Discovering Your Internal Universe: The Unexpected Good News About Anxiety, Panic, and Fear

by Cody Deese, Rob Bell (Foreword)

250 pages, Paperback

Published October 9, 2025

About the author

Cody Deese is an author, speaker, and spiritual guide. He holds an MDiv degree from Emory University’s Candler School of Theology and serves as the lead pastor of Vinings Lake Church, an ever-evolving spiritual collective. He is also the founder of Atlanta Becoming, a progressive organization that hosts roundtable discussions with authors and speakers on spiritual topics. Deese is the author of Discovering Your Internal Universe: The Unexpected Good News About Anxiety, Panic, and Fear.

Reviews

[Nate Smith · Rating 4 out of 5]

Everyone in my family got this book for Christmas, and in any other year, I would’ve sat this on a shelf and never picked it up again. I’m glad I’m a reader now, though, because this was great. Cody Deese wasn’t afraid to look his anxiety in the face, nor was he afraid to get into the uncomfortable with his readers. His perspectives on anxiety—chiefly, how to understand it and work alongside it rather than eliminate it—were refreshing, and his authorial voice was both comfortable and hilarious. I think a lot of people could be helped by this book.

[Keith · Rating 4 out of 5]

Anxiety as teacher, guide, catalyst. Deese walks us through his lifelong struggles with severe anxiety. With the help of many different mentors, guides, teachers, therapies, he moves from a helpless victim to a grateful and empowered seeker. His religious journey, growing up in the south, is similar to my experience in many ways. I too have had severe anxiety, anxieties present in some of my earliest childhood memories.

Although I do not remember Deese mentioning Stoicism, his conclusions reminded me of those virtues...specifically, practicing/finding peace during uncertainty.

I have not marked up and underlined a book in some time. This one is a keeper that I will refer to again and again.