We live in an age of anxiety. Most of us assume that the key to overcoming it is to think our way out. And for a while, it works. But there is always something- a distressing newsbreak, a family emergency, an irritating email- that sends us right back into the anxious cycle we've been trying to escape.
Is there a way to reduce our anxiety in the moment, and in every moment after that? The answer, says Martha Beck, lies in our brain's natural capacity for creativity.
In Beyond Anxiety, Beck explains why anxiety is skyrocketing around you and within you, showing how you can not only reduce worry, but use it to propel you into a life filled with peace, meaning, and joy. Using a combination of the latest neuroscience as well as her background in sociology and coaching, she explains how our brains tend to get stick in an "anxiety spiral", a feedback system that can increase anxiety indefinitely. To free ourselves, we must engage different parts of our nervous system- the parts involved in creativity.
Offering instructions for engaging the "creativity spiral", Beck walks you through a process that not only shuts down anxiety but leads to innovative problem-solving, a sense of purpose, and joyful, intimate connection with others and witht he world.
The opposite of anxiety, it turns out, is a wonderful new way of life- one that can calm and inspire us, and help us to engage more deeply and authetically with everything around us.