Tanya J. Peterson - The Mindfulness Workbook for Anxiety The 8-Week Solution to Help You Manage Anxiety, Worry & Stress

Copyright 2018 by Tanya J. Peterson

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Design by Thoughtfull

ISBN: Print 978-1-64152-029-4 | eBook 978-1-64152-030-0

This workbook is dedicated to the tens of millions of people who experience anxiety. This book is for you, so you can live a mindful life, unhindered by anxiety.

CONTENTS

HOW TO USE THIS WORKBOOK ON AN EBOOK DEVICE

If youre reading this workbook on a touch-screen device, you can add notes and highlight text just like you would in a physical workbook.

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This method is the same on nearly all touch-screen ebook devices, but some have slight variations. If youd like more information specific to the device youre holding in your hands, a quick online search will yield best results.

Why We Struggle with Anxiety

WHAT IS ANXIETY?

Anxiety is an ogre that lives inside us and blocks us from fully living the life we want to live. Anxiety has many symptoms, both psychological and physical, that can be felt anywhere in the body. Anxiety can take hold at any time, and it can influence our thoughts, emotions, and actions.

I use ogre to describe anxiety because thats what it felt like to me. I lived with anxiety for most of my life. For me, it mostly showed up as an over-the-top tendency toward perfectionism, coupled with social anxiety. A therapist once described me as having an anxious personality. Then, a traumatic brain injury, followed by two other concussions, turned my anxious tendencies into full-blown anxiety disorders. At that point, anxiety really did seem like an ogremy own personal monster that followed me everywhere.

WHAT IS ANXIETY GOOD FOR?

To be fair, anxiety does serve a positive purpose in our lives. It can be motivating, helping us maintain peak performance. It also keeps us safe and keeps things running smoothly by ensuring we stay on the lookout for potential problems and obstacles. To a limited degree, anxiety is also a component of empathy and caring. When we love someone, we are concerned about his or her well-being, and that set of thoughts and feelings encourages us to take caring action. Anxiety becomes a problem for us when it becomes excessive. For example, when motivation becomes debilitating performance anxiety or empathy becomes overprotection and unhealthy attachment, anxiety becomes unhealthy, and we begin to struggle with it.

Fear vs. Anxiety