Anxiety is Your Superpower: Using anxiety to think better, feel better and do better

by Wendy Suzuki

This is cutting-edge science packaged as a practical guide on how to flip anxiety on its head and harness it as a superpower - by world-renowned neuroscientist, Dr Wendy Suzuki.

We live in an age of anxiety. Like an omnipresent yet invisible odour you've grown used to, anxiety has become a constant condition, a fact of life, and a distraction that undermines our quality of life. Dr Wendy Suzuki's ground-breaking research will show us that science tells us a very different story: yes, anxiety is unpleasant - it's meant to be - and in the debilitating extreme, what Wendy will call 'bad anxiety', it's destructive. But most of the anxiety that humans feel is essential - not only to survival, but for higher brain functions formerly thought to be put on hold during anxious moments, Wendy will provide two broad categories of neuroscience-based hacks for harnessing anxiety and facing it head-on. The first will help address and calm anxiety so that you can enjoy the productivity you will experience, and the second grouping of brain science hacks will enable readers to channel anxious feelings into six uses for good anxiety - from productivity, increased emotional intelligence and focus to creativity and confidence.

Through Wendy's unique perspective as a neuroscientist, she will teach us how to flip anxiety on its head and offer a counterintuitive lens through which to understand how anxiety manifests in our everyday lives. The book will introduce a taboo breaking slant on anxiety: we will learn how it can be good for us and that once we learn how to play it at its own game, it can become our superpower!

Genres: Nonfiction, Self Help, Health

288 pages, Paperback

Published October 28, 2021

About the author

Dr. Wendy A. Suzuki is a Professor of Neural Science and Psychology in the Center for Neural Science at New York University. Her major research interest is brain plasticity with the focus on the brain's ability to form and retain new long-term memories.

Reviews

[Meana · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was be helpful in learning more about anxiety, it's purpose and how to reframe it. I carefully took notes and tried to benefit from the information in this book. I am very interested in reading about stress and anxiety, I believe the approach Dr Suzuki does is very interesting, putting focus in the evolutionary reason for anxiety and why we are failing to have it under control.

The parts in which the book is divided are very easy to follow: from a bit of necessary theory to practical exercises to put in action her words. All of it from the perspective of compassion and self understanding without judging oneself.

I strongly recommend.

[Manon · Rating 2 out of 5]

J'ai eu du mal, car j'ai trouvé ça un peu poussif.

"Vous avez du mal avec le fait d'être bouffé par le capitalisme et d'avoir le moral en berne? Regardez comme vous pouvez être productif!". Ca m'a dérangé.

En revanche, l'anxiété d'un point de vue biologique est très bien expliquée.

[Laura · Rating 1 out of 5]

Je m'en doutais mais je lui ai laissé une chance vu qu'on me l'a conseillé... Encore une littérature développement personnel sous couvert de science, qui individualise des problèmes qui sont structurels et sans remettre en question une seule fois le capitalisme. Aller mieux pour être plus productif ? le propre du dev perso, poubelle. On termine avec des conseils qui n'ont rien d'original et qui, surtout, ne s'adaptent pas à tout le monde. Maintenant que mon anxiété généralisée est calmée, je ne peux que vous conseiller d'aller voir un.e psy, et d'adopter des techniques TCC. À bon entendeur :)

[Lucas · Rating 1 out of 5]

- Meditate, eat healthy and exercise - congratulations, you just read the whole book. Actually there are tons of more strategies (even brewing the tea in specific manner), but it feels like reading a copywriters blog post.
- The language, it's something about it that it's hard to me to understand the ideas, thankfully I heard about them dozens of times before so I know what's all about.
- It's worthless for someone with panic attacks or more severe GAD, personally I think the CBT is best for you in this case.

[Vera Brits · Rating 5 out of 5]

A very helpful, well-written book. It contains valuable information (and a fresh perspective) on anxiety. It also provides easy to follow strategies for making anxiety work for you, strategies I’m very excited to try.

It’s written in an easy, conversational tone and was a very interesting read. I would definitely recommend it.

[Typhaine · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is powerful!

[Janel · Rating 4 out of 5]

A useful book for an anxious mind.

[Gianluca Rinaldi · Rating 3 out of 5]

[3.5] more scientific than I expected, so I appreciated it a lot, for once a different point of view

[GD · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not one of the better books I've read in this non-fiction genre.

[Indira Mbaya · Rating 4 out of 5]

Un livre rempli de richesse si vous avez des soucis d'anxiété!

[angie · Rating 4 out of 5]

good book honestly. made me think and discovered many things about my own anxiety. however kindda repetitive somehow cause i sometimes felt as if i was reading the same sentences over and over again