When you start in on your to-do list, do you feel calm and confident or anxious and stressed? Unfortunately, the latter is an abundantly common answer. Our culture obsesses over productivity, prizes social-media-worthy outputs, and floods our brains with intractable mountains of information. It is no wonder the modern mind is finding it hard to relax.
Anxiety doesn’t have to control your schedule. These books offer proven methods for managing anxiety, as well as silver linings to that inner struggle for a life of peace and purpose. Find an approach that lets you achieve and breathe in the pages of these six books.
Beyond Anxiety: Curiosity, Creativity, and Finding Your Life’s Purpose
By Martha Beck
Using a combination of the latest neuroscience as well as her background in sociology and coaching, Beck explains how our brains tend to get stuck in an anxiety spiral. To climb out, we must engage the parts of our nervous system involved in creativity. Listen to our Book Bite summary, read by author Martha Beck, in the Next Big Idea App or View on Amazon
Start Making Sense: How Existential Psychology Can Help Us Build Meaningful Lives in Absurd Times
By Steven Heine
A psychologist investigates the science of why we crave meaning—and how we can pursue it in this age of anxiety. By understanding why and how we seek to make sense, we can live authentic lives in times that don’t seem to make sense at all. Listen to our Book Bite summary, read by author Steven Heine, in the Next Big Idea App or View on Amazon
The Happy High Achiever: 8 Essentials to Overcome Anxiety, Manage Stress, and Energize Yourself for Success―Without Losing Your Edge
By Mary Anderson
A game-changing road map for ambitious people to transform chronic stress and anxiety into sustainable happiness and success. Listen to our Book Bite summary, read by author Mary Anderson, in the Next Big Idea App or View on Amazon
And How Does That Make You Feel?: Everything You (N)ever Wanted to Know About Therapy
By Joshua Fletcher
Psychotherapist Joshua Fletcher provides a candid, funny, and revealing look inside the mind of a therapist as he faces his own struggles while treating patients with anxiety disorders. Listen to our Book Bite summary, read by author Joshua Fletcher, in the Next Big Idea App or View on Amazon
Deeper Mindfulness: The New Way to Rediscover Calm in a Chaotic World
By Mark Williams & Danny Penman
It is possible to deepen the effect of mindfulness practice by focusing on vedana, or “feeling tone,” which targets certain core processes in the meditating mind. This can alleviate anxiety, depression, stress, and general unhappiness, creating a calm inner space from which one can rebuild their life. Listen to our Book Bite summary, read by co-authors Mark Williams and Danny Penman, in the Next Big Idea App or View on Amazon
Night Vision: Seeing Ourselves Through Dark Moods
By Mariana Alessandri
Existentialist philosopher Mariana Alessandri draws on the stories of a diverse group of nineteenth- and twentieth-century philosophers and writers to help us see that our suffering is a sign not that we are broken but that we are tender, perceptive, and intelligent. Listen to our Book Bite summary, read by author Mariana Alessandri, in the Next Big Idea App or View on Amazon
The Key Ideas in 15 Minutes
“If you are going to get anywhere in life, you have to read a lot of books,” Roald Dahl once famously said. The only trouble is, reading even one book from cover to cover takes hours—and you may not have many hours to spare.
But imagine for a moment: What if you could read a groundbreaking new book every day? Or even better, what if you could invite a world-renowned thinker into your earbuds, where they personally describe the 5 key takeaways from their work in just 15 minutes?
With the Next Big Idea App, we’ve turned this fantasy into a reality. We partnered with hundreds of acclaimed authors to create “Book Bites,” short audio summaries of the latest nonfiction that are prepared and read aloud by the authors themselves. Discover cutting-edge leadership skills, productivity hacks, the science of happiness and well-being, and much more—all in the time it takes to drive to work or walk the dog.
Go Deeper with a Next Big Idea Club Membership
The Next Big Idea App is free for anyone to try—and if you love it, we invite you to become an official member of the Next Big Idea Club. Membership grants you unlimited access to Book Bites and unlocks early-release, ad-free episodes of our LinkedIn-partnered podcast. You also gain entry to our private online discussion group, where you can talk big ideas with fellow club members and join exclusive live Q&A sessions with featured authors.
For a more focused learning experience, we recommend a Hardcover or eBook Membership. Every few months, legendary authors and club curators Malcolm Gladwell, Susan Cain, Adam Grant, and Daniel Pink select two new nonfiction books as the must-reads of the season. We then send hardcover copies straight to your doorstep, or eBook versions to your favorite digital device. We also collaborate with the authors of selected books to produce original reading guides and premium video e-courses, 50-minute master classes that take you step by step through their most life-changing ideas. And yes, it’s all available through the Next Big Idea App.
Learn Faster, from the World’s Leading Thinkers
Whether you prefer to read, listen, or watch, the Next Big Idea is here to help you work smarter and live better. Wake up with an always-fresh Idea of the Day, the perfect shot of inspiration to go with your morning coffee. Then dive into one of our Challenges, hand-picked collections of Book Bites that form crash courses in subjects like communication, motivation, and career acceleration. Later, watch the playback of an interview with U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy, Stanford psychologist Jennifer Eberhardt, or philosopher John Kaag. And be sure to check the “Events” tab in the app, so that you can join an upcoming live Q&A and personally chat with the next featured thought leader.
If you’re hoping to grow as a person or as a professional, we hope you’ll join us and tens of thousands of others who enjoy the Next Big Idea. Get started by downloading the app today!
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