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10 books to help with anxiety and stress

Practical Exercises to Break the Cycles of Worry and Fear and Heal Your Mind

The Unwinding Anxiety Workbook

Dr Judson Brewer is an internationally renowned addiction psychiatrist and neuroscientist. He is a professor in the School of Public Health and Medical School at Brown University. His 2016 TED talk, ‘A Simple Way to Break a Bad Habit,’ has been viewed more than 20 million times. He has trained Olympic athletes and coaches, government ministers and business leaders. His book Unwinding Anxiety was a New York Times bestseller.

Between the relentless uncertainty – political, environmental, societal – in the world and our own personal challenges, many of us are living in a state in which we are overwhelmed by anxiety. When anxious or unpleasant feelings strike, we might find ourselves falling into unhealthy patterns of thought and behaviour that we struggle to change – worrying, stress-eating, constantly scrolling on social media, procrastinating and more. But there is a way out. 
 
In this workbook companion to his New York Times bestselling book, Unwinding Anxiety, psychiatrist and neuroscientist Dr Judson Brewer shows how you can uproot anxiety using brain-based techniques that are accessible to anyone. 
 
Filled with powerful exercises and thought-provoking journal prompts, The Unwinding Anxiety Workbook will guide you through a scientifically proven three-step program designed to hack your anxiety and help you access more peace and calm in a constantly changing world.

Judson Brewer

This may be the only book on anxiety you'll ever need. Drawing on his lab's latest neuroscience and clinically proven techniques, Dr. Brewer ingeniously reveals why anxiety loops are so hard to break. Showing clearly how and why worry is so addictive, he guides you how to shift through the gears to break the old habits that keep anxiety going, and to unwind the rope that's been coiled around your life. With new insights on every page, this is evidence-based psychological science at its best.

Mark Williams, Emeritus Professor of Clinical Psychology, University of Oxford, Co-author of Mindfulness: Finding Peace in a Frantic World

In Unwinding Anxiety neuroscientist Judson Brewer offers a brilliant breakthrough, brain-based methods for lessening our anxiety-driven habits. And anxiety, after all, is the common cold of our emotional life.

Daniel Goleman, New York Times bestselling author of Emotional Intelligence

Unwinding Anxiety explores why worrying can be so toxic and offers proven techniques to stop ... it's advice worth taking.

One of the hardest things about tackling a bad habit is confronting the anxiety behind it. Jud Brewer has given us a breakthrough program with great tips and hacks that anyone can use to feel better. We all need this book!

BJ Fogg, New York Times bestselling author of Tiny Habits

Grounded in the best of current science and totally user friendly, Unwinding Anxiety reveals how a powerful set of mindfulness tools can free us from the worry that rules our lives. This is the most helpful and informative book on anxiety I've read!

Judson Brewer has written a relatable, introspective guide to overcoming anxiety. Backed by research and experience Unwinding Anxiety is an exploration on how anxiety grows in our brains and offers a key to unwinding those habitual thought patterns. Much more than relaying research and science, this book offers user-friendly, practical steps to the possibility of managing worry!

Sharon Salzberg, author of Lovingkindness and Real Change

Unwinding Anxiety provides a step-by-step guide to Judson Brewer's personally designed, clinically proven path that can alleviate your mind from anxiety, obsessive thinking, addiction, and more. It guides your brain to rewire in helpful ways as it inspires your mind to understand it's inner processes more deeply and to live with more freedom, gratitude, interpersonal connection, and joy.

Daniel J. Siegel, M.D., New York Times bestselling author of Aware

An incredibly relatable and practical guide to anxiety. Judson Brewer's research has contributed greatly to our understanding of why anxiety is so hard to shake. This book gives us the tools to break free. Anxiety is at the root of so many of the habits we want to change. Unwinding Anxiety will not only help you deal with anxiety, but will also help you find freedom from the behaviors that hold you back.

Kelly McGonigal, PhD, author of The Joy of Movement

Train Your Brain to Heal Your Mind

Break free from anxiety and be free to live a full, happy life with internationally renowned psychiatrist and neuroscientist Dr Judson Brewer - based on over 20 years of research and his simple habit-breaking programme. 
 
We are living through one of the most anxious periods any of us can remember. Whether facing issues as public as a pandemic and political upheaval or as personal as having kids at home fighting the urge to reach for the wine bottle every night, we are feeling overwhelmed and out of control. But in this timely book, Judson Brewer explains how to uproot anxiety at its source using brain-based techniques and small hacks accessible to anyone. 
 
We think of anxiety as everything from mild unease to full-blown panic. But it's also what drives the addictive behaviours and bad habits we use to cope (e.g. stress eating, procrastination, doomscrolling and social media). Plus, anxiety lives in a part of the brain that resists rational thought. So we get stuck in anxiety habit loops that we can't think our way out of or use willpower to overcome. Dr. Brewer teaches us to map our brains to discover our triggers, defuse them with the simple but powerful practice of curiosity, and to train our brains using mindfulness and other practices that his lab has proven can work. 
 
Distilling more than 20 years of research and hands-on work with thousands of patients, including Olympic athletes and coaches, and leaders in government and business, Dr. Brewer has created a clear, solution-oriented programme that anyone can use to feel better - no matter how anxious they feel.

Judson Brewer

Praise for Unwinding Anxiety

This may be the only book on anxiety you'll ever need. Drawing on his lab's latest neuroscience and clinically proven techniques, Dr. Brewer ingeniously reveals why anxiety loops are so hard to break. Showing clearl ...

In Unwinding Anxiety neuroscientist Judson Brewer offers a brilliant breakthrough, brain-based methods for lessening our anxiety-driven habits. And anxiety, after all, is the common cold of our emotional life ...

Unwinding Anxiety explores why worrying can be so toxic and offers proven techniques to stop ... it's advice worth taking.

This may be the only book on anxiety you'll ever need. Drawing on his lab's latest neuroscience and clinically proven techniques, Dr. Brewer ingeniously reveals why anxiety loops are so hard to break. Showing clearl ...

In Unwinding Anxiety neuroscientist Judson Brewer offers a brilliant breakthrough, brain-based methods for lessening our anxiety-driven habits. And anxiety, after all, is the common cold of our emotional life ...

Unwinding Anxiety explores why worrying can be so toxic and offers proven techniques to stop ... it's advice worth taking.

This may be the only book on anxiety you'll ever need. Drawing on his lab's latest neuroscience and clinically proven techniques, Dr. Brewer ingeniously reveals why anxiety loops are so hard to break. Showing clearl ...

In Unwinding Anxiety neuroscientist Judson Brewer offers a brilliant breakthrough, brain-based methods for lessening our anxiety-driven habits. And anxiety, after all, is the common cold of our emotional life ...

Unwinding Anxiety explores why worrying can be so toxic and offers proven techniques to stop ... it's advice worth taking.

Books by Judson Brewer

Articles featuring Judson Brewer

10 books to help with anxiety and stress

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