THIS YEAR, MAYBE by Jenny Gladwell, read by Sarah Barron - audiobook extract

This is cutting-edge science packaged as a practical guide on how to flip anxiety on its head and harness it as a superpower - by world-renowned neuroscientist Dr Wendy Suzuki. We live in an age of anxiety. Like an omnipresent yet invisible odour you've grown used to, anxiety has become a constant condition, a fact of life, and a distraction that undermines our quality of life. Dr Wendy Suzuki's groundbreaking research shows us that science tells us a very different story: yes, anxiety is unpleasant - it's meant to be - and in the debilitating extreme, what Wendy will call 'bad anxiety', it's destructive. But most of the anxiety that humans feel is essential - not only to survival, but for higher brain functions formerly thought to be put on hold during anxious moments, Wendy provides two broad categories of neuroscience-based hacks for harnessing anxiety and facing it head-on. The first helps address and calm anxiety so that you can enjoy the productivity you will experience, and the second grouping of brain science hacks enables listeners to channel anxious feelings into six uses for good anxiety - from productivity, increased emotional intelligence and focus to creativity and confidence. Through Wendy's unique perspective as a neuroscientist, she teaches us how to flip anxiety on its head and offer a counterintuitive lens through which to understand how anxiety manifests in our everyday lives. The book introduces a taboo breaking slant on anxiety: we will learn how it can be good for us and that once we learn how to play it at its own game, it can become our superpower!