The High 5 Habit: Take Control of Your Life with One Simple Habit

This chapter confronts the intense anxiety that erupts when life’s upheavals—pandemic shutdowns, job loss, health scares, relationship ruptures—shatter familiar routines. Robbins recounts her own career disruption, as she abruptly transitioned from a televised talk-show host to the COVID-19 quarantine, unemployment, and financial strain, illustrating how sudden crises split a person’s narrative into a “before” and an “after.” She argues that fear itself is inevitable, but the decisive moment arrives the instant one chooses how to respond.

Robbins introduces the “high-five to your heart” habit (187): placing a hand over the heart, breathing deeply, and silently affirming, “I’m okay. I’m safe. I’m loved” (181). She suggests speaking the mantra in the third person (using one’s own name), since this practice leverages psychological objectivity and activates the vagus nerve, which calms the nervous system and restores the brain’s capacity to process new, positive information. The technique is presented as a concrete antidote to the spiraling anxiety that often follows trauma.

The chapter taps into a broader cultural moment—the COVID-19 pandemic—when millions grappled with collective uncertainty and heightened mental-health strain. Robbins’s emphasis on embodied self-soothing aligns with contemporary research on somatic therapies, mindfulness, and neuro-feedback, positioning her advice within a credible scientific framework. The chapter’s core premise that intentional, physiological regulation can reshape emotional responses is applicable beyond the specific pandemic context.