You can’t just end anxiety; you need a replacement

Martha Beck explains how creativity fills the void

Joanne McHugh

Jan 27, 2026

Book of Wisdom: Beyond Anxiety by Martha Beck “Anxiety can’t just be ended. It must be replaced…To live with joy and optimism instead of constant worry, we don’t just need to subtract our troubles; we need to use our brains differently,” said Martha Beck

According to Martha Beck, "In the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic, global prevalence of anxiety disorders skyrocketed by a full 25%. According to Forbes Health, the number of people affected by anxiety disorders grew from about 298 million to 374 million. By 2023, even with fears about the pandemic easing off for some people, a full 50% of young adults aged 18 to 24 reported symptoms of anxiety. All of this gives anxiety disorder the dubious distinction of being the most common mental illness in the world."

"I’ve been studying anxiety all my life, because I have it. During lockdown, I spent several months developing and teaching an online course about creativity. The goal was to help people come up with innovative ways to navigate a world that had become overwhelmingly uncertain. As part of my preparation, I learned everything I could about the way creativity works in the brain," said Martha Beck.

"I became fascinated with the neurological dynamics of anxiety—how it works in our brains and also in our behaviors and social interactions. I was particularly intrigued by the evidence that shows a kind of toggle effect between anxiety and creativity: when one is up and running, the other seems to go silent. I began to play with something I called “the art of calm,” because it was all about using creativity to calm my anxiety," said Martha Beck.

"We’re all taught to unconsciously activate an “anxiety spiral” in our brains…From early childhood, you have been constantly rewarded for thinking in a certain way: verbally, analytically, in organized lines of logic. The part of your brain that you’re strengthening is located largely in your left hemisphere… inside everyone’s buffed-up left hemisphere is a neurological mechanism I call the 'anxiety spiral,'" said Martha Beck.

"Anxiety is contagious. Even if we learn techniques that bring down our personal anxiety, engaging with a culture that’s full of anxiety can put us right back into the dread zone…The mirror cells in our brains shift to automatically reflect whatever the people around us are feeling. Images of danger and horror are being communicated more rapidly and universally, so we constantly hear and see reports of terrible things happening all over the world," said Martha Beck.

"Anxiety can’t just be ended. It must be replaced…To live with joy and optimism instead of constant worry, we don’t just need to subtract our troubles; we need to use our brains differently. We need practices that guide our thinking into new habitual pathways, new modes of perceiving and relating to the world. To stop doing this, we can shift our neural activity to a different set of brain structures and functions—the ones that generate curiosity, wonder, connection, compassion, and awe," said Martha Beck.

"I’ve read many, many books and articles about how to overcome anxiety, but they all stopped at the point of achieving calm. To me, this is like bailing out a sinking boat without plugging the leaks: a good first step but not the best long-term solution—and a sad place to stop when we’re within easy reach of a much, much more joyful way of life. Just dispelling anxiety means constantly bailing, working against the pull of our brain’s negativity bias and the pressures of our anxious society. Moving further into the right hemisphere means sailing off on thrilling adventures," said Martha Beck.

"When people tell me that their goal is to be free from anxiety, or that they long for a sense of purpose, they rarely realize that these objectives are two sides of the same coin…Living in a left hemisphere–dominated, overwhelmingly materialistic culture not only breeds anxiety but also shuts out the right hemisphere’s ability to perceive context, connection, and beauty. As this happens, we lose our sense of meaning," said Martha Beck.

"The strategies I’ll teach you in this book won’t merely make you a less anxious person; they’ll turn you into an artist of calm, a creative genius…You’ll learn about how to handle your biological and psychological tendency to get anxious… You’ll begin utilizing parts of your brain that pull you out of anxiety and into curiosity, fascination, and inventiveness...It will get easier and easier to calm the frightened creature in your brain and liberate your creative side," said Martha Beck.

Things Your Mom Should Have Told You, Book of Wisdom: “Beyond Anxiety: Curiosity, Creativity, and Finding Your Life’s Purpose” by Martha Beck

In the olden days, moms used to clip articles from newspapers for their kids if they thought it was something they needed to know. I’m keeping an eye out for things that you might have missed that may be helpful to you.

This week’s clips:

When the news is terrible, how do we not feel terrible all the time? Lindsey Stanberry of The Purse ponders what we can do instead of feeling weary, cynical and hopeless.

How do you know if that shocking photo in your feed is real, or just another AI fake? In this TED Talk, digital forensics expert Hany Farid explains how to spot fake AI photos.

Is Dry January just kicking the can down the road? Dr. Lucy McBride of Are You Okay? explains why temporary abstinence might be missing the point.

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Things Your Mom Should Have Told You

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