Wired to Connect - Why Your Brain Treats Isolation Like a Threat

Episode 206 kicks off a 10-episode series on connection: with yourself, your colleagues, your patients and your purpose. We start with the brain, because connection is not a nice-to-have for people with spare time. It is biology. Dr Jo takes you to a women in leadership course in Prato, near Florence, where a values exercise shifted her top values from integrity, growth and fun to connection and courage. Values aren’t tattoos. She got clear on her new values in a room full of people. The research behind why isolation feels like a threat: • Eisenberger and Lieberman (UCLA): social exclusion lights up pain-related brain regions James Coan (University of Virginia) social baseline theory: holding the hand of someone close calms the brain’s threat response • Julianne Holt-Lunstad (BYU): lacking social connection carries a mortality risk comparable to smoking up to 15 cigarettes a day, via biological, behavioural and psychological pathways • Her EAR framework: Educate, Assess, Respond • Arnsten (Yale) on chronic stress and the prefrontal cortex, and Maslach on community as a driver of burnout  Tools for this week: The Weekly Connection Audit: ten minutes, four questions Mindset: a values check Support: the two-minute connection Movement: move with other people Sleep: poor sleep makes you feel lonelier and look less approachable (Ben Simon and Walker, UC Berkeley) Try this week: do the audit once, message someone you’re overdue to contact, and share one idea from this episode. Connect: IG/FB @burnoutrecoverydr | LinkedIn drjobraid Newsletter: The Sunday Long Game https://drjobraid.com/subscribe See omnystudio.com/listener (https://omnystudio.com/listener) for privacy information.