Professor Pozzulo’s Pick (August, 2025)

 

Professor Pozzulo’s Pick (August, 2025)

Good Anxiety: Harnessing the power of the most misunderstood emotion by Dr. Wendy Suzuki with Billie Fitzpatrick (2021, published by Atria Books)

My take:

I think for anyone who experiences “everyday anxiety” (or stress or nervousness), it may be hard to imagine anxiety as something that might be “good” (I fall into this category!). In Good Anxiety: Harnessing the power of the most misunderstood emotion, Suzuki takes you on a science-filled journey of how anxiety works in our brains and how you can change those pathways for a more “positive” experience.

Suzuki makes a distinction between clinical level anxiety and everyday anxiety. Although, the mechanisms may be similar, the book is oriented toward coping and changing our perceptions and reactions to this type of anxiety.

Not only is there a lot of science in this book, but there are also several case examples that help illustrate the information. Three themes that emerged throughout the book centered around making time for meditation, exercise, and sleep. (Don’t forget to review our previous picks on these topics.) These factors may better prepare you to make the shift from bad to good anxiety.

Part three of the book contains several questionnaires to give you a sense of where your anxiety level is now and what some of your anxiety triggers may be. Suzuki provides numerous evidence-based, guided strategies to help move you toward good anxiety. Shifting from bad to good anxiety will take some effort but well worth a try for improved well-being!

Have you incorporated any of the strategies into your daily life? What strategies resonate with you? Have you noticed a shift toward “good anxiety”?