Unwinding Anxiety: New Science Shows How to Break the Cycles of Worry and Fear to Heal Your Min
Use science-backed habits to break worry loops, calm your body, and train your brain to choose curiosity over fear
About This Book
Anxiety thrives in hidden habit loops—worry, avoidance, doomscrolling, stress-eating—that feel helpful in the moment but wire the brain to be more anxious tomorrow. This practical guide shows you how to map those loops, update the brain’s reward values in real time, and install a bigger, better offer: curiosity, kindness, and present-moment awareness. You’ll learn why fear plus uncertainty creates anxiety, why willpower fails under stress, and how to turn everyday life into a mental gym. With concrete tools, relatable stories, and clear neuroscience, you’ll shift from spinning thoughts to skillful action and feel calm more often, even when life is loud.About the Author
Judson Brewer, MD, PhD, is a psychiatrist, neuroscientist, and habit-change expert whose research pioneered how mindfulness alters brain networks linked to craving, worry, and self-judgment. He has led clinical trials that showed large, lasting reductions in anxiety and addictive behaviors using short, daily trainings. A longtime meditation practitioner and professor, he bridges lab-tested science with practical skills you can use on a busy day. His work has appeared in top journals and popular media, and he’s known for making complex brain science simple, actionable, and hopeful.
Biggest Takeaway
- See the exact trigger–behavior–result loops that drive your anxiety, procrastination, and cravings. - Reduce worry by retraining your brain’s reward system with a simple question: “What do I get from this?” - Replace unhelpful coping with a bigger, better offer—curiosity and kindness—so change sticks. - Use fast tools (breath, RAIN, noting) to ride out urges and panic without white-knuckling. - Cut doomscrolling and choice overload by understanding social contagion and information design. - Build evidence-based confidence through short moments, many times—progress you can feel and measure.
Key Insights from This Book
Explore the most important ideas and learn how to apply them in your life.
Expose the loop your anxiety hides inside to take back control
Stop treating fear as anxiety by learning the three time scales of threat
Update your brain’s rewards by asking one question in the heat of habit
Beat anxiety by installing a bigger, better offer called curiosity
Use RAIN and breath to ride urges instead of white‑knuckling them
Turn setbacks into data by switching from fixed to growth mindset
Defeat doomscrolling with a smarter information diet and cue design
Let go of the “why” trap and practice anxiety sobriety one moment at a time
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