202 Don’t Let A nxiety Run Your Life
ability to accept and reappraise your emotions. The key to
making true changes in managing your emotions and
anxiety is practicing these skills not only when the moment
calls for it but also when change is not urgent or not abso-
lutely necessary.
Using This Book in Your Daily Life
If you are reading this book for the first time, we encourage
you to find time to read it again, and again, and yet again! It’s
not that this book is the only authority on mindfulness, but
it contains a set of skills that you have (hopefully) commit-
ted to learning and utilizing in your everyday life. We rec-
ommend you read this book multiple times so that you can
expertly integrate mindfulness into your life and to more
fully develop adaptive responses for regulating your emo-
tions. The end goal is for this book to become a coaster for
your coffee, but only when you have been able to apply what
you read to mastering your anxiety.
The themes presented throughout this book require
both a deep understanding of the concepts and numerous
opportunities for practicing them. We don’t, and you most
certainly shouldn’t, expect yourself to perfectly understand,
let alone accurately apply, every tip on the first try. The best
way to use this book is to find benign opportunities to prac-
tice the skills, such as being mindful while brushing your
teeth, while standing in a line, or during your morning
commute. You can then purposefully look for opportunities
to practice mindfully regulating your emotions, such as
noticing when you feel jealous of a friend or loved one, when
you have the urge to lash out at someone, or when you find