This is the 10% happier podcast.

I'm Dan Harris.

Hey, gang, sadly, the subject of anxiety never seems to lose its relevance.

Anxiety is an epidemic in our culture right now, especially after the pandemic.

It's also a major issue in my own life, even after 13 years of meditating.

So today we have one of the world's leading experts on anxiety here to answer a bunch

of questions from me and also from you in the form of listener voicemails.

Dr. Judd Brewer is the chief medical officer at ShareCare and director of research and

innovation at Brown University's mindfulness center.

He's the creator of several apps which use mindfulness to help you change habits, including

emotional eating, smoking, and also anxiety, which he considers to be a habit.

Speaking of anxiety, Judd is also the author of a book called Unwinding Anxiety.

New science shows how to break the cycles of worry and fear to heal your mind.

That book just came out in paperback recently.

What I really love about Judd, aside from the fact that he's a personal friend, is that

he combines clinical practice, in other words, he treats patients.

He combines that with cutting edge neuroscientific research and deep Buddhist practice.

In that way, Judd is kind of like the robo-cop of dealing with human suffering.

In this conversation, we talked about the current levels of anxiety in our culture, post-pandemic,

Judd's definition of anxiety and his description of the mental habit loops that feed anxiety.

Why fear and planning can be helpful, but worrying is not.

The steps Judd recommends for working with anxiety, the role curiosity and kindness

...