Unwinding Anxiety Buchzusammenfassung - das Wichtigste aus Unwinding Anxiety

Einleitung anhören

00:00

Zusammenfassung von Unwinding Anxiety

Name: Unwinding Anxiety
Rating: 4.7 (1358 reviews)
Author: Judson Brewer

Judson Brewer

New Science Shows How to Break the Cycles of Worry and Fear to Heal Your Mind

4.7 (1358 Bewertungen)

28 Min.

Themen

The Brain Mental Health Routines & Habits Self-Help

Inhaltsübersicht

Unwinding Anxiety
in 8 Kernaussagen verstehen

Audio & Text in der Blinkist App

Kernaussage 1 von 8

What’s in it for me? Reprogram your brain to untangle anxious thought loops.

Ever get so worried that you can’t fall asleep? Do you experience panic attacks in busy places?

Today, we’re experiencing what has been called an “anxiety epidemic.” Never have so many people been diagnosed with a level of anxiety that negatively affects their quality of life.

But in order to treat anxiety, we need to understand how it works. When we feel anxious, obsessive worrying kicks in. We think about it endlessly and try to problem-solve. But that doesn’t work. In fact, worrying is just a way of distracting us from our anxious feelings.

There is hope, however. By learning how to remedy anxiety with mindfulness, you’ll be able to look forward to a less anxiety-ridden future.

In these blinks, you’ll discover

why curiosity is your superpower;
how to identify the triggers behind addictive behavior; and
why willpower-based methods don’t work.

Anxiety is controlled by our survival brains.

Imagine you were one of the shoppers who ran to your nearest supermarket in the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic. Your goal? To pile your shopping cart as full of toilet rolls as possible. But what’s going through your mind as you race through the supermarket, stockpiling yeast and rice and enough baked beans to last your family a full year?

Chances are, not much is going through your mind at all. You see, when we’re anxious, our rational brains shut down. We’re responding, instead, to our powerful and primitive survival brains, which evolved to protect us from danger. In this case, the danger was COVID-19. The survival strategy, for many, was buying toilet paper.

The key message here is: Anxiety is controlled by our survival brains.

Humans have two parts to their brains, which evolved at different times. The “old” part includes the autonomic nervous system, which regulates our primitive survival responses. If early cave dwellers encountered a saber-toothed tiger, their fight, flight, or freeze systems would be activated, giving them a better chance to survive. Around a million years ago, another part of the brain developed: the prefrontal cortex. This part of our brains is responsible for planning, reasoning, and predicting. It allows us to find patterns, and adapt our behavior according to past experience.

Anxiety occurs when the prefrontal cortex doesn’t have enough information to predict exactly what will happen. That’s why the start of the COVID-19 pandemic presented the perfect storm for anxiety. There was so much we were uncertain about. Would we find a vaccine? Were asymptomatic people spreading contagion? In the beginning, no one really knew. Even trusted authority figures like health professionals were feeling their way in the dark.

Anxiety emerges from our survival brains, but it doesn’t actually have a useful evolutionary function. Unlike fear, it doesn’t chase us out of the way of the saber-toothed tiger. It just keeps us awake at night staring at the ceiling, cycling through hypothetical future scenarios in which the tiger devours us.

So how can we learn to stop feeling anxious? Usually we try to talk or reason our way out of it, but anyone who’s ever experienced a panic attack knows that that’s useless. Anxiety and stress shut down the rational part of our brains. In order to untangle our anxiety, we’re going to have to learn to rewire our survival brains.

Anxiety and worry are addictive.

What comes to mind when you think of addiction? People huddling in doorways, shooting up heroin? Gamblers playing slot machines until they’ve blown through all their savings?

These stereotypical images of addiction make it seem like something unusual, or something that only happens to people in extreme circumstances. But addiction is actually a part of all our daily lives. Think of the extra pair of shoes you couldn’t help buying even though you’re short on cash. Or the fact that you can’t stop scrolling through social media even though you have an assignment due.

Understanding the psychology of your destructive habits is key to breaking them.

John had what seemed like a drinking problem. Every night he’d drink six to eight shots of whiskey, pass out, and begin again the next evening. But when he looked more closely at his addictive habits, John realized that, in fact, anxiety was fueling his drinking. He was anxious about his workload, so he drank to experience temporary numbness and distraction. But, of course, the drinking only made things worse. He was stuck in a destructive cycle known as a habit loop.

When John started to mindmap his habit loops, he began to understand his own mind much more clearly and get more perspective on his life.

Mindfulness is a key tool in untangling anxious habit loops.

Imagine waking up every day and having to learn how to eat breakfast or use your phone all over again, with all your knowledge wiped out overnight. It would make life completely untenable.

Our brains are skilled at committing behaviors to our muscle memory, so that we can do them without thinking. In fact, a 2010 Harvard University study found that we live on autopilot about 50 percent of the time. While this can be useful, it also means that we lose awareness of our thought processes. That means that we can’t interrupt destructive habit loops – because we don’t even know they’re happening!

We can’t change our habits without changing how we think about rewards.

Imagine someone offered you the option of eating either a plate of boiled broccoli or a slice of cream cake. Your brain would probably be screaming at you to take the cake.

That's because the cake has more calories. That means your brain gets a bigger dopamine “reward” when you eat it. And there’s also an emotional reward. Most of us associate cake with fun and parties and celebration. We have countless associations etched into our neural pathways.

Cultivate a compassionate mindset.

Focusing on our habit loops can be a very uncomfortable process. After all, we’ve spent years trying to numb ourselves against difficult feelings and distract ourselves from them. Now we’re giving them our full attention, and examining them under a microscope.

It can be even more discouraging if you feel like you’re not making progress. After all, you can see clearly that your behaviors don’t have real rewards. So why do you keep indulging them? This impatience is natural, but it’s not helpful. After all, you may have had these habit loops for decades. You can’t expect them to disappear overnight.

Curiosity is your anxiety-busting superpower.

Children famously have a stage in which they ask questions about everything they observe in the world. Why do cats have long tails? Why do their parents drink wine, but they can’t? They’re naturally curious about everything they see.

But as adults, we start to restrict our curiosity to filling information gaps – like when we’re stuck in traffic and need to know how long it will take to clear. Seeking specific information that we’re missing is known as deprivation curiosity. Childlike curiosity about everything and anything is called interest-based curiosity. This is the kind we need to cultivate.

Practice anxiety sobriety one day at a time.

Participants in Alcoholics Anonymous programs who want to get sober are taught to take it one day at a time. Instead of casting their minds forward to a lifetime of sobriety, they ask themselves, “Can I stay sober today?”

Anxiety sobriety requires a similar approach. The future is full of uncertainty. Thinking about how to break your future anxious habit loops will only make you anxious right now. Instead, you need to ask yourself, “Can I do my mindfulness exercises and cultivate curiosity today? Or in the next hour?”

Du möchtest die gesamte Zusammenfassung von Unwinding Anxiety sehen?

Kernaussagen in Unwinding Anxiety

Mehr Wissen in weniger Zeit

Sachbücher auf den Punkt gebracht

Kernaussagen aus Sachbüchern in ca. 15 Minuten pro Titel lesen & anhören mit den „Blinks”

Zeitsparende Empfehlungen

Titel, die dein Leben bereichern, passend zu deinen Interessen und Zielen

Podcasts in Kurzform ^Neu

Kernaussagen wichtiger Podcasts im Kurzformat mit den neuen „Shortcasts”

Worum geht es in Unwinding Anxiety?

Unwinding Anxiety (2021) breaks down the brain science behind the bad habits that keep us stuck. Have you ever tried to reason yourself out of binge eating, or procrastinating? Then you’ll know that it just doesn’t work. That’s because addiction and obsessive thought patterns are controlled by our instinctive survival brains, not our rational brains. Learning how to retrain our brains using mindfulness techniques will allow us to free ourselves from chronic worry, anxiety, and other obsessive habits.

Bestes Zitat aus Unwinding Anxiety

Rather than changing or not having the thoughts and feelings that make up our experience, mindfulness is about changing our relationship with those thoughts and emotions.

—Judson Brewer

Wer Unwinding Anxiety lesen sollte

Chronic worriers who want a way to calm their racing thoughts
People who want to interrupt addictive behaviors
Health professionals looking for new tools to curb the anxiety epidemic

Über den Autor

Judson Brewer, MD, PhD, is a renowned addiction psychiatrist and neuroscientist. He is director of research and innovation at the Mindfulness Center at Brown University, as well as being an associate professor at the university’s School of Public Health and the Medical School. His TED talk about breaking bad habits has been viewed over 16 million times.

Kategorien mit Unwinding Anxiety

Mindfulness & Happiness Psychology Health & Nutrition

Ähnlich wie Unwinding Anxiety

Stop Overthinking

Nick Trenton

23 Techniques to Relieve Stress, Stop Negative Spirals, Declutter Your Mind, and Focus on the Present

16 min

4.2

Breaking The Habit of Being Yourself

Joe Dispenza

How to Lose Your Mind and Create a New One

16 min

4.6

Cleaning Up Your Mental Mess

Caroline Leaf

5 Simple, Scientifically Proven Steps to Reduce Anxiety, Stress, and Toxic Thinking

22 min

4.3

The Answer to Anxiety

Joyce Meyer

How to Break Free from the Tyranny of Anxious Thoughts and Worry

15 min

3.0

Rewire Your Ocd Brain

Catherine M. Pittman

Powerful Neuroscience-Based Skills to Break Free from Obsessive Thoughts and Fears

Using the Brain to Understand and Treat Fear and Anxiety

27 min

4.3

You Are Not Your Brain

Jeffrey M. Schwartz and Rebecca Gladding

The Four-Step Solution for Changing Bad Habits, Ending Unhealthy Thinking, and Taking Control of Your Life

The Science of Changing Your Mind

16 min

4.7

Anxiety at Work

Adrian Gostick and Chester Elton with Anthony Gostick

8 Strategies to Help Teams Build Resilience, Handle Uncertainty, and Get Stuff Done

Own Your Morning. Elevate Your Life.

22 min

4.5

Becoming Supernatural

Joe Dispenza

How Common People are Doing the Uncommon

15 min

4.2

Eat to Beat Depression and Anxiety

Drew Ramsey

Nourish Your Way to Better Mental Health in Six Weeks

21 min

4.3

Rewire Your Anxious Brain

Catherine M. Pittman & Elizabeth M. Karle

How to Use the Neuroscience of Fear to End Anxiety, Panic, and Worry

17 min

4.7

The Porn Trap

Wendy Maltz & Larry Maltz

The Essential Guide to Overcoming Problems Caused by Pornography

Get Out of Your Head and into Your Life

Thinking, Fast and Slow

Daniel Kahneman

Intuition or deliberation? Where you can (and can't) trust your brain

The Surprising Solution to Overthinking

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy in 7 Weeks

18 min

4.3

The Overthinking In Relationships Fix

Rodney Noble

Toxic Thoughts That Can Destroy Your Relationship And How To Fix Them

How social isolation and meritocracy cause fear of underachievement and how to solve this

26 min

4.5

You Can Fix Your Brain

Dr. Tom O'Bryan

Just 1 Hour a Week to the Best Memory, Productivity, and Sleep You've Ever Had

19 min

4.1

The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck

Mark Manson

A Counterintuitive Approach to Living a Good Life

22 min

4.3

How to Be Your Own Therapist

Owen O'Kane

Boost Your Mood and Reduce Your Anxiety in 10 Minutes a Day

19 min

4.4

Emotional Intelligence

Timeless Stoic and Buddhist philosophy

Fear, Hope, Dread and the Search for Peace of Mind

How Your Brain Tricks You Into Expecting the Worst and What You Can Do about It

17 min

4.3

Change Your Brain, Change Your Life

Dr. Daniel G. Amen

The Breakthrough Program for Conquering Anxiety, Depression, Obsessiveness, Anger, and Impulsiveness

The Biohacker's Guide to Getting the Body and Mind You Want

20 min

3.8

Excellent Advice for Living

Kevin Kelly

Wisdom I Wish I'd Known Earlier

13 min

4.2

The Art of Living Alone and Loving It

Jane Mathews

Your inspirational toolkit for a whole and happy life

22 min

4.1

The Book of Forgiving

Desmond Tutu & Mpho Tutu

The Fourfold Path for Healing Ourselves and Our World

25 min

4.6

The Power of Your Subconscious Mind

Joseph Murphy (Ian McMahan revised)

Unlock Your Master Key to Success

How Microdosing Made a Mega Difference in My Mood, My Marriage, and My Life

23 min

4.2

What Happened to You?

Bruce D. Perry and Oprah Winfrey

Conversations on Trauma, Resilience, and Healing

27 min

4.4

When the Body Says No

Gabor Maté

The Cost of Hidden Stress

26 min

4.6

The ADHD Effect on Marriage

Melissa Orlov

Understand and Rebuild Your Relationship in Six Steps

17 min

4.5

12 Months to $1 Million

Ryan Daniel Moran

How to Pick a Winning Product, Build a Real Business, and Become a Seven-Figure Entrepreneur

Love Yourself Like Your Life Depends on It

Kamal Ravikant

How the Simple Act of Self-Love Can Transform Your Life

15 min

4.4

The Dialectical Behavior Therapy Skills Workbook

Matthew McKay

Practical DBT Exercises for Learning Mindfulness, Interpersonal Effectiveness, Emotion Regulation, and Distress Tolerance

From Surviving to Thriving: A Scientific Model

24 min

4.5

Stress Less, Accomplish More

Emily Fletcher

Meditation for Extraordinary Performance

How to Control Your Attention and Choose Your Life

What to Say to Get Your Way

17 min

4.6

The Worry-Free Mind

Carol Kershaw and Bill Wade

Train Your Brain, Calm the Stress Spin Cycle, and Discover a Happier, More Productive You

16 min

4.4

How to Change Your Mind

Michael Pollan

What the New Science of Psychedelics Teaches Us About Consciousness, Dying, Addiction, Depression, and Transcendence

A Daring Strategy to Change How We Live, Lead, and Love

15 min

3.4

That Little Voice in Your Head

Mo Gawdat

Adjust the Code That Runs Your Brain

20 min

4.5

❤️ für Blinkist️️️

Ines S.

Ich bin begeistert. Ich liebe Bücher aber durch zwei kleine Kinder komme ich einfach nicht zum Lesen. Und ja, viele Bücher haben viel bla bla und die Quintessenz ist eigentlich ein Bruchteil.

Genau dafür ist Blinkist total genial! Es wird auf das Wesentliche reduziert, die Blinks sind gut verständlich, gut zusammengefasst und auch hörbar! Das ist super. 80 Euro für ein ganzes Jahr klingt viel, aber dafür unbegrenzt Zugriff auf 3000 Bücher. Und dieses Wissen und die Zeitersparnis ist unbezahlbar.

Ekaterina S.

Extrem empfehlenswert. Statt sinnlos im Facebook zu scrollen höre ich jetzt täglich zwischen 3-4 "Bücher". Bei manchen wird schnelle klar, dass der Kauf unnötig ist, da schon das wichtigste zusammen gefasst wurde..bei anderen macht es Lust doch das Buch selbständig zu lesen. Wirklich toll

Nils S.

Einer der besten, bequemsten und sinnvollsten Apps die auf ein Handy gehören. Jeden morgen 15-20 Minuten für die eigene Weiterbildung/Entwicklung oder Wissen.

Julia P.

Viele tolle Bücher, auf deren Kernaussagen reduziert- präzise und ansprechend zusammengefasst. Endlich habe ich das Gefühl, Zeit für Bücher zu finden, für die ich sonst keine Zeit habe.