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

by Judson Brewer MD PhD

Trigger(s): Driving (especially on the highway) Behavior: Avoid driving Result: No panic attacks!

noting the sensations, emotions, and thoughts,

So keep practicing and building that evidence-based faith, note “doubt” when it arises, and notice the joy of letting it go instead of being caught up in it.

Trigger: Deadline for writing a paper Behavior: Check the New York Times website (again) Result: Felt up on the news, behind on the work

Here is my pain-relieving formula for procrastination: interest + knowledge + experience = enjoyment in writing + good product = flow.*

After everything was set, I gave myself the simple instructions: sit, walk, write, repeat, but write only when in flow. I would do my regular meditation “thing” by practicing a lot of sitting and walking meditation and would sit down to write only if moved to do so. And most important, I would immediately get up from writing and return to meditation if I felt the slightest bit of contraction, which signaled a movement out of flow and into some type of striving.

get some anxiety sobriety under your belt, not tomorrow, but right now. If you find yourself worrying about tomorrow, bring in your mindfulness skills to notice the future thinking, and go from there.

This is important so I’m going to repeat it: what we do in the present sets our course in life. If we’re anxious now, we create a bead of anxiety. If we do this a lot, we make an anxiety necklace that we wear (sometimes with pride) and take with us wherever we go. If in this moment, we step out of an anxiety habit loop, we don’t add that bead to the necklace and have the opportunity to add a different bead instead. We can create curiosity necklaces. We can create kindness necklaces. And with these BBOs in hand, we can put our old necklaces down.

individuals consistently and significantly preferred mental states such as feeling kind, curious, and connected to those of feeling anxious, fearful, and angry.

I learned the hard way that judgment and anger feel painful not just for me but for those at whom I have directed my emotions. (In fact, if Malcolm Gladwell’s rule of 10,000 hours of practice has any basis, I became an expert in judging others before I graduated from college.) And in my self-imposed “anger rehab” of meditation practice, I have learned unambiguously that kindness trumps meanness every time.

I’d rather be addicted to kindness than cocaine.