This author takes an interesting, but I think necessary approach on how to view anxiety. Anxiety is not just bad and negative and worrisome but can also have positive impact. Anxiety is part of our body's response to certain stresses, and such will always be around, and we have to learn to not fight it, but embrace it and live with it. And this is what this book is attempting to help the reader with.
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We have come a long way in terms of body positivity and accepting that bodies in all shapes are beautiful. Simply dieting works for some to lose weight, but not for all. The same is true with the mental aspects of our bodies like anxiety. The author explains that anxiety can be experienced in different way and one focus for her is stuck anxiety. The type of anxiety that is often debilitating and leaves a person unable to cope and literally freeze with inactivity. Some people experience this type of anxiety, and it is a lifetime of suffering the impact. Others have learned to cope and by nature can cope with these phobias and even find them it is invigorating, driven by overcoming a challenge and thriving in that experience. Others have never experienced stuck anxiety. The point the author makes, people are different and rather than suffer, she is now presenting strategies to overcome anxiety and not see it as an enemy, but a potential driving force for better life, action and self.
To deal with anxiety, the author has developed the EASE method to help the reader to work with anxiety rather than just against it and blindly trying to overcome it. The author is a clinical psychologist that has used this method to help people deal with anxiety in a successful way that enabled the patients to learn how to deal with anxiety rather than see it as a debilitating state. The latter part of the book guides the reader through the EASE method in clear steps and very calmly works with the reader to accept that anxiety will never disappear but can be worked with. This enables the reader to see anxiety as part of life, but without its former negative impact on life. Instead, anxiety can be part of a healthy and successful life that the reader will enjoy.
I found this book to be very uplifting. Anxiety is something most, if not all, people suffer from, but learning to deal with it in a positive way is key. It will not go away and merely accepting it is not enough. Instead of just learning to cope, use the anxiety as an empowering aspect of life and embrace it in a positive way.
The opinions expressed are my own and only reflect my personal impression of a product or book. No financial compensation was received, but I was provided with a free copy of the book for review purposes.
