Beyond Anxiety: Curiosity, Creativity, and Finding Your Life’s Purpose

In this new book from one of the most celebrated life coaches writing today, anxiety becomes something of a cage that, when acknowledged and replaced, generates curiosity, creativity, and a life lived on purpose. Beck (The Way of Integrity) invites readers to join her in what she terms “the open field,” a space beyond fear, shame, loneliness, and judgment. She distills three facts about anxiety (how it spirals, how society amplifies it, and how it can only end if it is replaced) before laying out an approach that moves from the creature to the creative and, finally, creation, or that elusive flow. Beck draws on real stories of individuals discovering that their anxiety is, in fact, a natural response to decidedly unnatural social forces. Her turns of phrase make her points as clever as they are clear (for instance, she titles a chapter the “Nuts and Bolts of Why You Go Nuts and Want To Bolt”), without ever putting cuteness over content. Unlike typical discussions of flight-or-fight, reptile brains, and Paleolithic responses to being chased by a tiger, Beck’s metaphors feel tailored to the individual, yet also universal.