2023-02-23
56 分钟The emotion of anxiety is not a disease.
It is a normal human emotion.
And evolutionarily that evolved to protect us from danger.
And that is why we are here today.
People can usually say, okay, I get that.
That sounds good.
I buy that.
But still, I'm not feeling protected one eatsy beetsy little bit from my anxiety.
And the answer is no, we're not, because the volume of our anxiety is turned up way high.
And so the big part of the book, good anxiety, is about providing science based approaches to turn the volume down, not to get rid of it again, it's normal human emotion, but to start to turn it down.
So have you ever felt overwhelmed or helpless in the face of anxiety?
Kind of like the more you try to manage it, the more out of control it becomes.
Maybe it's in social situations where you're surrounded by new people or work situations where it's so easy to start spinning about everything from how well you'll be perceived to what happens if you stumble.
Or maybe it's just about the state of your life, or relationships or family or community, or even the world.
If that's you, you are not alone.
But what if anxiety was actually a particular type of energy that approached differently, could be transformed into something akin to a superpower?
This is the bold idea offered by my guest today, Professor Wendy Suzuki.
Wendy is professor of neuroscience and psychology at New York University and a researcher who focuses on the relationship between the brain and behavior, with a particular emphasis on the role of stress and anxiety.
Wendy's work has been featured in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and her latest book, Good Anxiety.
It explores how to use anxiety as a superpower.