The World's Best Book Summaries
What is the book Unwinding Anxiety about? What are the main takeaways of the book? In Unwinding Anxiety, Brewer explains how anxiety becomes a habit and how it spawns additional habits that only make things worse. Brewer shows why mindfulness succeeds where traditional methods like willpower, substitution, and avoidance fail. Read below for a brief overview of Brewer’s book Unwinding Anxiety.
How do you get anxiety? How does anxiety become a habit? Unwinding Anxiety by Dr. Judson Brewer suggests anxiety is a habit loop. To understand how to break the cycle of anxiety, you first have to understand how anxiety works as a habit loop. Let’s look at how anxiety forms as a habit.
What is emotional granularity? Why do psychologists say it’s so important? How can you improve your emotional granularity? Neuroscientist and psychologist Lisa Feldman Barrett says that emotional granularity is your ability to understand and differentiate specific emotions. People with high emotional granularity are able to better regulate and cope with stress and other negative emotions, according to Barrett. Read on for a more detailed definition of emotional granularity, plus how to improve it, according to Barrett.
What can anxiety lead to? How are alcoholism and substance abuse caused by anxiety? According to Dr. Judson Brewer in Unwinding Anxiety, our brains rely on a basic behavioral cycle to learn. If this cycle is started by a negative behavior (such as anxiety), it can lead to even worse behaviors. Keep reading to learn what types of behaviors anxiety can lead to.
How can you determine the true motives behind behaviors? How can you become less selfish and purer in your own motives? In The Elephant in the Brain, Kevin Simler and Robin Hanson argue that human behavior is driven by selfish motives hidden behind altruistic pretexts. They call these selfish motives the “elephant in the brain.” If we learn to recognize these “elephants,” we can improve our individual behaviors and our social institutions. Continue reading for some tips on recognizing hidden motives in yourself and others.
What are the hormones that make you happy? How do these hormones affect your wellbeing? Hormones that make you happy, or neurochemicals, dictate your overall sense of wellbeing, including how motivated you feel to complete your goals and which good (or bad) habits you adopt in daily life. The Art of Impossible author, Steven Kotler, says generating all six types of hormones that make you happy is the key to living a more fulfilling life. Read on to learn the different types of hormones that make you happy and their impact on wellbeing, according to Kotler.
Are you wondering how to break the cycle of anxiety? How does anxiety lead to other problems? In Unwinding Anxiety, Dr. Judson Brewer gives practical advice for dealing with anxiety. Brewer’s guidelines for overcoming anxiety are based on his definition of anxiety as a habit loop. Let’s look at how to break the cycle of anxiety in three steps.
What is the importance of play in early childhood? How does playtime affect a child’s focus? Stolen Focus by Johann Hari says that playtime is crucial for a child’s cognitive skills. How children spend their time contributes to rising levels of difficulty in paying attention. Learn how changing a child’s lifestyle and playtime can affect them.
Are there really right-brained and left-brained people? What are the characteristics associated with right- and left- brain dominance? In pop psychology, people are described as either left-brained (analytical and orderly) or right-brained (creative and imaginative). However, this distinction doesn’t actually have any basis in neuroscience. The left brain/right brain myth has long been debunked, although we still use these terms to describe personality and thinking style. Here’s why the left brain/right brain theory is moot.
How does a lack of social connection affect your mental health? Why is it important to maintain social connections throughout life? Psychological research increasingly shows that social connection is important for your psychological well-being. Strong social connections are a better predictor of long, happy lives than social class, intelligence, or genetics. Keep reading to learn about the link between social interaction and mental health.