We live in an epidemic of anxiety. All over the world, anxiety is skyrocketing, topping every other form of discontent as the most frequently diagnosed psychological affliction.

In Beyond Anxiety, Dr. Martha Beck explains why this is happening around you, and why it is likely to be happening within you. She also tells you how to not only reduce your anxiety, but use it to propel you into a life filled with peace, meaning, and joy.

Using a combination of the latest neuroscience as well as her background in sociology and coaching, Dr. Martha Beck explains how our brains tend to get stuck in an “anxiety spiral,” a feedback system that can increase anxiety indefinitely. Beyond Anxiety walks readers through simple, powerful exercises that can help you step out of this spiral and reduce anxiety immediately.

But that’s not the end of the story.

To keep from sliding back into anxiety, we must engage different parts of our nervous system—the parts involved in creativity. Beck describes a “creativity spiral” that, like the potential for anxiety, is built into our brains. She provides instructions for engaging the creativity spiral, a process that not only shuts down anxiety but leads to innovative problem solving, a sense of meaning and purpose, and joyful, intimate connection with others—and with the world.

The opposite of anxiety, it turns out, is a wonderful new way of life—one that can calm and inspire us as individuals and help us become a source of healing for everything around us.