Calm & Sense

by Wendy Leeds

Overview

Written by a licensed psychotherapist who knows what it’s like to be anxious, Calm & Sense brings you a broad range of tools for dealing with your anxiety, including: Sound psychological approaches that offer you guidance you can trust; Physical techniques so you can address your anxiety anytime, anywhere; Feasible lifestyle changes to help you avoid many of your anxiety triggers. It also gives voice to stories drawn from the experiences of women who have faced anxiety and learned to manage it successfully. Distinctive in its approach, Calm & Sense is a practical, well-researched resource designed to help women of all ages deal with their anxiety. It is a rare book in that it specifically targets women’s unique needs, offering up-to-date research on all aspects of women’s anxiety, from its causes to its impact, and the women-specific techniques that work best to ease it.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780999901526
Publisher:	Calm Day Publishing
Publication date:	06/01/2022
Pages:	360
Sales rank:	1,024,632
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 8.90(h) x 0.80(d)

About the Author

Wendy is a practicing psychotherapist with both a professional and a personal interest in finding ways to heal anxiety without medication. She has dealt with anxiety all her life and knows what it’s like to live with the kind of worry and fear that make the smallest things in life difficult. In 1995, she was diagnosed with breast cancer and underwent several surgeries and six months of chemotherapy. It was at that low point, that she began a life-long journey to create a calm, centered joyful life, for herself and others. She began by reading everything she could get her hands on about anxiety. Then in 2006 she went back to school to earn two graduate degrees in psychology. Over the years, she has assembled an amazing collection of tools, ideas, tips and techniques for dealing with anxiety without medication. She uses many of these tools in her own life, and is passionate about sharing them with others.

Table of Contents

Introduction xiii

Part 1 Name Your Anxiety

1 The Anxious Brain 3

2 Why Women Worry: The Causes of Our Anxiety 10

3 How Women Worry: Signs, Symptoms, and Effects of Anxiety 20

4 The Price We Pay for Being Anxious 26

5 A Checklist of Your Anxiety Symptoms 32

6 Where to Start 35

Part 2 Claim Your Anxiety

7 How to Claim Your Anxiety 39

8 Logging In 43

9 When to Get Help 48

10 How to Get Help 52

Part 3 Reframe Your Anxiety

11 Beck's Anxiety Equation 59

12 What I Think Is Making Me Anxious (Cognitive Behavioral Therapy) 62

13 Howl Think Is Making Me Anxious, Too (More Cognitive Behavioral Therapy) 69

14 Reframing 74

15 A Reframe of Reframing: Byron Katie's "The Work" 80

16 Ask Yourself Better Questions 86

17 The Importance of Not Being Perfekt 89

18 Let Go 93

19 Take Action 99

20 Face Your Fears 104

21 DIY Affirmations 109

22 Accentuate the Positive 114

23 Just Do One Small Thing: The Art of Kaizen 122

24 Gratitude 128

25 Faith 132

Part 4 Tame Your Anxiety

26 Just Breathe 139

27 Meditate 146

28 Sleep 155

29 Just Say No 163

30 Slow Down 168

31 Anchoring 174

32 Do One New Thing 179

33 Laugh 182

34 Play 186

35 Music 191

36 Love Your Body 194

37 Get Moving 200

38 Keep Moving, Stay Motivated 209

39 Yoga 215

40 Qigong 224

41 Acupressure 232

42 EFT: Emotional Freedom Technique, or Tapping 244

43 Heal with Water 251

44 Nourish Yourself 255

45 Eat and Drink This 260

46 Don't Eat or Drink This 264

47 The Worry Box 268

48 Journal 271

49 Plan to Worry 275

50 Get Organized 280

51 Build a Great Support Team 285

52 Do Good, Feel Better 292

Appendix: Create Your Own Anxiety-Free Day 297

Author's Note: The Journey Ahead 307

Additional Resources 309

Bibliography 313

Acknowledgments 339

About the Author 341

Editorial Reviews

2021-04-22
Leeds’ book offers examples, backed by research, of how to lessen anxiety and go with the flow.

At the start of the book, the debut author, a licensed psychotherapist, notes that her work is not intended to replace medical or psychiatric treatment and advises seeking professional help to deal with the effects of trauma or anxiety that occurs along with depression. In the pages that follow, readers can find simple and practical tools for coping with difficult circumstances. Even people who’ve had past experience with therapy are likely to find ideas in the book that they’ll find beneficial. A popular phrase in the world of psychiatry is “name it to tame it,” and Leeds seems to draw on this idea, attempting to help readers identify ways to “claim” and therefore “name,” their anxiety. Putting a name to stressful thoughts and feelings, this book notes, puts one on the path to lessening or eliminating them. The author helpfully includes specific tools for reframing anxiety via techniques such as cognitive behavioral therapy, self-help author Byron Katie’s “The Work,” and focusing on the positive. Leeds’ good-natured tone and sense of humor are evident throughout, with chapter titles such as “The Importance of Not Being Perfekt” that also manage to drive her points home. In the final section of the book, Leeds gives readers several detailed methods to “tame” anxiety, such as breathing exercises, meditation, and tapping exercises. Many of these will be familiar to readers, but other notions, such as finding time for play or simply doing a brand-new activity, offer helpful reminders for trying times. The book is geared mainly toward women, and early on, the author notes that “Women in this country are twice as likely to be diagnosed with anxiety, and we’re much more likely to be put on medication than our male counterparts.” However, readers of any gender are likely to find useful support here in their quest for calmer lives.

An appealing guide to lessening anxiety and increasing overall wellness.

Kirkus Reviews