Publishers Weekly
08/30/2021
Neuroscientist Suzuki (Healthy Brain, Happy Life) proposes that anxiety is not only useful, but essential to living in the modern world in this helpful self-guide guide. In the first part of the book, Suzuki delves into the science behind anxiety, educating readers on where anxiety comes from (“an automatic reaction to possible danger”) and how to differentiate common anxiety from clinical disorders (such as rapid breathing, persistent feelings of danger, or gastrointestinal upset). She goes on to explain that anxiety can be controlled due to the plasticity of the brain, primarily through removing anxiety from a negative categorization and regulating emotions: “We can learn to use awareness to reframe a situation, remove the perception of danger, and reappraise it.” In the second half, Suzuki digs deeper into the details of using anxiety to fuel resilience, ambition, activism, and productivity. Some of the coping mechanisms come across as simplistic—like finding a hobby or playing with pets—but the overall message shares research-backed methods to manage anxiety. While Suzuki primarily writes to readers without diagnosed clinical disorders, her techniques will be helpful to those trying to navigate low-level anxiety. (Oct.)
NPR Life Kit
Suzuki outlines strategies to turn that sinking feeling into something productive.
The Adversity Advantage Podcast
[Good Anxiety] is an absolute masterclass on how to transform your relationship with anxiety and use it as a powerful tool for growth.
Live Happy Podcast
[Suzuki’s] new book looks at anxiety in a whole new way and explains how we can use the gift of anxiety to improve our focus, productivity, communication skills and so much more.
Karl Sterling Podcast
[Good Anxiety] helps us understand how simple but powerful shifts in mindset and tangible, practical strategies can help us transform our social anxiety, fear of performance, or fear of public speaking into positive and empowering assets.
The Kathryn Zox Show
Dr. Wendy Suzuki has found a way to unlock the potential of anxiety to be a benefit instead of a drawback and reveals that anxiety is not only essential for our survival but also a key component of our ability to live optimally. She helps us understand how simple but powerful shifts in mindset and practical strategies can help us transform our social anxiety, fear of performance, or fear of public speaking into empowering assets.
YOU The Owner's Manual Podcast
Dr. Wendy Suzuki unpacks the cutting-edge science that will help readers channel their anxiety for positive outcomes. This shift from bad to good anxiety accelerates focus and productivity, boosts performance, creates compassion, and fosters more creativity.
Glo Podcast
Dr. Suzuki clarified how we can make anxiety work for us instead of controlling us. The tools she shares... are incredibly impactful and easy to implement.
Align Podcast
[Suzuki] explains how to approach anxiety, the thoughts behind it, the tools to use to take control of your anxiety and take back your life.
The Model Health Show
World-renowned neuroscientist Dr. Wendy Suzuki outlines powerful yet simple ways we can reframe our anxiety and use it to our benefit.
on the Good Anxiety audiobook The New York Times
[Suzuki] guides nervous listeners in how to actually honor their panic, and channel it into greater self-understanding.”
Public Radio Tulsa 89.5
Dr. Suzuki takes us through the neural mechanisms of anxiety in an understandable way, and that leads into a discussion of practices the reader can undertake to quell... anxiety into something positive.
Token CEO
[Dr. Suzuki] has a wealth of wisdom and insight into how you can handle one of the most powerful emotions in your life, which is anxiety. And ways that you can use exercise, being outside, and breathing to control your emotions.
Daily Burn
Good Anxiety discusses how we can harness the power of one of our greatest fears and transform it into unexpected gifts. [Suzuki] reminds us that we can truly be powerful within our anxiety and loosen the stigma that comes along with it.
Conscious Conversations Podcast
This book is an absolute game-changer. [Suzuki] talks about good anxiety and the idea around building a better relationship to our anxiety and using it as a way to empower us to be better... It’s a mixture of tools, of storytelling, of understanding and unpacking some of the best things we can do to help our mental health [and] anxiety.
Lisa Bilyeu
"Anxiety isn’t a weakness—it’s your brain telling you that it’s time for a change. And in this incredibly insightful book, Dr. Wendy Suzuki breaks down the exact whats, whys, and hows to flipping your perspective, and turning anxiety into the secret weapon you can use to get the life you want. She will transform your kryptonite into your super power!"
Eve Rodsky
Good Anxiety is a must-read for anyone interested in harnessing their full power in creativity and productivity in all areas.
PopSugar
Dr. Wendy Suzuki challenges readers to recognize their anxieties as strengths, not weaknesses in her new book. By embracing our vulnerability, we are able to conquer the things that make us uncomfortable, and from that we are able to grow as individuals.
Daniel G. Amen
As I always tell my psychiatric patients, having some anxiety is a good thing. The key is learning to use your brain to transform the way you think about anxiety so you can tap into its secret powers. That’s why I love Good Anxiety so much. It offers a handy toolbox to transform your anxiety from a downer to a superpower.
Publisher’s Weekly
Anxiety is not only useful, but essential to living in the modern world in this helpful self-guide guide.
New York Journal of Books
A book that is erudite, practical, reader-friendly, deeply personal, and sure to help even the most anxious among us.
WAM Weekly - Maria Shriver
This book has tools in it, but it’s also a health book... because your health is in your hands. How you manage the “what-ifs” will determine in many ways your brain health, emotional health, spiritual health. [Good Anxiety] is a manual for how to take control. It’s fun, it’s creative, and it’s positive. It’s uplifting and it’s optimistic.
Wall Street Journal
Suzuki draws on decades of neuroscience, including her own research, and leavens her learning with a little personal storytelling to create a practical, science-backed guidebook for those seeking such a transformation.
Booklist
"Suzuki shows readers how to identify triggers, acknowledge anxieties, and use them to promote such superpowers as resilience, compassion, creativity, and empathy... [a] reassuring book."
Sharon Salzberg
Everyone feels anxious at times but "Good Anxiety" shows us that not only can we learn to live with anxiety but we can make it work for us too. Dr. Wendy Suzuki, a professor of Neural Science and Psychology at New York University, shares scientific facts in a comprehensive and relatable way. She then offers clear tools and strategies to help us live a fuller life.
Salon
[Suzuki] explains the reasons our brains react the ways they do and why anxiety can be a secret superpower, and offers tools for a real world practice of healthier emotional regulation.
The Washington Post
The book contains surveys and strategies to help people assess and even befriend their anxiety. It’s a powerful reminder that many of the human body’s adaptations can be used for good or ill — and that people can flip their responses to what can feel like inevitable feelings of anxiety and stress.
The Wall Street Journal
For those of us simply trying to navigate a world in which worries seem destined to multiply, [Dr.] Suzuki provides a welcome road map.
CNN
Suzuki details the biological underpinnings of anxiety and helps us reframe our perspective on it, so we feel empowered instead of helpless.”
Fortune
An essential guide, with tips on coping mechanisms as well as training techniques for communication and productivity for anyone who finds themselves suffering from anxiety, stress, or a case of the ‘what-ifs.’"
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