Riding The Waves of Anxiety
The Science of Happiness
PRX and Greater Good Science Center
4.4 • 1.9K Ratings
🗓️ 18 August 2022
⏱️ 22 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Comedian Aparna Nancherla has always struggled with anxiety — can a new technique help her cope?
Episode summary:
Comedian Aparna Nancherla has always struggled with anxiety. Starting a new task at work, writing her book, talking to a baby — you name it, she worries about it. And while she’s built a career in stand-up comedy making light of her struggles, she still suffers. Aparna joins us to share what it’s like to try a new technique to cope with her anxiety. She tries to see her anxiety through a new lens, and actually lean into it. We also hear from psychologist and anxiety expert Dr. Tracy Dennis-Tiwary about this radical new approach to understanding anxiety and coping with it by understanding it not just as a crucial part of being human, but as a strength unto itself.
Practice:
Ask yourself: what am I feeling anxious about? What do I want to happen? Take a few minutes to write out your answer.
Next, ask yourself: Is there something I can do right now to get closer to the outcome I described in question 1? If the answer is yes, go to part A. If the answer is no, go to part B.
A. Remind yourself: My body is preparing me to do what I need to do. I will be better at what I need to do because of these feelings. Then, do whatever it is you identified in question 2. If you still feel anxious and there’s nothing more you can do right now, go to part B.
B. Sometimes there are circumstances in our life that make us feel nervous or scared, and there’s nothing we can do in the moment to change our situation. When that’s the case for you, try a mindfulness practice to ground yourself in the present moment. Here are a few you can try:
Today’s guests:
Aparna Nancherla is a comedian, writer, and actress in New York City whose stand-up often focuses on her experience living with depression and anxiety.
Check out more videos from Aparna: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KR_pr8Pdh84
Follow Aparna on Twitter: https://twitter.com/aparnapkin
Follow Aparna on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/aparnapkin/
Tracy Dennis-Tiwary is an anxiety researcher and psychology professor at Hunter College. She just published a new book, Future Tense: Why Anxiety is Good For You.
Learn more about Tracy and her book: https://www.drtracyphd.com/future-tense
Follow Tracy on Twitter: https://twitter.com/tracyadennis
Follow Tracy on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dr.tracyphd/
Resources for Surfing Anxiety
TED - How to Cope with Anxiety: https://tinyurl.com/copeanxiety
Harvard Health - Anxiety: What it is, What to do: https://tinyurl.com/anxietyhowto
10% Happier - How a Buddhist Monk Deals with Anxiety: https://tinyurl.com/2wpa9pz2
More resources from The Greater Good Science Center:
How to Turn Bad Anxiety into Good Anxiety: https://tinyurl.com/goodanxiety
Can We Help Young Brains Fight Off Anxiety: https://tinyurl.com/HelpBrains
How to Be Yourself When You Have Social Anxiety: https://tinyurl.com/Socialanxious
Tell us about your experiences with anxiety by emailing us at [email protected] or using the hashtag #happinesspod.
Help us share The Science of Happiness!
Leave us a 5-star review on Apple Podcasts or copy and share this link with someone who might like the show: pod.link/1340505607
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | When you're a kid, you don't really fully understand that the way you see the world is not |
| 0:10.4 | the way everyone else sees the world, you kind of assume your template is just whatever |
| 0:14.9 | one else is working with as well and I didn't really have the words for anxiety or it wasn't |
| 0:20.7 | as culturally thrown around when I was a kid so I think I just thought life was hard |
| 0:29.3 | and just scary and everyone else just seemed to be coping with it a lot better than I did. |
| 0:35.8 | Like everything for some reason took me like a little bit more effort and where with all then |
| 0:41.5 | it seemed like my peers things like swallowing pills or like meeting a new dog or roller skating |
| 0:52.2 | learning to ride a bike like everything that you're just like oh the like adventures of being a kid |
| 0:57.8 | I was just like this is terrifying yeah I've a lot of anxiety I don't know I feel like it's |
| 1:03.0 | weird or to not have anxiety than to have it because I feel like if you're not scared you're not |
| 1:08.0 | paying attention you know like I feel like if you open a newspaper day skim maybe three headlines |
| 1:15.3 | you're just like seems cool it's like what everything's on fire even the newspaper is on fire |
| 1:21.7 | like what are you so chill about I would say my general anxiety is kind of shows up in the same way |
| 1:29.0 | I'm just feeling that I'm gonna like make a fool of myself or just like make other people sort of |
| 1:34.3 | disgusted with me but it will be about just everyday tasks like even like buying a coffee and like |
| 1:40.6 | making small talk with the barista I'll be like oh my gosh you said the dumbest question or whatever |
| 1:46.2 | it is like I take it too far in my head |
| 1:55.0 | we know from a variety of publications that anxiety and depression have risen dramatically |
| 1:59.4 | during the pandemic possibly doubled and for many of us myself included it's also something |
| 2:04.6 | we've dealt with throughout our lives I'm Dacker Keltner and welcome to the Science of Happiness |
| 2:10.5 | today we're going to explore a new way to cope with anxiety by leaning into it rather than |
| 2:16.2 | trying to repress it and here to join us as comedian writer and actress Aparna Nancherla |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from PRX and Greater Good Science Center, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of PRX and Greater Good Science Center and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2025.