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From bestselling author Martha Beck, a new path to overcoming anxiety by awakening the creativity within
We live in an epidemic 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 that sends us back into the anxious spiral we’ve been trying to climb out of.
In Beyond Anxiety, Dr. Martha Beck explains why anxiety is skyrocketing around you, and likely within you. She also tells you how to not only reduce your anxiety 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, Beck explains how our brains tend to get stuck in an “anxiety spiral,” a feedback system that can increase anxiety indefinitely. To climb out, we must engage different parts of our nervous system—the parts involved in creativity. Beck provides instructions for engaging the “creativity spiral,” in a process that not only shuts down anxiety but leads to innovative problem solving, a sense of meaning and purpose, and joyful, intimate connection with others—and with the world.
The opposite of anxiety, it turns out, is a wonderful new way of life—one that can calm and inspire us as individuals and help us become a source of healing for everything around us.
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Creators
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Publisher
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Release date
January 7, 2025 -
Formats
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OverDrive Read
- ISBN: 9780593656396
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EPUB ebook
- ISBN: 9780593656396
- File size: 3697 KB
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Languages
- English
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Reviews
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Starred review from January 1, 2025
In this new book from one of the most celebrated life coaches writing today, anxiety becomes something of a cage that, when acknowledged and replaced, generates curiosity, creativity, and a life lived on purpose. Beck (The Way of Integrity) invites readers to join her in what she terms "the open field," a space beyond fear, shame, loneliness, and judgment. She distills three facts about anxiety (how it spirals, how society amplifies it, and how it can only end if it is replaced) before laying out an approach that moves from the creature to the creative and, finally, creation, or that elusive flow. Beck draws on real stories of individuals discovering that their anxiety is, in fact, a natural response to decidedly unnatural social forces. Her turns of phrase make her points as clever as they are clear (for instance, she titles a chapter the "Nuts and Bolts of Why You Go Nuts and Want To Bolt"), without ever putting cuteness over content. Unlike typical discussions of flight-or-fight, reptile brains, and Paleolithic responses to being chased by a tiger, Beck's metaphors feel tailored to the individual, yet also universal. VERDICT In this straightforward yet sophisticated work, Beck once again demonstrates why Oprah Winfrey has called her "one of the smartest women I know."--Emily Bowles
Copyright 2025 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.
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