Key points

Most of us have learned to treat anxiety as a negative emotion, but it contains essential intelligence.

Many (most?) people confuse anxiety with panic—our survival-based emotion—but they're not the same.

Anxiety is the emotion of motivation, and its intensity and future-focus are parts of its genius.

Understanding anxiety can support your ability to get things done in every area of your life.

When I started researching anxiety for my book Embracing Anxiety , I came up against a big problem: Everyone I talked to confused anxiety with panic!

Friends and family, therapists and counselors, doctors, books on anxiety, and everyone I asked was describing panic . Not anxiety, which is the emotion of motivation , getting things done, and meeting deadlines, but panic, wh

See Full Page