 8 principles for killing fear
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Every day you wake up: You arrive in the UFC octagon.

Across from you is a deadly competitor: The Amygdala. Your brain’s fear response centre.

Who is going to win the fight today: Your amygdala — or you?

The bookies have stopped taking bets.

You are the ultimate underdog.

The Amygdala has been training for this fight for 340 million years.

And most importantly, it’s learnt everything from the best coach the universe has ever seen: Evolution.

It’s beaten you and so many of your ancestors trillions of times.

The average human opponent turns up to this fight like a one-legged man in an ass-kicking contest. Unprepared.

But not today… You are prepared.

You have the playbook to defeat the Amygdala.

You have MMA. Mixed Mental Arts.

The ultimate toolkit to beat the Amygdala.

Are you prepared for the biggest sporting upset in history?

Let’s break down the principles of Mixed Mental Arts:

1. There's no rules

When it comes to defeating your amygdala, no trick is off the table.

Why? Because your amygdala will use every trick it knows to defeat you. It’s a dirty fighter.

Remember that time it gave you sweat patches on your shirt on that first date? Or all those nightmares of being late and naked to a meeting?

Treat the amygdala how it treats you. You can eye gauge your amygdala. You can kick it in the groin. If you don’t — it will.

Remember: All that matters is that you win.

You’re in a cage fight — leave your ethics at the door.

2. Identify the character you’re fighting

Is personalising the amygdala into a character scientifically correct?

No…

But remember principle number 1. There’s no rules. The game here is to defeat your fear — not get a PHD in Neuroscience.

The Amygdala will constantly create fake characters and unrealistic scenarios to defeat you? … So why can’t you create fake characters and unrealistic scenarios for you to defeat it?

During the press conference last night before this fight, the Amygdala called you a loser 50 times in your head and replayed 27 made up videos of people laughing at you.

Remember: All that matters is you win. You’re in a cage fight — leave your ethics at the door.

3. The Southpaw Stance

Ok. Time to get more tactical in how you fight…

The Amygdala knows how to fight orthodox fighters and hates to fight southpaws.

Orthodox fighters = View themself in 1st person.

Southpaw fighters = View themselves in 3rd person.

The Amygdala absolutely hates when you switch to the southpaw stance…

Here’s the basics of the Southpaw stance against the Amygdala:

“How would I advise a best friend in this situation?”

Asking that question immediately knocks down the Amygdala to the floor.

4. Avoid It’s Strengths.

Now we have you in a 3rd person southpaw stance… You must not enter any of the Amygdala’s strengths.

The Amygdala has one main fighting style: It loves to fight you in your head.

All its negative non-useful toxic thoughts hurt when it’s kept in your head.

If you keep the fight in your head, it will win.

5. Attack its weaknesses.

If you get the fight out of your head, you will attack its weaknesses.

When the Amygdala calls you a “fucking loser” in your head — it really stings.

When you write that down or say it out loud to another human being: You can see the flaws in its thinking. When you see the Amygdala’s thoughts in writing or hear yourself saying them out loud to another person — you’ve reduced 80% of its power.

This is the Amygdala’s Achilles heel. It hates when you take the fight outside of your head.

6. Hardware > Software

Whenever you have a fight with the Amygdala: Look after your hardware (physiology) before you focus on your software (psychology).

Trying to think your way out of overthinking is like trying to snort away a cocaine addiction.

The Amygdala grows stronger the weaker your hardware is. And the stronger it grows: The less likely you are to take card of your hardware.

The Amygdala will convince you to avoid working out, getting a good nights sleep or to eat a healthy meal. It’s a master of mind tricks.

Before you fight the amygdala, always take care of your hardware first. 95% of the time after taking card of your hardware, the Amygdala will not even turn up for the fight — and you’re left with no opponent.

The other 5% of the times he remains — you’re fighting with performance enhancing drugs.

7. How To Punch The Amygdala In The Nose

The Amygdala loves to keep you in one fixed perspective on viewing a situation.

The way to defeat this is to punch it in the nose: Questions that give you a different perspective.

“A change of perspective is worth 50 IQ points”

There’s thousands of nose punch combinations — but here’s some specific ones it hates:

1. Has anyone less intelligent and less driven figured out this problem in the history of humanity?

2. How could I turn this decision into a reversible door?

3. What is the worst possible case scenario? How can I prevent that from happening? And what can I do to recover if the worst possible case scenario does happen?

Now let’s save the best to last…

8. The Judo Throw.

This is where you use the Amygdala’s momentum against itself…

You use the Amygdala to fight the Amygdala.

Become fearful of fear by asking the following question:

“What is the life I’m missing out on by letting the Amygdala win this fight?”

The beauty of this technique is that you’re using the Amygdala’s speciality, Fear, against itself.

The Amygdala loves to present you the downsides of not listening to it…

But instead, get clear on what happens if you live a life giving into it.

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You've now learnt the skills of Mixed Mental Arts.

Few closing notes for your post fight speech:

1. Make sure you turn up training everyday. The Amygdala is a relentless opponent.

2. Have compassion to other people. You never know the cage fight they are in with their own mind.

3. Advise other people to train Mixed Mental Arts. Share this essay with anyone you think might need it.