*This article was updated and revised on the 22nd January 2025

By Dr. Scott Zarcinas, Founder, 818: Unlocking Your Life

During the COVID-19 pandemic, many people suffered from increasing anxiety about their family, work, business, or health and struggled to pick themselves up and re-energise. It was an extremely difficult time. Nobody knew when the pandemic would end, or how it would end. Millions lost their lives, and millions more were physically afflicted.

Today, in 2025, we are still counting the cost of the pandemic in terms of mental, emotional, physical, and even spiritual health. The cost of living crisis of the past two years has also been attributed to the fiscal policies of world governments during the crisis.

But what we learned during the pandemic has given us courage, strength, and understanding to help us move forward during these uncertain post-pandemic times.

What we learned is that you have the power to face any challenge and determine your experience of them, because, as I tell my clients:

If knowledge is power, then self-knowledge is inner power.

So here are 3 COVID-19 science-based strategies we learned to keep us motivated and stay in control during uncertain times.

The Triune Model of the Brain

Before we go straight into the three strategies, it’s important to first understand the neuroscience of what’s happening inside your brain during an ongoing crisis, such as the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Triune Model of the brain described by American physician and neuroscientist, Paul D. McLean, identifies 3 areas of the human brain based on higher brain functionality. They are:

1. The Neomammalian Forebrain: the most evolved part of your brain is your higher reasoning centre responsible for your thinking, planning, analyses, beliefs, creativity, values and principles.
2. The Paleomammalian Midbrain: the ‘old’, but not oldest, part of your brain is your pleasure and pain emotional centre, where your limbic system is located and the little, acorn-sized amygdala. This part of your brain is responsible for your emotional reactions, as well as your dreams, desires, imaginations, and fears.
3. The Reptilian Hindbrain: the oldest, least evolved part of your brain is the area responsible for your natural instincts, like the fight and flight response. Although it is responsible for many of the autonomic functions of the body, such as breathing, heart rate, reflexes, and so forth, its main concern is safety and survival.

Your 3 levels of your brain crave certainty. It’s just the way it’s wired.

Your neomammalian forebrain likes to plan and analyse things and keep things under control. It likes to predict the future and work out what’s likely to happen. Which is why it abhors uncertainty.

Your paleomammalian midbrain likes to seek pleasure and avoid pain. It reacts emotionally to what’s going on and often overreacts. When fear kicks in, it’s the amygdala that’s working in overdrive, and uncertainty triggers many fear-producing emotions and behaviours.

Your reptilian hindbrain is wired for only one thing: to keep you alive. Which is why safety and survival is paramount for your reptilian brain. Any uncertainty is seen as a threat that must be avoided.

If you’d like to read more information about how the brain is wired, I go into a lot more depth about the Triune Model of the Brain in my two books, It’s Up to You! Why Most People Fail to Live the Life they Want and How to Change It, and The Banana Trap: How to Escape a Life of Stress and Finally Break Free.

Your Brain is Wired to Seek Certainty

In summary, your brain is wired against uncertainty and all 3 levels will work to build as much certainty as it can.

Which is why the supermarket shelves were emptied of toilet rolls during the COVID-19 pandemic.

It’s a form of control in a time of uncertainty, an attempt to make things more certain.

It’s also why motivational levels sagged during the pandemic. Faced with uncertainty, the forebrain becomes overwhelmed with thoughts of ‘what if?’, the midbrain emotions go into overdrive, and the hindbrain survival instinct starts to dominate our thoughts and behaviours.

Unfortunately, when panic sets in and emotions run high, the neomammalian forebrain is subjugated by the lower levels of the brain. Decisions are made not on rational logic but on emotion and instincts.

In these moments, mountains are made out of molehills. We act in ways that we normally wouldn’t, sometimes in ways we are later ashamed of. Our thought processes are hijacked and we are not our normal selves. The mob is in charge, not the leader.

What’s required in these situations is to regain control of your thoughts, emotions and instincts.

You need to allow your higher brain centres to override the lower brain centres. The leader needs to take charge and set the rules, not the mob.

Knowing how the brain works, we can formulate science-based strategies to keep motivated and stay in control during these uncertain times.

Strategy #1: Sensible Safety

The first thing you need to do is control your baser instincts.

Your reptilian brain sees uncertainty as a threat, which triggers the fight and flight response.

But what does your reptilian hindbrain want most of all? Safety.

So, to control your hindbrain’s instinctive reactions, you need to focus on taking simple precautions that emphasise proactive care, minimise risks, and maintain peace of mind.

Exercise: Safety First!

You can implement these safety-first strategies to calm your reptilian brain during moments of stress and threatening situations.

1. Health & Wellness

• Risk: Falling sick during flu season.
• Precaution: “I wash my hands frequently, eat nutritious meals, and stay hydrated to boost my immunity and reduce my chances of getting sick.”

2. Financial Safety

• Risk: Overspending and facing financial stress.
• Precaution: “I create a budget and track my spending to ensure I’m living within my means and saving for unexpected expenses.”

3. Physical Safety

• Risk: Accidents while driving.
• Precaution: “I always wear my seatbelt, obey speed limits, and avoid distractions like texting while driving to stay safe on the road.”

4. Emotional Well-being

• Risk: Burnout from overcommitting.
• Precaution: “I set clear boundaries, prioritise my well-being, and take regular breaks to recharge and prevent emotional exhaustion.”

This is simply being sensible and will help reduce reactive instincts and behaviour while at the same time elevating higher-centred responsible thoughts and actions.

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Strategy #2: Change the Context

The next thing you need to do is control your midbrain emotions.

Your paleomammalian midbrain sees uncertainty as a stressor, which triggers anxiety, stress, and fear.

Your midbrain interprets uncertainty as a pain that it needs to avoid. For instance, during COVID-19 we had thoughts like:

• Will I get infected?
• Will I live?
• Will I be able to feed my kids?
• Will I lose my job?
• Will I be able to pay the rent or mortgage?

Your brain can create a worst-case scenario of your life—aka catastrophising—which causes you to feel more vulnerable than you really are.

But what does your emotional midbrain want most of all? To seek pleasure and avoid pain.

So, to control your midbrain’s emotional reactions, you need to focus on the things that can reduce anxiety, stress and fear about the perceived threat or stressful situation you may be facing.

This means changing the context of what’s triggering anxiety by invoking your higher reasoning centres.

Exercise: Insert the BUT!

You can change the context by inserting a ‘BUT!’ after any stress-evoking or negative thought or emotion, such as these:

1. Self-Doubt About Abilities

• Negative Thought: “I’m not good enough to succeed in this new role.”
• Reframe: “I’m not good enough to succeed in this new role, BUT I’m committed to learning and growing every day to improve my skills.”

2. Fear of Failure

• Negative Thought: “I’ve failed at this before, and I’ll probably fail again.”
• Reframe: “I’ve failed at this before, BUT I’ve learned valuable lessons that will help me do better this time.”

3. Feeling Overwhelmed

• Negative Thought: “I have too much on my plate, and I can’t handle it all.”
• Reframe: “I have too much on my plate, BUT I can break it down into smaller steps and focus on one thing at a time.”

4. Resentment in Relationships

• Negative Thought: “They never appreciate what I do for them.”
• Reframe: “They never appreciate what I do for them, BUT I can express my needs and focus on how I want to feel in this relationship.”

Changing the context from a negative, stress-evoking one to a more positive, stress-reducing one will help you to control your midbrain emotions and allow your more rational, higher centres of the brain to take charge.

Strategy #3: Focused Certainty

The third thing you need to do is control your thought processing.

Your neomammalian forebrain is often swamped by the emotions and natural instincts of your lower brain centres and becomes inundated with negativity toward what’s happening in a crisis or threatening situation.

But what does your neomammalian forebrain want most of all? Certainty.

So, to regain control of your thought processes, a good practice is to focus on what is certain in your life.

Focusing on what is certain allows your higher-centred thoughts to override the emotions and instincts that have threatened to take control and run amok.

Although, for instance, the COVID-19 crisis was causing mass uncertainty on a global scale, there were still things you could be certain about, and that’s true in any challenging times.

Focusing on even the little things that are certain grounds you in this moment of now.

Certainty stabilises your mindset and controls whirring emotions.

So, don’t focus on what’s uncertain, rather focus on something that is certain.

Exercise: Focus on Certainty

Next time you feel uncertain, flip the script and focus on things that are certain, such as:

• You are alive. You have a life force in you, right now in this moment. This is fact. This is certain. Focus on this.
• You have beliefs. Whether you are religious, atheist, or agnostic you believe in something. This is fact. This is certain. Focus on this.
• The sun will rise tomorrow. No matter what happens, the planet will spin, and the sun will rise. This is fact. This is certain. Focus on this.
• Love exists. Whether you are loved, have been loved, love your family, love another person, love an animal, love God, there is love. This is fact. This is certain. Focus on this.

There are many things you can be certain of, and focusing on them will help you control your thought processes and prevent your mind from being overwhelmed in any crisis.

The COVID-19 pandemic has passed, as all crises do. It did eventually end, and although the world has struggled back to its feet, you now have the tools to keep motivated and stay in control during these uncertain times.

Your Next Step

Want to know what you need to do to experience a more stress-free life?

Click the link below and set up a free no-obligation Discovery Session with us so we can help you with a single, simplified solution to create the life you always wanted.

Your journey towards a more harmonious future starts now. Let’s do this.

About the Author: Dr. Scott Zarcinas (aka DoctorZed) is an author, doctor, and transformational life coach with over 15 years of experience helping professionals achieve authentic success. Based in Adelaide, South Australia, he specialises in transforming potential into performance through personalised coaching programs.

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