Powerful ideas from top nonfiction
Try Blinkist to get the key ideas from 7,500+ bestselling nonfiction titles and podcasts. Listen or read in just 15 minutes.
Start your free trial
Blink 3 of 8 - The 5 AM Club
by Robin Sharma
Listen to the Intro
Unwinding Anxiety summary
Judson Brewer
New Science Shows How to Break the Cycles of Worry and Fear to Heal Your Mind
28 mins
Brief summary
'Unwinding Anxiety' by Judson Brewer is a scientifically-backed approach to overcoming anxiety. It offers practical tips and tools for recognizing and managing anxiety triggers, breaking negative thought patterns, and finding inner peace.
Table of Contents
Unwinding Anxiety
Summary of 8 key ideas
Audio & text in the Blinkist app
Key idea 1 of 8
Anxiety is controlled by our survival brains.
Imagine you were one of the shoppers who ran to your nearest supermarket in the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic. Your goal? To pile your shopping cart as full of toilet rolls as possible. But what’s going through your mind as you race through the supermarket, stockpiling yeast and rice and enough baked beans to last your family a full year?
Chances are, not much is going through your mind at all. You see, when we’re anxious, our rational brains shut down. We’re responding, instead, to our powerful and primitive survival brains, which evolved to protect us from danger. In this case, the danger was COVID-19. The survival strategy, for many, was buying toilet paper.
The key message here is: Anxiety is controlled by our survival brains.
Humans have two parts to their brains, which evolved at different times. The “old” part includes the autonomic nervous system, which regulates our primitive survival responses. If early cave dwellers encountered a saber-toothed tiger, their fight, flight, or freeze systems would be activated, giving them a better chance to survive. Around a million years ago, another part of the brain developed: the prefrontal cortex. This part of our brains is responsible for planning, reasoning, and predicting. It allows us to find patterns, and adapt our behavior according to past experience.
Anxiety occurs when the prefrontal cortex doesn’t have enough information to predict exactly what will happen. That’s why the start of the COVID-19 pandemic presented the perfect storm for anxiety. There was so much we were uncertain about. Would we find a vaccine? Were asymptomatic people spreading contagion? In the beginning, no one really knew. Even trusted authority figures like health professionals were feeling their way in the dark.
Anxiety emerges from our survival brains, but it doesn’t actually have a useful evolutionary function. Unlike fear, it doesn’t chase us out of the way of the saber-toothed tiger. It just keeps us awake at night staring at the ceiling, cycling through hypothetical future scenarios in which the tiger devours us.
So how can we learn to stop feeling anxious? Usually we try to talk or reason our way out of it, but anyone who’s ever experienced a panic attack knows that that’s useless. Anxiety and stress shut down the rational part of our brains. In order to untangle our anxiety, we’re going to have to learn to rewire our survival brains.
Want to see all full key ideas from Unwinding Anxiety?
Key ideas in Unwinding Anxiety
More knowledge in less time
Read or listen
Get the key ideas from nonfiction bestsellers in minutes, not hours.
Find your next read
Get book lists curated by experts and personalized recommendations.
Shortcasts New
We’ve teamed up with podcast creators to bring you key insights from podcasts.
What is Unwinding Anxiety about?
Unwinding Anxiety (2021) breaks down the brain science behind the bad habits that keep us stuck. Have you ever tried to reason yourself out of binge eating, or procrastinating? Then you’ll know that it just doesn’t work. That’s because addiction and obsessive thought patterns are controlled by our instinctive survival brains, not our rational brains. Learning how to retrain our brains using mindfulness techniques will allow us to free ourselves from chronic worry, anxiety, and other obsessive habits.
Unwinding Anxiety Review
Unwinding Anxiety (2021) is a valuable read for anyone who wants to understand and overcome their anxiety. Here's why this book stands out:
- With science-backed strategies, it offers practical techniques for unraveling anxiety and finding peace of mind.
- The book dives deep into the psychology behind anxiety, providing a comprehensive understanding of the triggers and patterns that contribute to it.
- By sharing personal anecdotes and relatable stories, the author creates an emotional connection with readers, making the topic less intimidating and more accessible.
Best quote from Unwinding Anxiety
Rather than changing or not having the thoughts and feelings that make up our experience, mindfulness is about changing our relationship with those thoughts and emotions.
—Judson Brewer
Who should read Unwinding Anxiety?
- Chronic worriers who want a way to calm their racing thoughts
- People who want to interrupt addictive behaviors
- Health professionals looking for new tools to curb the anxiety epidemic
Categories with Unwinding Anxiety
Book summaries like Unwinding Anxiety
People ❤️ Blinkist
Sven O.
It's highly addictive to get core insights on personally relevant topics without repetition or triviality. Added to that the apps ability to suggest kindred interests opens up a foundation of knowledge.
Thi Viet Quynh N.
Great app. Good selection of book summaries you can read or listen to while commuting. Instead of scrolling through your social media news feed, this is a much better way to spend your spare time in my opinion.
Jonathan A.
Life changing. The concept of being able to grasp a book's main point in such a short time truly opens multiple opportunities to grow every area of your life at a faster rate.
Renee D.
Great app. Addicting. Perfect for wait times, morning coffee, evening before bed. Extremely well written, thorough, easy to use.
People also liked these summaries
4.7 Stars
Average ratings on iOS and Google Play
32 Million
Downloads on all platforms
10+ years
Experience igniting personal growth
Unwinding Anxiety FAQs
What is the main message of Unwinding Anxiety?
The main message of Unwinding Anxiety is to understand and overcome anxiety through mindfulness and self-awareness.
How long does it take to read Unwinding Anxiety?
The reading time for Unwinding Anxiety varies, but it typically takes several hours. The Blinkist summary can be read in just 15 minutes.
Is Unwinding Anxiety a good book? Is it worth reading?
Unwinding Anxiety is worth reading as it provides valuable insights and effective strategies to manage anxiety in a mindful, evidence-based approach.
Who is the author of Unwinding Anxiety?
The author of Unwinding Anxiety is Judson Brewer.
What to read after Unwinding Anxiety?
If you're wondering what to read next after Unwinding Anxiety, here are some recommendations we suggest:
- Stop Overthinking by Nick Trenton
- The Answer to Anxiety by Joyce Meyer
- Widen the Window by Elizabeth A. Stanley
- Breaking The Habit of Being Yourself by Joe Dispenza
- Cleaning Up Your Mental Mess by Caroline Leaf
- Anxious by Joseph Ledoux
- Status Anxiety by Alain de Botton
- Anxiety at Work by Adrian Gostick and Chester Elton with Anthony Gostick
- Atomic Habits by James Clear
- How to Be Alone by Sara Maitland