When Chaos Reigns: Reclaiming Control Through Mindsets

After the Tariff Liberation Day on 2 April 2025, a wave of upheaval swept across global markets. In the week that followed, the Dow plunged more than 5% in a single day, and the S&P 500 suffered its worst performance since March 2020. Spooked investors panicked as China retaliated swiftly against the new tariffs. Other countries signaled they might follow suit.

Meanwhile, the ongoing wars in Ukraine and Gaza added further complexity to an already fragile economic landscape. The tech sector — already deep into a prolonged phase of realignment and downsizing took another hit, with Google announcing plans to lay off hundreds of employees across its Platforms and Devices unit, including the teams behind Android and Pixel.

In response to the chaos, several friends admitted to stocking up on food products from China, hedging against soaring prices once the tariffs took full effect. Others mentioned buying essentials like toilet paper, trash bags and cleaning supplies in bulk from Costco or Amazon.

By late Friday afternoon, the week’s turmoil had taken its toll. I arrived at karate practice burdened by worries and anxieties, struggling to stay focused amid assaults on every level of life. How do we stay grounded in a world where instability isn’t just a possibility — but a promise? In moments like these, our greatest defense may not be preparation but perception.

Check Your Mindset

According to the Stanford Report, “mindsets are a set of assumptions that help you distill complex worldviews into digestible information and then set expectations based on this input.”

We often don’t realize how deeply these assumptions influence our behavior — until uncertainty strikes. For example, my friends believed the tariff war with China would be catastrophic, and their assumption triggered fear, which led them to stockpile food products from China. During the pandemic, others hoarded toilet paper, convinced that supplies would become inaccessible.

In both cases, their mindset shaped their expectations and guided their decisions — sometimes more than facts or logic. These belief systems, often unconscious, act as filters: when the world feels unstable, the brain leans on past experiences and narratives to make sense of what’s happening and prepare for what might come next.

The first step to navigating chaos? Understand your mindset.

Beau Lotto, a renowned neuroscientist and author of Deviate: The Art of Seeing Differently, writes that “humans aren’t good at seeing the world as it really is. We all possess a variety of entrenched biases and assumptions. To break free of those biases, you first need to be aware of them — and for most people, that’s not easy.”

According to Lotto, we aren’t the best person to reveal our biases. “It’s usually someone from a different background, a different history, a different way of thinking,” says Lotto. Most of us live in bubbles, be they political bubbles, social media bubbles, religious bubbles, or economic bubbles.

Change usually begins with a question, doubt or an accidental observation. “It begins with doubt and the desire to understand,” Lotto says. “The brain takes on a certain state when it does that, and when it grows, we get a tremendous sense of rush. The brain likes that sense of growth.”

Flexibility Is a Survival Skill

As a former refugee, I learned early that life is impermanent. My parents had made impossible choices guided by little more than instinct and hope.

Growing up, I knew that stability is a luxury — one that can vanish in seconds due to forces beyond our control. I’ve never assumed that what exists today will be there tomorrow. I expect change — good and bad — and I’ve learned to move with it, not against it.

Flexibility and adaptability aren’t personality traits. They’re survival skills.

Checking your mindset means becoming aware of what you think, feel and believe — and how those beliefs drive your decisions. Ask yourself:

How do I deal with uncertainty?
What do I turn to when the world shifts under my feet?

Cultivate a New Mindset

We know that mindsets can impact how we respond to the world. The good news: they can change. “Challenging yourself with new experiences and perspectives allows you to form new neural connections — new mindsets — at any point in life.”

For me, karate is where I continually test and reshape my mindset. That Friday night, our sensei led us through kihon — 13 basic techniques, each repeated 60 times. With every block, kick and punch, I visualized an opponent in front of me. When the chaos of the world invaded, I fought back — harder, sharper more present.

During kumite (sparring), staying focused became even more essential. Each opponent brought a different rhythm, a unique strategy — a new challenge to meet in real-time. There was no room for distraction — only adaptation, awareness and the discipline to stay centered in the moment.

How to Shift Your Mindset

So how do you actually change your mindset? Neuroscientist Dr. Michael Merzenich, author of Soft-Wired: How the New Science of Brain Plasticity Can Change Your Life, emphasizes the importance of novelty. “People who travel to new places, learn new languages, and embrace unfamiliar experiences into old age are far less likely to experience cognitive decline,” he writes.

In addition to travel and learning, here are five ways to start shifting your mindset:

Question Your Assumptions: Where do your beliefs come from? Are they rooted in facts — or fear?
Practice Presence: Use physical routines — karate, walking, swimming, biking, dancing, breathwork — to re-center.
Expose Yourself to the New: Travel. Read widely. Seek out conversations that challenge your worldview.
Surround Yourself with Growth: Spend time with people who embrace uncertainty and adapt well.
Celebrate Discomfort: Reframe it as growth. Your brain isn’t failing — it’s learning.

Mindset as a Survival Skill

Life has always been in flux. We know this because we’ve lived through it — moving from childhood to adolescence, into adulthood, and beyond. Often, those transitions feel subtle because they unfold gradually. But abrupt, systemic disruptions — like the ones we’re seeing now — demand something different.

They require a mindset equipped not just to cope, but to adapt, evolve and act with clarity.

Life offers no guarantees — but our mindset can serve as a compass. In the face of instability, don’t just ask what to do. Ask: Who do I want to be?

Then act like it — deliberately, courageously, again and again.