Beyond Anxiety: Curiosity, Creativity, and Finding Your Life's Purpose

by Martha N. Beck

From bestselling author Martha Beck, a new path to overcoming anxiety by awakening the creativity within.

We live in an epidemic of anxiety. Most of us assume that the key to overcoming it is to think our way out. And for a while it works. But there is always something that sends us back into the anxious spiral we’ve been trying to climb out of.

In Beyond Anxiety, Dr. Martha Beck explains why anxiety is skyrocketing around you, and likely within you. She also tells you how to not only reduce your anxiety but use it to propel you into a life filled with peace, meaning, and joy.

Using a combination of the latest neuroscience as well as her background in sociology and coaching, Beck explains how our brains tend to get stuck in an “anxiety spiral,” a feedback system that can increase anxiety indefinitely. To climb out, we must engage different parts of our nervous system—the parts involved in creativity. Beck provides instructions for engaging the “creativity spiral,” in a process that not only shuts down anxiety but leads to innovative problem solving, a sense of meaning and purpose, and joyful, intimate connection with others—and with the world.

The opposite of anxiety, it turns out, is a wonderful new way of life—one that can calm and inspire us as individuals and help us become a source of healing for everything around us.

Genres: Nonfiction, Self Help, Psychology, Mental Health, Health, Personal Development, Audiobook

336 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 7, 2025

About the author

Dr. Martha Beck, PhD, is a New York Times bestselling author, coach, and speaker. She holds three Harvard degrees in social science, and Oprah Winfrey has called her “one of the smartest women I know.” Martha is a passionate and engaging teacher, known for her unique combination of science, humor, and spirituality.

Her recent book, The Way of Integrity: Finding the Path to Your True Self, was an instant New York Times Best Seller and an Oprah’s Book Club selection. Her latest book, Beyond Anxiety: Curiosity, Creativity, and Finding Your Life’s Purpose is out now.

Reviews

[Perri · Rating 3 out of 5]

First part of book great, second part of book kind of lost me. Some good tidbits and interesting framing around anxiety here though and a quick read so worth it though if you like psychology self-help books and/or are a Martha Beck fan.

[Anne Marie McCombs · Rating 4 out of 5]

Don’t be turned off by the buzzword-y-seemingly-self-help title! I wouldn’t have picked up this title if I weren’t a longtime follower and admirer of everything Martha Beck puts out. But know this potential readers: this is a book, first and foremost, about contemporary culture and creativity. I won’t spoil too much, but I highly recommend to anyone who feels lonely in their criticism of our culture that centers productivity above all else and feels a longing for self-expression, community, care for our planet, and deep, deep joy. Easy 4 stars from me!

[Christina Tinguely · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.5. I just love Martha Beck. I relate to her struggles and love the ideas she has here. I hope to find time to reread this again and work along with the book. Be prepared for mental/journaling prompts.

[Julie Simons · Rating 2 out of 5]

⭐️⭐️1/2
Overall disappointing. First half did offer some interesting take on anxiety with right/left brain discussion. I liked her explanation of IFS. But the second half lost me. She seemed to lose focus and go WAY beyond anxiety. I understand creativity is important but her ideas stretched beyond practical. This was more memoir than self help. Too heavy on the self & too light on the help.

[Seawitch]

I’m not rating this as after the first few chapters I skimmed it so it doesn’t seem fair.

I loved Beck’s Finding your North Star many years ago. It helped me find myself back in school and in a whole new career.

This book is probably good for those who don’t understand anxiety and need some coping tools but I was more interested in the creativity part and struggled to connect.

[Annette Titus · Rating 2 out of 5]

Some good steps and ideas. Was a bit too wordy for me and actually brought on some anxiety 😬

[Caity Henderson · Rating 2 out of 5]

nice try lol - xx anxiety

[Susan Petro · Rating 5 out of 5]

Brilliant, as usual.

You might surmise that Martha Beck has run out of fresh material to tackle after having written so many brilliant books, but you'd be wrong. She has done it again. Written another extraordinary book offering fresh insight in her fluid, clear, readable style. Even as a certified Wayfinder Coach, trained in her company, I learned a great deal of new and helpful methods to address anxiety. Highly recommended.

[Rita · Rating 1 out of 5]

Uma life coach que estudou sociologia a dar aulas de como lidar com a ansiedade. Aparentemente também é uma grande especialista em neurociências. O mal todo está em usarmos demasiado o hemisfério esquerdo, ao que parece. A moça que ficou sem esse hemisfério devido a uma lesão está a viver a sua best life, diz ela.

Dicas de vida segundo esta pessoa: ir ao psicólogo para curar a ansiedade é uma má escolha. Temos que ir ao life coach. Porque esses psicoterapeutas só pedem para analisar o que estamos a sentir. É engraçado, ela esqueceu-se de dizer que os exercícios que ela propõe ao leitor vêm em qualquer livro de terapias de terceira geração em psicoterapia.

Receita de sucesso desta senhora: roubar o trabalho dos outros, falar mal deles e depois vender esse trabalho como se fosse dela.

[Kelly (kellyreadingbooks)]

DNF 2 hrs 21 min into audiobook. I fear, this is making me anxious. Which I find to be counterproductive 😂 wordy and a little woo woo for me.

[Tanika Caesar · Rating 5 out of 5]

You can read books about ‘crushing anxiety’ and spoiler alert, they don’t work. This take on caring and loving these parts of ourselves, chefs kiss. A great expansion on IFS ideas, with cute ‘dr. Beck’ commentary

[Sierra · Rating 5 out of 5]

i prefer martha beck’s books over brene brown’s books

[Lindsay Bomstein · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the most helpful books I’ve read on anxiety and I’ve read a lot of them. Martha Beck is a researcher through and through and she did a great job on this one - it’s a lot so I had to listen and read to get through it but it’s one of those books I will refer to for a long time to come!

[Amy Johnson · Rating 5 out of 5]

10 stars.

[Maddie Leong · Rating 5 out of 5]

her books are magic

[Chantal Côté · Rating 2 out of 5]

Although I sincerely believe creativity is the key to reducing anxiety, the author totally lost me for the last 60 pages of the book.

Why did she have to bring wealth and race in a book destined to awaken our creativity in order to get away from stress?

I started skipping pages when she started topics such as constellating your ecosystem and awakening. Why would you need your new found creativity to become your main revenue? I thought the goal was to decrease stress? Why can’t it just be a hobby where you are in the flow and your concerns don’t take center stage?

Do you really need to master creativity to reduc anxiety? I don’t think so!

[A.Reilly]

Several hours of my life I’ll never get back

[Robyn · Rating 3 out of 5]

I picked this up because I’d been told it was a fun perspective on living in an anxious world. At first, it was. I really enjoyed about the first half of the book but then the thread was lost. It started to meander, lecture and frankly, bore me. I’ll take the bits I enjoyed and try to forget the rest.

[Katta · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lots of great, helpful stuff here. My big issue (and this is very left brain of me) is there’s no citations page or footnotes. Hoping they add one in the second edition.

[Courtney]

This wasn't a book that I needed, but I love Martha Beck, so I perused it and collected some gold to add to my treasure chest.

The sugar cube analogy on page 294 was 👌🏼!

My favourite excepts:

✨The written word is addictive to me; if I'm not either reading or writing, it feels as if my brain is dying of thirst. However, I also wish I could draw or paint all day, every day, without a single verbal thought ever crossing my mind. It thrills me to explore unfamiliar places all over the world. On the other hand, I dread travel and try to avoid it. And while I want to dedicate every moment of my life to serving humanity, let me be honest: I do not like people.

Everything in the paragraph above is true. I am basically a walking clot of paradoxes. This once made any attempt to manage my anxiety very tricky...

(ME TOO, MARTHA! ME TOO!!)

✨In the year 2000, biological anthropologist Joseph Henrich coined the acronym WEIRD to describe countries that are Western, Educated, Industrialized, Rich, and Democratic. Henrich believes that we citizens of the WEIRD world have dramatically different psyches from our ancestors: more object obsessed, more driven, and—you guessed it—more anxious.
The template for WEIRD thinking arose a few hundred years ago in Western Europe. Rejecting the rule of religion, the thought leaders of this time set out to understand the world from a strictly materialist perspective, by measuring, analyzing, calculating, and labeling things. In other words, they got all up in their left brains, and stayed there...

Remember, a radically creative, mission-driven way of adding value to the world isn't condoned by left-hemisphere thinking. People will tell you that it's weird, because WEIRD cultures are designed to turn out humans who perform well in school, do "productive" work whether they enjoy it or not, raise their children to do the same thing, and then die. They want us to fit into socially prescribed roles. They want us all to be mold people...

The reason why people react so negatively when someone breaks a role rule is because they're obeying the overall social rule that says, "We must all stay in our roles!" They're trying to play specific social roles themselves. Most of them have experienced a lifetime of the "push clay into mold" approach...

There's just one small problem with using intense social rules to make mold people: if you push too hard, you might break the mold. You might actually—horror of horrors—set someone free. Any role that maximizes pressure can do this, whether it's religious or not. Once the mold breaks, the person shoved into it is at liberty to access their deepest sense of mission, the armature around which they can build a totally unique life. After that, the role rules are basically screwed. That person is never going to act exactly like anyone else, ever.

(I pieced together these paragraphs.)

✨Though the unawakened mind can't see the reality of the awakened perception, the opposite isn't true: people who are awake, can access all the information coming in through their senses and logical thought.

✨ For all their differences, the anti-science religious believers and the anti-religious scientific thinkers all shared the same basic credo:

"WE KNOW ALL THE THINGS!"

You may recognize this as the characteristic viewpoint of the left hemisphere. When we're fully immersed in left-hemisphere thinking, we absolutely believe whatever story we're telling. We also want to manipulate other people into believing it with us. Religious or atheist, a mind locked on the idea that WE KNOW ALL THE THINGS is thinking dogmatically. When we're entrenched in this mindset, we go mind blind to much of what were experiencing. We live in mental projection— the terrifying, anxiety-riddled existence awakened people call the dreamworld. So what's the alternative that can help us regain our mindsight? It's not rocket sci-ence. It's just acknowledging this:

Maybe we don't know all the things.

✨I exist in continuous, creative response to whatever is present. (Not her words.)

✨ I walk my talk. I choose calm, creative, courageous, compassionate responses to any and every life dilemma. (Not her words.)

[Rahdika K · Rating 3 out of 5]

‘Anxiety also makes us less able to feel and show love, and less receptive to love from others, darkening our emotions as well as our thoughts.’

This was my first book by the author, a sociologist, and I found her approach to anxiety and creativity quite insightful.

In this book, the author explores how to break free from the cycle of anxiety by engaging creativity. She argues that by shifting from an anxiety spiral to a ‘creativity spiral,’ individuals can reduce anxiety, solve problems more effectively, and ultimately experience greater peace, meaning, and connection in their lives.

The book is divided into three parts. The first part, The Creature, explains anxiety in depth—its causes, its effects, and why it is such an important issue to address. I particularly appreciated this section for its simple and accessible language. As a psychiatrist, I felt that anyone suffering from anxiety could relate to this part, as the author makes the condition feel seen and acknowledged. She emphasizes how anxiety is a very real and often debilitating experience.

The second part, The Creative, shifts focus to the role of creativity. The author delves into how expanding our creative side can help improve our overall lives. While this section may not be directly tied to anxiety alone, the methods she describes can be applied broadly to enhance mental well-being and personal growth.

The final part, The Creation, blends philosophy and religion, offering various techniques for personal transformation. Like the second part, this section is more universal and can be applied by anyone, not just those struggling with anxiety.

Overall, I found the first part of the book the most helpful in terms of addressing anxiety directly. The later sections provide useful tips and practices, but they feel less focused on the specific topic of anxiety and more on general self-help principles. Because of this, I would recommend approaching this book as a general self-help guide rather than a focused resource specifically on anxiety. The title, while intriguing, can be a bit misleading when compared to the broader scope of the content.

Thank you Times Reads for the review copy.

[Nikita · Rating 2 out of 5]

Well that got weird.
To be fair I did receive a warning before reading this that part 3 might be worth skipping but I am a completionist so I read it anyway. Part 1 offers some helpful research, ideas, and practical exercises about utilizing creativity and calming anxiety. Then things start to get a bit repetitive and meandering. Some of her ideas seem contradictory, like how she goes on about how the purpose of our creativity is not to make money from it, but then goes on to talk about how the people who are most successful at utilizing their creativity are often making tons of money from it. Well ok. She also totally glosses over the major financial barriers for most people when it comes to making their art/creative passions their work.
Then she really lost me in the third part where she says she can bend spoons with her mind and that maybe global warming is happening for a good reason we aren’t aware of. No I am not exaggerating.

[Stephanie Affinito · Rating 5 out of 5]

I always find myself getting lost inside of Marth Beck’s words, often finding pieces of myself along the way. Reading BEYOND ANXIETY was no exception. In this book, Martha invites readers to explore what anxiety actually is and consider an unexpected way of first befriending it and then turning it off: creativity. Organized in parts, Martha explores The Creature, The Creative and The Creation, arming readers with research-backed science, personal anecdotes and my favorite, new skills to step out of an anxiety spiral and into a creative one instead. The analogy of creating a life’s quilt was just the metaphor I needed and the unexpected chapters on building a life (and career) you love was exactly what I needed, too. This book could change everything for you.

[Carrie · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a book that requires a highlighter and time to do the exercises, but even without that, I found it really insightful. It does veer into some bizarre territory toward the end, but the rest of it is helpful to understand and deal with anxiety, particularly the impact of implementing to a right-brain focus. I love the idea that creativity may be (is?) the answer to it all.

[Kristianna Cobb · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the best books I have read about anxiety and creativity—while there are a few parts that were a bit much for me, as a whole I couldn’t put the book down (which is unusual for me and nonfiction!)

[Rachael Lorenzo · Rating 5 out of 5]

Martha Beck is a metaphysical wonder! There is a collective unconscious right beneath the surface of our daily lives, if we could only calm ourselves down enough to tune into and believe it! Martha gives tools for getting out of our oppressive left hemisphere, and deeper into our right hemisphere where our creativity, magic and unburdened selves are begging to emerge. A truly beautiful piece of work for anybody who wants to lean towards a freer, truer existence.

[Victoria · Rating 5 out of 5]

Martha Beck is insightful and absolutely hysterical. I really love how she frames and phrases her ideas/philosophies and strategies, making them both entertaining and somehow tangible, while also being innately challenging.

[Deb Lord · Rating 5 out of 5]

I drank every word of this book like the perfect cup of tea. The downloadable content is a comprehensive companion to the book. Highly recommend for anyone who struggles with anxiety, like me!

[Books Before Bs · Rating 4 out of 5]

In ‘Beyond Anxiety’ Martha Beck, a Harvard-trained sociologist and now bestselling author, speaker and life coach, teaches readers about anxiety and its counterpart, creativity. Across three parts, Beck guides readers through strategies not only for calming anxiety in the moment but for moving beyond it long-term by replacing it with a curiosity-driven, creativity-filled life.

The writing is engaging and easy to read, if a little cloyingly informal at times, and Beck includes many useful exercises. Though references aren’t given, which might be off-putting to readers from scientific backgrounds looking for hard evidence to back up Beck’s claims and methods, ‘Beyond Anxiety’ has the potential to benefit a wide range of people—all that is required is an open mind. If other methods of dealing with anxiety haven’t proven successful, this might just be the book for you.

[Don Mcrae · Rating 5 out of 5]

A timely book. Teaches us novel ways to shift from the thinking, worrying left hemisphere of our brain, to the curious and creative right side to diminish anxiety and thrive. A treasure chest of useful,information, presented in a creative and thought provoking manner.