Good Anxiety: Harnessing the Power of the Most Misunderstood Emotion

In this book Dr. Suzuki discusses how to manage everyday anxiety, how to become more aware of the underlying causes of anxiety and think about these anxious signals in a more positive light, and how to make other healthy changes to help encourage your brain to adapt and function more optimally. The book is divided into three parts, with a total of about 250 pages in the digital version, not including the Notes sections.In Part One Dr. Suzuki defines anxiety, describes the stress and anxiety circuits in the brain, and explains the differences between everyday anxiety and anxiety disorders. She explains the importance of neuroplasticity, and the emotional effects of negativity bias. Dr. Suzuki also explores some positive versus negative coping strategies, with examples to illustrate her points.In Part Two Dr. Suzuki focuses more on using anxiety in a positive way, to benefit your life. She discusses different way to build resilience, and manage stress levels. She explains how to use “good anxiety”, or arousal, to enhance performance; and how to maintain a balance between good and bad anxiety. She uses a few examples to explain how to shift toward a more positive mindset, and how to increase focus and productivity. She also discusses the attention system in the brain, the effects of exercise, social intelligence, practicing compassion, and maximizing creativity.In Part Three, Dr. Suzuki offers tools to manage and channel your anxiety. The first step is to become more aware of your anxiety, and this section has three surveys to take to better identify how anxious you are and what some of your triggers might be. The is also an Emotion Regulation Questionnaire, to further identify your emotional habits. Dr. Suzuki then provides a list of things to try to quiet your anxiety, and ways to build resilience. The last chapter is full of specific suggestions to help shift your mindset and channel positive anxiety.Overall, I found this book to be informative, engaging, and optimistic. Even simply understanding that it is possible to reduce negative anxiety by changing the way your brain interprets these signals, can be a big first step. The author does a great job of explaining how the brain processes information, and how you can take control of anxiety, instead of letting negative anxiety control you.

I had watched Wendy Suzuki’s TED talk which is what inspired me to read this book. Her take on anxiety and the social stigmas around it, underpinned by both her professional research and personal experiences, made me look at this inherently human emotion we all experience in a whole new way. The sharing of her personal experiences really helps her bind with the reader or very human level, and her approach to dealing with anxiety and even using it as a tool (hence the title of the book) was truly lifechanging.

The more I sit with your feelings, the more I’ve realized that anxiety is a factor in a lot of my emotions. It’s great to read about the benefits of anxiety and all the ways to understand it and the connection it has to our brains and our bodies.

This book was great. The author is a neuro scientist who translates the scientific understanding of how the brain works into the language of the common person.I think her hope is that if people who have high anxiety could just step back and understand what the heck is happening inside their brains on a physical level, they could handle their anxiety in a more productive way that doesn't have to be disruptive to their lives. She argues that if you can understand to roots of your anxiety, you can actually turn it into an asset.I, personally, think it's great advice. Basically, it boils down to not letting your animal brain have control, but rather taking a contientious lead over your thought processes. I have suffered from everyday anxiety pretty much my whole life and found this book fascinating. The exercises she offers are basic, but it just goes to show that getting a handle on anxiety doesn't have to be complicated. The most difficult part is learning to be ok with difficult feelings, which is hard in an Instagram-ready toxic positivity culture.Overall, I give the book 5 stars. If you want to understand how your brain is actually working and how and why anxiety is a physical ordeal as much as an emotional one, this book is for you. It's not at all textbooky and is easy to read.

This book puts anxiety into terms I could understand and identify with. It also gave great strategies for coping.

This book tells no new information or no new views. It was written kinda bland. It didn't hook me. The writing style gave information without "feeling" the information. It wasn't bad. It gives information many people need to know. Some places run on while others don't show any science background behind the claim.

that had good information to reinforce the strategies I know to apply that will, I hope, return me to a calm state.

Suzuki wrote a winner book for those of us who suffer from anxiety misinformation. A life changer!

Light weight

Love it

Eye opener