In a world of AI disruption, livestreamed wars, and infinite scroll, your nervous system is under siege. Here's the neuroscience biohack that builds Future You — one equipped to navigate it all.
We are living through the most triggering period in human history.
Not metaphorically. Neurologically.
The average person now consumes the equivalent of 174 newspapers' worth of information every day — a figure that has increased fivefold since 1986. Artificial intelligence is restructuring industries in real time — as I explored in the age of agentic AI — in ways that generate genuine threat signals in the human nervous system. Wars are livestreamed on the same platform where you follow friends. Social media algorithms are deliberately engineered to keep us in a state of heightened arousal, because outrage and anxiety generate more engagement than calm. The news cycle never ends. The notifications never stop.
As a futurist who has spent two decades tracking the signals reshaping human experience, I've watched this particular signal accelerate faster than almost any other: the systematic dysregulation of the human nervous system at scale. And I've watched most of our responses — doom-scrolling less, mindfulness apps, resilience training, digital detoxes — fall short, because they address the symptom rather than the underlying biology.
So let me ask you something.
Do you get triggered? Of course you do. A tone of voice that takes you back to a difficult memory. A news headline that tightens your chest. A social media thread that leaves you activated for hours after you close the app. A crowded room that makes your body want to leave before your mind has decided anything.
We have an entire vocabulary for this. Triggers. Activation. Hijacking. Fight or flight.
But here's the question almost nobody is asking: do you know what a glimmer is?
Glimmers are the neurological antidote to triggers. And in a world engineered to dysregulate us, knowing yours — and collecting them deliberately — might be the most important thing you do this year to build the Future You.
Building the Future You: Why Your Nervous System Is the Foundation
Most people associate futurism with technology forecasts, AI disruption timelines, and strategic planning. And those are absolutely part of my work. But the deeper thread running through everything I do is this: the future will be navigated by humans. Which means the most important question isn't just "what will the world look like?" It's "who will you be inside it?"
The Future You — the version of you that thrives in a VUCA world rather than just survives it — is not primarily a skills upgrade. It is a nervous system upgrade. The leaders, founders, and human beings who will navigate the next decade most effectively are the ones who have built genuine biological resilience: the capacity to return to regulation quickly after disruption, to think clearly under pressure, and to maintain access to creativity, empathy, and strategic intelligence even when the world is shouting.
That capacity is not primarily a mindset. It is a biological state. And it is built, moment by moment, through practices that speak directly to the autonomic nervous system. Just as small 1% daily improvements compound into exponential results, small daily glimmer practices compound into genuine biological resilience over time.
Glimmers are one of the most powerful of those practices — and one of the least understood outside the clinical world.
Futurist biohack: Glimmers are not a wellness trend. They are a targeted neurobiological intervention that activates the ventral vagal system, reduces cortisol, restores cognitive capacity, and builds long-term emotional resilience. Unlike most biohacks, they require no equipment, no supplements, and no subscription. They require only attention — and the intention to collect them deliberately.
What Glimmers Actually Are: The Neuroscience
The term was coined by Deb Dana, a licensed clinical social worker and the world's leading translator of Polyvagal Theory into everyday language. Dr Stephen Porges — the neuroscientist who developed Polyvagal Theory — identified that the autonomic nervous system operates through three distinct states:
Ventral vagal state: safety, connection, and regulation — where our best thinking, creativity, and collaboration happen.
Sympathetic state: fight or flight — mobilised, hypervigilant, reactive.
Dorsal vagal state: collapse, shutdown, disconnection — the freeze response.
Dana first named the concept in her 2018 book The Polyvagal Theory in Therapy, describing glimmers as "micro-moments that begin to shape our system in very gentle ways." They are not grand epiphanies. Not holidays or promotions. They are small, sensory, and often fleeting — and they are doing something biologically significant every time they occur.
Crucially, the autonomic nervous system processes cues of safety and danger below conscious awareness — faster than thinking, faster than language. This is why telling yourself to calm down rarely works. The nervous system isn't listening to your thoughts. It's scanning for cues. Glimmers are cues of safety delivered directly to the biology, bypassing the thinking brain entirely.
Over the long term, noticing and appreciating glimmers builds emotional resilience and gradually calms an overactive nervous system. Multiple micro-moments of regulation, accumulated over time, create what Dana calls an "autonomic shift" — a genuine reorientation of the system toward safety as its baseline. This is the nervous system upgrade the Future You needs.
In 2025, Deb Dana published The Glimmers Journal (W.W. Norton) — a structured practice for noticing and recording these moments. The science has arrived. The application in leadership, entrepreneurship, and daily life is still catching up.
The World Is Engineered to Trigger You. Here's the Evidence.
Let's name the threat landscape specifically, because the scale of what we're navigating deserves acknowledgement.
84% of employees faced at least one mental health challenge in the past year.
Only 33% of employees worldwide say they are thriving — 58% are struggling.
Global employee disengagement costs the world economy $438 billion annually (Gallup 2025).
AI anxiety and technological disruption
The pace of AI advancement is triggering at a civilisational level. There is a new Moore's Law reshaping AI capability — and the uncertainty it generates about your role in an AI-restructured economy is a genuine autonomic threat signal. The World Economic Forum estimates AI will displace 85 million jobs while creating 97 million new ones — but the transitions will be disruptive and fast. AI anxiety is now specifically identified as a rising workplace burnout driver in 2026. That's not catastrophising. That's biology responding to genuine uncertainty.
The social media trigger machine
Social media platforms are algorithmically optimised for engagement — and the content that generates the most engagement activates threat responses: outrage, fear, moral indignation, tribal conflict. Every scroll is a potential trigger delivery system. Wars, climate events, political upheaval, economic anxiety — all arrive in real time on the same device you use to set your alarm. The nervous system cannot distinguish between a threat 10,000 kilometres away and one in your immediate environment. The APA calls this "collective trauma" — a shared state of hypervigilance generated by continuous exposure to distressing world events.
VUCA burnout is not a personal failing — it's a system response
Workplace burnout has reached a six-year high in 2026. 96% of adults aged 25 to 34 reported high or extreme stress in the past year — the most stressed working cohort ever recorded. Burnout now costs employers up to $20,683 per executive per year, with 89% of those costs invisible because they show up as presenteeism. Only 33% of employees worldwide say they are thriving — 58% are struggling. As I've written on the culture barrier to AI adoption, the human dimension of disruption is consistently underestimated.
We are, collectively, running on empty. And the dominant organisational response remains more apps, more EAP programs, more resilience training that asks depleted people to perform resilience as though it were a skill set rather than a biological state. What Polyvagal Theory makes clear is that regulation is not a cognitive achievement. It is a nervous system event. The Future You isn't built through willpower. It's built through moments.
How I'm Using Glimmers to Navigate the Hardest Years of My Life
I want to be personal here, because I think the most useful thing I can offer isn't just the science.
The past year has included navigating a high-stress divorce — one of the most neurologically demanding experiences a human being can go through. Relationship breakdown is among the most significant autonomic threat signals a nervous system can receive. The uncertainty, the grief, the logistical complexity, the identity disruption — all of it constitutes a continuous stream of triggers that don't stop when you sit down to prepare a keynote, or try to sleep, or need to lead.
I've been deliberate about building glimmer rituals into this period. Not as a bypass of the difficult emotions — those need to be fully felt — but as a way of maintaining the nervous system capacity to actually function while feeling them. The glimmers don't remove the difficulty. They restore the access to the part of me that can navigate it well.
One of my most reliable glimmers is stepping off the ferry at Great Mackerel Beach on Sydney's Northern Beaches and walking up to my little cabin, watching the late afternoon light settle on Barrenjoey Headland. There is something about that specific quality of light, at that angle, at that time of day, that does something to my nervous system nothing else quite replicates. It is a small, specific, embodied moment of felt safety — and my biology knows it instantly.
Another is walking into a local Stockholm derby. The crowd noise building before kickoff. The particular smell of the old stadium. It takes me straight back to being a seven-year-old at the Olympic Stadium in Stockholm, holding my grandfather's hand, completely certain the world was a good place. That seven-year-old's nervous system knew something. Glimmers let me borrow that knowledge when the adult version most needs it.
This connects to something I wrote about elsewhere — the moment I was carjacked in a Waymo in Los Angeles and found myself feeling unexpectedly safe. Trust, safety, and the nervous system's response to cues of security run through all of these experiences. The biology is the same whether the safety comes from a headland at dusk or a robo-taxi responding calmly to threat.
The more I've understood the science, the more I've realised how long I had been stumbling into glimmers without knowing what they were. The intentionality is what turns a passive experience into a biohack.
The Digilogue Dimension: Why Glimmers Are Almost Always Analogue
If you've heard me speak or read my work, you'll know that Digilogue — the balance between digital efficiency and irreplaceable analogue human experience — sits at the heart of how I think about the future.
Glimmers are almost always analogue.
They live in the specific quality of light on water. The roar of a stadium. The smell of a forest after rain. The weight of a child's hand in yours. The silence before dawn. They are sensory, embodied, and irreducibly human. No algorithm can manufacture them. No notification can replicate them. No AI can generate the felt safety of a specific place at a specific time that has meaning in your specific nervous system.
This is not accidental. The ventral vagal state that glimmers activate evolved in the context of physical presence, embodied sensory experience, and direct contact with the natural and social world. It predates screens by several hundred thousand years. It is not designed to be activated by content. It is designed to be activated by life.
This has a profound implication for how we design the Future You. In a world accelerating toward AI-generated everything, the most important things you can protect are the analogue moments that restore your biology. Your glimmers are not a retreat from the future. They are the infrastructure that makes you capable of meeting it.
The most important technology upgrade available to you right now might not be an AI tool. It might be knowing what your glimmers are — and protecting the conditions to access them.
The Future You is not the version of you with more skills or a better strategy. It is the version of you with a nervous system equipped to navigate volatility without being destroyed by it. That version is built in analogue moments. Collect them. They are not soft. They are the foundation.
Who Needs This in 2026
Leaders navigating VUCA in real time
The boardroom in 2026 is a trigger-rich environment: AI disruption anxiety, geopolitical volatility, teams carrying their own dysregulation into every meeting. A leader operating from a dysregulated nervous system cannot think clearly, collaborate genuinely, or make good decisions under pressure. Employees who feel supported in their wellbeing are three times more likely to be engaged at work. That starts with leaders who model regulation, not just resilience. Culture — and the nervous systems within it — determines what AI adoption actually looks like in practice.
Entrepreneurs and founders building in uncertainty
Founders carry an extraordinary neurological load: financial uncertainty, isolation, responsibility for others' livelihoods, continuous context-switching between vision and execution. Unlike corporate employees, founders often have no structural recovery built into their week. For the entrepreneur building in an AI-disrupted market with no roadmap and no institutional support, glimmers are not a luxury. They are what keeps the signal strong enough to keep going.
Every human consuming the news
You don't need a leadership title for this to matter. APA research shows that continuous exposure to distressing news events produces measurable physiological stress responses in people with no direct connection to those events. 84% of employees faced at least one mental health challenge in the past year. Building a deliberate glimmer practice is one of the most effective things any human being can do to maintain psychological equilibrium in an age of continuous disruption.
Four Steps to Build Your Glimmer Practice: The Future You Protocol
Step 1: Signal scan — start noticing
A futurist scans for weak signals before they become obvious. Apply the same discipline to your own biology. When you feel a moment of unexpected ease, warmth, or calm, pause long enough to name it. Where are you? What can you see, smell, hear, feel? What is present in this moment that isn't usually present? The specificity of the cue is the data. Train yourself to catch it.
Step 2: Pattern recognition — write them down
Keep a dedicated record. Deb Dana's Glimmers Journal (2025) provides a structured framework, but a note on your phone works equally well. Not a gratitude list of abstract blessings — specific sensory moments. "Felt calm" is not a glimmer. "The sound of rain on the cabin roof at 6am before anyone else is awake" is a glimmer. The more specific the record, the more retrievable the state when you need it most. Like the 1% rule, small daily noticing compounds into something transformative.
Step 3: Systems design — create the conditions
Once you know what your glimmers are, design your life and week to include them. Build nervous system recovery into your weekly architecture the same way you would any other performance variable. A walk in a place that consistently produces regulation is not escapism. It is active recovery. Schedule it. Protect it. Treat it with the same seriousness you would a board meeting.
Step 4: Real-time deployment — use them after triggering
The next time you close a distressing news tab, emerge from a difficult conversation, or finish a week of relentless volatility — reach for a glimmer before you reach for your phone. A glimmer is not a distraction from the problem. It is the reset that makes you capable of addressing the problem well. You cannot think clearly, create genuinely, or lead effectively from a dysregulated nervous system. A glimmer is the shortcut back to the state where your best self operates.
Frequently Asked Questions About Glimmers
What is a glimmer in psychology and neuroscience?
A glimmer is a term coined by trauma clinician Deb Dana to describe micro-moments that activate the autonomic nervous system's ventral vagal state — the state associated with safety, regulation, and social connection. Rooted in Polyvagal Theory (developed by Dr Stephen Porges), glimmers are the neurological opposite of triggers. Where triggers push the system toward fight, flight, or shutdown, glimmers create brief moments of felt safety that, accumulated over time, build long-term emotional resilience.
What is the difference between a trigger and a glimmer?
A trigger is any cue — a sound, a smell, a news headline, a facial expression — that activates the nervous system's defensive survival responses. A glimmer is a cue of safety that activates regulation and connection. Crucially, both are processed below conscious awareness, which is why rational self-talk rarely resolves activation — and why intentional glimmer practices, which bypass cognition entirely, can be so effective.
Are glimmers a biohack?
In the most precise sense of the word, yes. A biohack is a deliberate, evidence-based intervention that optimises biological function. Glimmers activate the ventral vagal system, reduce defensive arousal, and restore the cognitive and relational capacity that chronic stress depletes. Unlike many popular biohacks, they require no equipment, no supplements, and no subscription — making them one of the highest-return wellbeing interventions available in 2026.
How do glimmers help with VUCA and AI anxiety?
VUCA environments generate continuous threat signals that keep the nervous system in low-grade survival mode. AI anxiety is now specifically identified as a rising burnout driver in 2026. Glimmers provide neurological counterbalance — regular cues of safety that restore the system's capacity to operate from its ventral vagal state. A leader or founder who builds a deliberate glimmer practice is building the biological foundation for clear thinking and sustainable performance in a world that won't slow down.
Can glimmers help with the stress of divorce or relationship breakdown?
Yes, and this is one of the most powerful applications of the concept. Relationship breakdown is among the most significant autonomic threat signals a nervous system can receive. Glimmers don't bypass those emotions — they need to be felt. But deliberate glimmer practice maintains the nervous system capacity to function, lead, and recover while moving through the experience.
How do you find your personal glimmers?
Glimmers are highly individual and almost always sensory. They typically involve a specific quality of light, a sound, a smell, a physical sensation, or a place that carries an association of safety or connection — often from earlier in life. The best way to identify yours is to pay attention in moments of unexpected ease and ask: what is present right now that isn't usually present? Keep a written record and patterns will emerge within days.
What is Polyvagal Theory and why does it matter for leadership?
Polyvagal Theory, developed by neuroscientist Dr Stephen Porges, describes how the autonomic nervous system shapes our experience of safety, connection, and threat through three hierarchical states. Leadership — and all high-performance human activity — happens most effectively from the ventral vagal state. Understanding what activates and restores that state, for yourself and for the people you lead, is one of the most practically useful frameworks for navigating 2026 and beyond.
How do I book Anders Sorman-Nilsson as a futurist keynote speaker on neuroscience, leadership and the Future You?
Anders speaks on the intersection of neuroscience, AI disruption, Digilogue, and conscious leadership for leadership teams, conference audiences, and corporate offsites globally. To discuss your event and check availability, contact us at Thinque or via the enquiry form at anderssorman-nilsson.com.
The most resilient version of you — the Future You — isn't built through willpower, better strategies, or more information. It's built in the small, specific, analogue moments that tell your nervous system the world is safe enough to think clearly, lead well, and keep going.
Start noticing. Write them down. Collect them like signals.
And if you want to bring this conversation into your organisation, get in touch.
Sources
Polyvagal Theory and glimmers: rhythmofregulation.com · newportinstitute.com · justinlmft.com · psychologytoday.com
2026 burnout data: worktime.com · riskex.com · meditopia.com · yomly.com · yuna.io · gallup.com
AI disruption and media triggers: weforum.org · theguardian.com · apa.org · psychologytoday.com
Relationship breakdown: psychologytoday.com (Kposowa 2003)