Your racing heart can’t tell fear from excitement. Your brain picks the label, and you can help it choose.

In this episode of Calm With Me, Dr. Meredith Calvert explores why fear so often shows up the moment we try something new: a first giant stride off a dive boat, a rock face, a wobbly balancing pose. She explains why fear and excitement feel nearly identical in the body, how valence (with a nerdy detour into ambivalence) shapes the story we tell about that rush, and why the amygdala behaves like an overcautious smoke detector.

Drawing on the work of surfer and researcher Ralph Buckley, Meredith unpacks why the dread on the boat often outweighs anything felt during the dive itself, and why good adventure lives in the middle of the fear-thrill “sawtooth.” A 2025 MIT study shows dopamine arriving at the exact instant fear lets go, writing a new memory over the old one. Research on adventurous play in kids, and on adventure athletes (spoiler: they’re not adrenaline junkies), reveals what waits on the other side.

The episode closes with five practical tools, including a guided “Name it, feel it, thank it” practice, and a poem about a river trembling at the edge of the sea. Plus: the 2027 WildCalm Retreats waitlist is now open!!

Mentioned in this episode:
The WildCalm retreats waitlist for 2027 is now open, from scuba diving in French Polynesia to hiking in Joshua Tree. All WildCalm retreats are small by design, and I expect them to fill quickly. Joining now means you’ll hear from me first. Join the private waitlist. No commitment or payment yet, just your place in line.
Immersive experiences designed to help you slow down, breathe more deeply, and reconnect with yourself, through movement, breath, and nature.

• Find out more: WildCalm Retreats
• Follow me on Instagram: @meriyogasf

Time Stamps:
0:00 – Why adventure brings fear
1:10 – Intro: who Meredith is
2:00 – Fear and excitement feel nearly identical
2:40 – Arousal and valence
3:05 – Nerdy sidetrack: ambivalence (and starting a family)
5:20 – The amygdala as a smoke detector
6:25 – Ralph Buckley: anxiety before vs. fear during
7:40 – Fast fear vs. slow anxiety
8:15 – Fear boosts performance, panic causes paralysis
9:15 – The fear-thrill “sawtooth”
9:50 – MIT study: dopamine and fear extinction
11:25 – Why adventure matters: lessons from kids
12:20 – “As safe as necessary”
13:35 – Adventure athletes aren’t adrenaline junkies
15:00 – Tip 1: Say “I’m excited”
15:50 – Tip 2: Lengthen your exhale
16:20 – Tip 3: Find something useful to do
17:10 – Tip 4: Name it
17:40 – Tip 5: Guided practice: Name it, feel it, thank it
20:20 – Poem: “Fear,” attributed to Khalil Gibran
21:20 – 2027 WildCalm Retreats waitlist + sign-off

References:

• Buckley, R. C. (2016). Qualitative Analysis of Emotions: Fear and Thrill. Frontiers in Psychology, 7, 1187.
• Zhang, X., Flick, K., et al., & Tonegawa, S. (2025). Dopamine induces fear extinction by activating the reward-responding amygdala neurons. PNAS.
• Dodd, H. F., & Lester, K. J. (2021). Adventurous Play as a Mechanism for Reducing Risk for Childhood Anxiety: A Conceptual Model. Clinical Child and Family Psychology Review, 24(1).
• Gray, T., Down, M. J. A., et al. (2025). Risky Outdoor Play and Adventure Education in Nature for Child and Adolescent Wellbeing: A Scoping Review. Behavioral Sciences, 16(1), 5.
• Jackson, S. A., Eklund, R. C., et al. (2023). Flow and outdoor adventure recreation: Using flow measures to re-examine motives for participation. Psychology of Sport and Exercise, 67.
• Brooks, A. W. (2014). Get Excited: Reappraising Pre-Performance Anxiety as Excitement. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 143(3).
• Lieberman, M. D., et al. (2007). Putting Feelings into Words: Affect Labeling Disrupts Amygdala Activity. Psychological Science, 18(5).

You're mid-route. Your foot slips. Before your rational brain catches up, something ancient takes over and your heart is hammering, your breath has gone short and shallow and your hands are gripping harder than they should.

Fear in the outdoors is fast, physical, and deeply intelligent. And if you know how to work with it, it's one of the most powerful entry points to presence you'll ever find.

In this episode, neuroscientist, diver and yoga teacher Dr. Meredith Calvert breaks down the three F's of outdoor performance: fear, focus, and flow. She explains what's actually happening in your brain on a crux, why panicking makes you breathe in exactly the wrong way, and how natural environments both challenge us and restore the cognitive resources that modern life burns through.

The science is real. The tools are portable.

Calm With Me is hosted by Dr. Meredith Calvert — neuroscientist, yogi, Master Scuba Diver, and devoted student of the wild mind.

Mentioned in this episode:

• Come with me to find your own Wild Mind?

I built my WildCalm retreats around exactly this. Immersive experiences designed to help you slow down, breathe more deeply, and reconnect with yourself, through movement, breath, and nature.

Next adventure? SeaCalm Yoga & Scuba Diving in Roatán, Honduras, this Labor Day (2026). No yoga or scuba experience needed. Just curiosity, and a willingness to let the ocean do what it does best.

Find out more: ⁠⁠⁠https://meriyoga.org/seacalm2026⁠⁠⁠

• ⁠⁠⁠⁠WildCalm Retreats⁠⁠⁠⁠

• Follow me on Instagram: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@meriyogasf ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

Time Stamps:

01:20 - Calm is a super power

01:40 - Three brain structures involved with fear

01:50 - The amygdala- your alarm center

02:15 - The prefrontal cortex - your logic center

02:50 - The hippocampus - your memory vault

03:20 - Inhibitory learning

03:40 - Introduction to box breathing

04:00 - Practice: Box breathing

04:30 - Panic and your breath

04:55 - The Bohr effect

05:20 - The CO2 spike or hypercapnia

06:00 - Auto-occlusion

07:15 - Introduction to reflexive breathing

07:30 - Practice: Reflexive breathing

08:00 - Focus and attention restoration theory

08:30 - Directed attention

08:55 - Involuntary attention

09:30 - Soft fascination

10:25 - Finding flow

10:55 - Flow and the vagus nerve

11:30 - Heart rate variability

11:50 - Anchor practice for flow: 5, 4, 3, 2, 1

13:00 - Fear is not a design flaw

Scientific references:

• Kaplan, S. The restorative benefits of nature: Toward an integrative framework, J. Env. Psych. 1995. 15(3):169-182

• Pham TP & Sanocki T. Human Attention Restoration, Flow, and Creativity: A Conceptual Integration. J Imaging. 2024 Mar 29;10(4):83

• McDonnell, A.S., Strayer, D.L. Immersion in nature enhances neural indices of executive attention. Sci Rep 14, 1845 (2024)

• Williams, KJH, Lee, KE, Hartig, T., et al. Conceptualising creativity benefits of nature experience: Attention restoration and mind wandering as complementary processes, J. Exp. Psych. 2018 (59), 36-45,

• Colzato, LS., Szapora A, Hommel, B. Meditate to Create: The Impact of Focused-Attention and Open-Monitoring Training on Convergent and Divergent Thinking. Front. Psych. 2012, 3.

• Lippelt DP, Hommel B, Colzato LS. Focused attention, open monitoring a n d loving kindness meditation: effects on attention, conflict monitoring, and creativity - A review. Front Psychol. 2014 S e p 23;5:1083.

Last episode, we explored Blue Mind — what water does to your brain from the outside. Today we go deeper. Literally.

In this episode, Dr. Meredith Calvert unpacks the neuroscience of what happens when you actually go underwater: the ancient mammalian dive reflex that slows your heart without asking permission, the breath-buoyancy feedback loop that makes scuba diving one of the most intimate nervous system practices on the planet, and why the underwater environment produces a quality of presence that's hard to find anywhere else.

We'll also do a short box breathing practice together — so you can feel the shift, not just understand it.

If you've ever surfaced from a dive feeling clearer, calmer, and more yourself — this episode is the science behind that feeling.

Mentioned in this episode:

• Want to experience Blue Mind for yourself?

I built the SeaCalm retreat around exactly this. My yoga & scuba diving retreat in is an immersive week-long experience designed to help you slow down, breathe more deeply, and reconnect with yourself, through movement, breath, and the ocean. Not just a yoga retreat, not just a dive trip. It’s a restorative prescription for Blue Mind: a full week of soft fascination, feel-good neurotransmitters, and turquoise water as far as the eye can see.

No yoga or scuba experience needed. Just curiosity, and a willingness to let the ocean do what it does best.

Find out more: ⁠⁠https://meriyoga.org/seacalm2026⁠⁠

• Shrines of Science blog - ⁠Blue Mind: How the Ocean Heals⁠

• ⁠⁠⁠WildCalm Retreats⁠⁠⁠

• Follow me on Instagram: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@meriyogasf ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

Time Stamps:

01:30 - Blue mind recap

01:55 - Mammalian dive reflex

02:45 - Meditation, yoga and the switch from sympathetic to parasympathic nervous system dominance

03:20 - Scuba diving is a breath practice

03:27 - Scuba diving rule number one

03:40 - Dirga pranayama - three-part breath

04:10 - Breath and positional feedback in diving

04:40 - Proprioreception

05:00 - Underwater presence

05:15 - Practice: Dirga Pranayama - three-part breath

06:15 - Meredith's first dive

06:40 - Eagle rays and the wild within us

07:10 - Diving and directed attention restoration

07:40 - Default mode network

08:20 - Introduction to SeaCalm Yoga & Scuba retreat

09:05 - Next episode: Awe and wonder as medicine

Season two of Calm With Me begins at the water’s edge. In this episode, neuroscientist, yoga teacher, and scuba diver Dr. Meredith Calvert explores the science behind “Blue Mind,” the deeply restorative state our brains enter around water. From childhood memories of England’s rugged coastline to the neuroscience of soft fascination, dopamine, serotonin, and nervous system regulation, this episode dives into why the ocean has such a profound ability to quiet the mind and bring us back to ourselves.

You’ll learn how blue spaces influence stress, attention, and emotional well-being, and why calm may be less about forcing relaxation and more about giving your nervous system the right environment to settle naturally. A grounding, science-informed invitation to slow down, breathe deeply, and practice meeting the wild.

Mentioned in this episode:

• Want to experience Blue Mind for yourself?

I built the SeaCalm retreat around exactly this. My yoga & scuba diving retreat in is an immersive week-long experience designed to help you slow down, breathe more deeply, and reconnect with yourself, through movement, breath, and the ocean. Not just a yoga retreat, not just a dive trip. It’s a restorative prescription for Blue Mind: a full week of soft fascination, feel-good neurotransmitters, and turquoise water as far as the eye can see.

No yoga or scuba experience needed. Just curiosity, and a willingness to let the ocean do what it does best.

Find out more: ⁠https://meriyoga.org/seacalm2026⁠

• Shrines of Science blog - Blue Mind: How the Ocean Heals

• ⁠⁠WildCalm Retreats⁠⁠

• Follow me on Instagram: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@meriyogasf ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

Time Stamps:

00:00 — The shift near the ocean

01:20 — A seaside childhood

01:50 — 'Just a little bit of fear'

02:15 — Wallace J. Nichols and Blue Mind

02:30 — The neurochemistry of Blue Mind

03:10 — Soft fascination

03:40 — The dose response of time spent near water

04:10 — Moving water

04:25 — Change your environment, change your nervous system

04:50 — 'Immerse yourself in soft fascination'

Scientific references:

1. Britton, E., Kindermann, et al., (2018). Blue care: a systematic review of blue space interventions for health and wellbeing. Health Promotion International, 35, 50 - 69.

2. McDougall, C., Hanley, et al. (2021). Neighbourhood blue space and mental health: A nationwide ecological study of antidepressant medication prescribed to older adults. Landscape and Urban Planning, 214, 104132.

3. McDougall, C., Hanley, N., et al. (2022). Blue space exposure, health and well-being: Does freshwater type matter? Landscape and Urban Planning, 224,104446.

4. Murrin, E., Taylor, N., et al., (2023). Does physical activity mediate the associations between blue space and mental health? A cross-sectional study in Australia. BMC Public Health, 23.

5. Pasanen, T., White, M., et al., (2019). Neighbourhood blue space, health and wellbeing: The mediating role of different types of physical activity.. Environment international, 131, 105016.

6. Pearson, A., Shortridge, A., et al. (2019). Effects of freshwater blue spaces may be beneficial for mental health: A first, ecological study in the North American Great Lakes region. PLoS ONE, 14.

7. Tang, H., Lee, A., & Hung, S., (2024). Does built environment and natural leisure settings with bodies of water improve human psychological and physiological health?. Landscape and Ecological Engineering, 20, 547 - 558.

8. Wright, K., Eden, S., et al., (2024). A qualitative exploration of the contribution of blue space to well‐being in the lives of people with severe mental illness. People and Nature, 6 (2), 849-864.

9. Yin, J., Ramanpong, J., et al. (2023). Effects of blue space exposure in urban and natural environments on psychological and physiological responses: A within-subject experiment. Urban Forestry & Urban Greening. 87, 128066.

In this episode of Calm With Me, Meredith returns to the topic of the perimenopausal brain, exploring not just the physical symptoms but the deeper shift in identity that many women experience during this transition.

Perimenopause often begins gradually, with mood changes, sleep disruption, anxiety, and physical symptoms appearing years before menstrual cycles noticeably change. Without clear information, these changes can slowly erode confidence and leave many women feeling like strangers in their own bodies. Neuroscience shows that these experiences are rooted in real biological changes as the brain adapts to declining estrogen, reorganizing systems involved in memory, emotion, and self-perception.

Rather than viewing this as decline, Meredith introduces a more empowering perspective drawn from both neuroscience and traditional healing systems, which describe menopause as a “Second Spring,” a time of integration and wisdom.

She offers a simple framework for navigating the transition using the acronym AIR: Acknowledge cultural narratives around aging, Integrate the qualities that define one’s true self, and Reframe the experience as a process of becoming rather than loss.

Mentioned in this episode:

• Come with me on retreat: SeaCalm Yoga + Scuba Diving Retreat (Aug/Sep 2026): an immersive journey to reconnect with nature and slow time on the California coast ⁠⁠⁠https://meriyoga.org/seacalm2026
• ⁠WildCalm Retreats⁠

• Follow me on Instagram: ⁠⁠⁠⁠@meriyogasf ⁠⁠⁠⁠

Time Stamps:

00:00 — A shifting sense of self

01:00 — Recasting perimenopause as a time of becoming

03:30 — A Zen story: The nun and the river

04:00 — Early symptoms of perimenopause

07:00 — Reorganization of the perimenopausal brain

08:40 — The Second Spring: An Eastern view of the menopausal transition

09:50 — The first step: Acknowledge

10:40 — Rejecting society's narrative for aging women

11:40 — The second step: Integrate

12:40 — Reclaiming a sense of adventure

13:15 — Yoga and scuba diving retreat

13:50 — Caring for others through volunteering

15:15 — The third step: Reframe

17:00 — Reframing insomnia

17:45 — Reframing anxiety

20:00 — The neuroscience behind reframing

20:30 — Bridge thoughts

22:00 — Positive social mirrors

22:55 — Reviewing the three steps

Scientific references:

• Mosconi, L. et al. Menopause impacts human brain structure, connectivity, energy metabolism, and amyloid-beta deposition. Sci Rep 11, 10867 (2021).

  Coslov, N., Richardson, M. K. & Woods, N. F. “Not feeling like myself” in perimenopause: Observations from the Women Living Better survey. Menopause 31(5), 486–493 (2024).

  Woods, N. F., Coslov, N. & Mitchell, E. S. Effects of bothersome symptoms during the late reproductive stage and menopausal transition. Menopause 30(5), 559–567 (2023).

  Elavsky, S. & McAuley, E. Physical activity, symptoms, esteem, and life satisfaction during menopause. Maturitas 52(3–4), 374–385 (2005).

  Ceylan, B. & Özerdoğan, N. The relationship between menopausal symptoms, attitudes toward menopause and body image. Alexandria Journal of Medicine 53(4), 327–333 (2017).

  Sokołowska-Pawłowska, K. et al. Perceptions and attitudes toward menopause and perceived satisfaction with life. Menopause Review 23(1), 9–16 (2024).

In this episode, Meredith dives into the neuroscience of perimenopause, reframing this midlife shift not as decline but as a profound, fiery transformation. She explains how fluctuating estrogen reshapes neural circuits, why brain fog and mood swings appear, and how the brain ultimately recalibrates through neuroplasticity. Rather than fragile butterflies, Meredith invites listeners to embody the volcanic power of Pele—creative, potent, and unapologetically alive.

She explores the science behind sleep disruption, from progesterone dips to circadian shifts, and shares practical tools such as breath counting, progressive relaxation, Raja yoga meditation, and yoga nidra, all shown to ease menopausal insomnia. Meredith also challenges the outdated cultural narrative that aging women become invisible, encouraging listeners to claim this stage as one of wisdom, spaciousness, and renewed purpose. She closes with an invitation to her upcoming workshop, a reminder of community, and an affirmation that the menopausal brain is not fading — it’s refocusing.

Mentioned in this episode:

• Get more peace: Micromoments of Peace (free guide): 10 simple ways to create calm and presence in your day ⁠⁠https://meriyoga.org/micromoments⁠⁠
• Free Yoga Nidra Audio Practice
• Come with me on retreat: SacredCalm Yoga + Hiking Retreat (May 2026): an immersive journey to reconnect with nature and slow time on the California coast ⁠⁠https://meriyoga.org/sacredcalm_2026⁠⁠
• WildCalm Retreats
• Becoming Her Again Workshop
• SIS Circle (collaborative workshop partners)
• Follow me on Instagram: ⁠⁠⁠@meriyogasf ⁠⁠⁠

Time Stamps:

00:00 — Why the menopausal brain is rewiring, not breaking
01:00 — Recasting perimenopause as a time of becoming
02:10 — The butterfly metaphor vs. the volcanic energy of Pele
04:00 — Brain fog, estrogen shifts, and neuroplastic adaptation
06:15 — Mindfulness as a buffer for attention, memory, and stress
08:10 — Sleep disruption: hormones, circadian rhythm, and anxiety loops
10:00 — Breath counting + progressive relaxation for returning to sleep
12:00 — Meditation research: Raja yoga and insomnia relief
13:30 — Yoga nidra as a nighttime reset
15:00 — Rewriting the cultural narrative of aging and claiming midlife power
17:00 — Invitation to the Becoming Her Again workshop & closing reflections

Scientific references:

• Mosconi, L. et al. Menopause impacts human brain structure, connectivity, energy metabolism. Sci Rep 11, 10867 (2021).

• Epperson CN, et al., Menopause effects on verbal memory: findings from a longitudinal community cohort. J Clin Endocrinol Metab. 98(9):3829-38 (2013) .

• Streeter CC, et al., Effects of yoga on the autonomic nervous system, gamma-aminobutyric-acid, and allostasis in epilepsy, depression, and post-traumatic stress disorder. Med Hypotheses, 78(5):571-9 (2012) .

• Portella, C.S.,et al. Meditation as an approach to lessen menopausal symptoms and insomnia in working women undergoing the menopausal transition period: A randomized controlled trial. Advances in Integrative Medicine, 8 (4), 278-284 (2021) .