My guest this week is Dr. Joel Minden. He’s back for the third part of our four-part series on effective ways to manage anxiety, based on his book, Show Your Anxiety Who’s Boss (affiliate link). So if you’re dealing with a lot of anxiety, and are even feeling overwhelmed by anxiety, you’ll find a lot of guidance in this discussion for how you can find relief. We even talk some about how we can use humor to diffuse anxiety, and how Joel does that in his own life. As always I had a great talk with my friend and fellow cognitive behavioral psychologist.

Topics we discussed included:

• What it means to “accept and redirect” when we’re anxious
• My own example of dealing with anxious anticipation
• The freedom in letting go of trying to control anxiety
• What the successful resolution of anxiety is
• Recognizing that it’s normal and human to have anxious feeling
• Choosing where we want to focus when we’re really anxious
• Dealing with middle-of-the-night anxiety
• What it means to “accept” anxious thoughts
• Why fighting with our thoughts makes the focus of our anxiety seem more “real”
• How to accept and redirect when anxiety is really high
• Using humor to change our relationship to anxiety
• Why it’s important to both accept and redirect, rather than doing one without the other

Joel Minden, PhD, is a clinical psychologist specializing in cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) for anxiety and related disorders.

He is the author of Show Your Anxiety Who’s Boss, founder of the Chico Center for Cognitive Behavior Therapy, diplomate of The Academy of Cognitive and Behavioral Therapies, and lecturer in the Department of Psychology at California State University, Chico.

Find Joel online at his website, follow him on Twitter, and read his blog on Psychology Today.