Activate feelings of certainty and control in your brain

- [Narrator] Blink number six, feelings of certainty and control are very rewarding to the brain, and you can activate these feelings yourself. We've all experienced uncertainty and lack of control and the deep emotional responses they trigger. Perhaps this happens while you're waiting to hear about that job you applied for, or when you're buried under a pile of work so high that you can't possibly manage it. But why do we respond this way to uncertainty and to the sense that we're not in control? The answer lies in the brain, which constantly craves certainty and autonomy. As brain scans reveal, when our need for certainty and autonomy is satisfied, we experience a strong sense of reward. It's no surprise, then, that entire industries are dedicated to dispelling uncertainty, like financial consulting, which provides executives with a sense of certainty by means of strategic planning and financial forecasting. In fact, scientists have shown that we feel less stressed when faced with a stress-inducing task over which we have control and autonomy than when we have to deal with a similarly stressful task without a sense of control. The strong emotional response we experience when we lack control and autonomy actually stems from our appraisal of the situation. Fortunately, we can change our appraisals, and by doing so, transform our emotional responses. This process of choosing to interpret a situation differently is called reappraisal. And there are many benefits to it. In fact, one study revealed that people who reappraise more experienced a higher satisfaction with life than those who choose instead to inhibit their emotions. One kind of reappraisal is humor, as it involves a shift in perspective that can transform one's experience of a situation from gravely serious to funny and lighthearted. For example, one CEO adopted the strategy of telling jokes whenever a meeting became tense because he discovered that laughing at a difficult situation made it easier to find solutions. So by reappraising, you can better manage the strong emotions generated by the lack of certainty and autonomy.