Partial profile · Book Profile — full narrative profile planned
Don't Feed the Monkey Mind
Anxiety is maintained not by external threats but by the very safety behaviors we use to escape it, and by learning to welcome discomfort instead of avoiding it, we can break the cycle and expand our lives.
A profile of this book is on the way.
What it’s about
Drawing on cognitive behavioral therapy, acceptance and commitment therapy, and her own hard-won recovery from panic attacks, therapist Jennifer Shannon reframes anxiety through the ancient metaphor of the 'monkey mind'—a primitive, hardworking part of the brain built to detect threats but incapable of risk assessment. She shows that the resisting, avoiding, and distracting we do to control anxiety actually 'feeds the monkey,' confirming its false alarms and guaranteeing more anxiety. Through vivid client stories and concrete tools—Welcoming Breath, Ask for More, Thank the Monkey, Worry Time, Expansion Charts, and self-praise—she teaches readers to identify their safety strategies, replace them with expansive strategies that override the monkey's warnings, welcome necessary feelings, and live according to their own values rather than the monkey's value of safety at all costs. The payoff is not just less anxiety but a bigger, more resilient, more purpose-driven life.
The through-line
- Who it’s for
- A chronically anxious person who wants relief from fear, worry, and stress and a fuller, freer life aligned with what they truly value.
- The problem
- Persistent anxiety, worry, panic, and avoidance behaviors that shrink daily functioning and keep dreams on hold. Feeling hijacked, out of control, exhausted, ashamed, and trapped in an IV drip of low-level fear.
- The plan
- Recognize anxiety as the monkey mind's false-alarm perception of threat and defuse from it.
- Identify your monkey mind-set (intolerance of uncertainty, perfectionism, over-responsibility) and the safety strategies that feed it.
- Replace safety strategies with expansive strategies supported by an expansive mind-set.
- Welcome necessary feelings using Welcoming Breath and Ask for More; handle worry with Thank the Monkey and Worry Time.
- Choose your values, plan practice with Expansion Charts, start with low-stakes situations, and praise the process.
- The payoff
- Less anxiety and worry as the cycle breaks down for lack of feeding. · Greater resilience, presence, and peace even amid real hardships. · Living decisively by your own values—traveling, speaking up, setting limits, creating.
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