Podcast Summary: Office Hours with Arthur Brooks

Episode: The Anxiety Journal: A Neuroscience-Based Way to Calm Your Mind
Host: Arthur Brooks
Date: January 24, 2026

Episode Overview

In this episode, Arthur Brooks introduces listeners to a practical neuroscience-based technique he calls "The Anxiety Journal." He explores how structured attention to our anxieties can help us move from distraction and rumination to clarity and control. Drawing on scientific research, defense planning strategies, and his own experiences, Brooks offers a step-by-step guide for facing anxiety head-on—helping listeners cultivate courage, empowerment, and peace of mind.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

The Counterintuitive Approach to Anxiety (01:00–04:26)

• Challenging Conventional Advice:
  Arthur highlights how advice like “just don’t think about it” given by less anxious people is not only unhelpful but “actually unnatural.”

  “When you tell people to stop thinking about something that's troubling them, they think about it more. Okay, so that person in your life is actually making life worse for you.” (C, 01:31)

• Embrace, Don’t Avoid:
  Instead of suppressing anxiety, Brooks urges listeners to “write it down”—to clearly identify and articulate the core fear or worry that’s occupying their mind.

Step-by-Step: The Anxiety Journal Technique

1. Set the Scene (01:40):

   • Find a quiet place.
   • Take out a notebook or open a password-protected file.
   • Write down what is truly bothering you—be specific.

   “I'm troubled right now. I'm troubled about what? What is the thing that's really on my heart and define it.” (C, 01:52)

   • Example given: awaiting medical test results and feeling anxious about a possible, but unknown, diagnosis.

2. Worst-Case Reasoning (01:55–04:26):

   • Put your “paranoid fantasy” and worst fears into words instead of letting them remain “amorphous.”
   • Brooks suggests outlining three scenarios:
     • Best Case
     • Most Likely Case
     • Worst Case

   “That's the analysis they always do. They call it best case, worst case, most likely case. It's a good place to start.” (C, 04:32)

3. Quantify the Risks (04:32–05:40):

   • Assign a probability (however rough) to each scenario.
   • This process demystifies the anxiety by showing that, usually, the catastrophic outcome is quite unlikely.

   “The catastrophic thing that was like a phantasm... it starts to get a little less bad. Because what you really recognize... is that the probability of that worst case scenario is actually pretty low.” (C, 04:43)

4. Develop Proactive Strategies (05:41–06:50):

   • For each scenario, jot down an actual course of action you’d take if it came to pass.

   “Write down what you would do literally in the worst case scenario. Now what are you doing? You're preparing for something that's actually scary.” (C, 05:53)

   • This moves you out of helplessness—into a space of agency and preparedness.

5. Repeat, Review, and Build Resilience (06:51–07:49):

   • Brooks recommends listing multiple anxieties (up to five), repeating the scenario/probability/strategy process for each.
   • Review the journal regularly—each review builds mental muscles for handling anxiety.

   “You're going to get better and better and better at dealing with your anxiety. Not by running away from it, not by trying to eliminate it, but by trying to focus it.” (C, 07:13)

Neuroscientific and Emotional Benefits

• Focusing Anxiety, Not Fleeing It:
  By naming and planning for fears, you “move into the zone very temporarily of fear instead of anxiety, by focusing the anxiety itself.”
• Sense of Courage and Empowerment:
  The reward isn't just less worry, but a sense of courage for facing what’s hard:

  “It really feels like you're a courageous person when you're doing this because you're able to state, look, this is bothering me, but I have an idea how likely it is. And even if it happens, I know what I'm gonna do.” (C, 07:34)

• Natural Functioning:
  Facing your anxieties directly is “the way your brain and body are supposed to work.” (C, 07:47)

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On "Don't Think About It" Advice:

  “Those non anxious people, they're so unbelievably annoying around you... because that's bad advice for you. Don't try to do that. That's actually unnatural.” (C, 01:10)

• On Assigning Probabilities:

  “You probably know more than you think. You have a lot of information under your belt because you've been alive for a little while.” (C, 05:15)

• On Facing Fears:

  “It really feels awesome. It really feels like you're a courageous person when you're doing this... it gives you kind of an empowerment to it. Not like you're just running away from something, but you're leaning into it.” (C, 07:35)

Important Timestamps

• [01:00–04:26] Introduction to the Anxiety Journal, why standard advice fails, and how to begin the journaling process
• [04:26–06:50] Breaking down the scenario planning, quantifying risks, and planning responses
• [06:51–07:49] Reviewing anxieties, building resilience, and concluding with the psychological benefits

Closing Thoughts

This episode offers a concrete, research-backed tool for managing and mastering anxiety. Arthur Brooks invites listeners to stop fighting or fleeing their worries and, instead, to face them methodically—emphasizing that empowerment and peace come not from avoidance, but from focused attention, structured planning, and courage in action.