Name of Book: Emotional Equations by Chip Conley
Name of Chapter: "Anxiety = Uncertainty x Powerlessness"
Summary: This chapter of the book talked about using the equation of anxiety being the result of uncertainty and powerlessness magnifying each other to create the feeling we recognize as anxiety and how we can use that equation to deal with the rough times in our lives. The author describes his experience with anxiety and how he was part of the unlucky 20% to have some kind of anxiety disorder along with many other significant figures in media and science like Charles Darwin, Emily Dickinson, Michael Jackson, etc. He explains that a lot of anxiety comes from overestimating what bad things could result from the situation and amplifying them even more to make us freak out and for him, throw up before his water polo games. Letting the anxiety go through your mind but not linger is actually healthy, but when we dwell on it and stack up our uncertainties and our lack of control, the anxiety level rises exponentially. He describes how if you take a short while to run through the anxiety and then push it away, it helps with the anxiety in the rest of our lives. These "emotional equations" can help us deal with tough situations by looking at them simply and recognizing it for what it is made of.
The author describes his book as an "owners manual for emotions," which does capture it quite nicely; however, not everyone can perfectly think in mathematical terms and blend the left and right brain traits so easily. For me though, it is very practical and is something that would help a lot of people figure out emotions and get through hard times and enjoy the good ones.
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