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150: Leaning Into Anxiety, with David Rosmarin
Manage episode 519075540 series 3686013
Anxiety doesn’t mean you’re broken; it means you care. When stakes rise, that surge of energy can sharpen focus, rally teams, and improve decisions—if you know how to work with it.
We sit down with Harvard Medical School psychologist David Rosmarin to unpack a practical, research-grounded approach any leader can use to turn anxious moments into traction.
David explains what anxiety really is—both the body’s activation and the mind’s appraisal of threat—and why chasing zero anxiety backfires. Instead, he offers a clear framework. We also talk about the cultural shift organizations need: stop pathologizing normal stress and start building simple rituals that make conversation safe and useful. From a team paralyzed by AI fears to a company-wide workshop that turned nerves into unity, David demonstrates how reframing anxiety as evidence of care can transform outcomes.
You’ll learn a straightforward scale to gauge everyday activation versus clinical concern, how to run quick check-ins that reduce silence and guesswork, and why leaders who pretend they’re never anxious often drive unhealthy coping across a team. The result is a playbook for resilience: fewer knee-jerk decisions, more clarity in crisis, and a culture that treats uncertainty as a space for skill, not shame.
Dr. David Rosmarin, PhD is a Harvard psychologist, keynote speaker, and founder of Center for Anxiety and the author of Thriving with Anxiety: 9 Tools to Make Your Anxiety Work for You. He is a trusted expert who delivers insightful, science-backed commentary with clarity and compassion. He has been featured in TIME, The Harvard Gazette, Good Morning America, over 40 leading podcasts, and has delivered two widely viewed TEDx talks.
Visit his website or connect with him on LinkedIn.
Go to https://betterhelp.com/resilience or click Notes on Resilience during sign up for 10% off your first month of therapy with my sponsor BetterHelp.
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Producer / Editor: Neel Panji
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Chapters
1. 150: Leaning Into Anxiety, with David Rosmarin (00:00:00)
2. Meet David H. Rosmarin (00:02:42)
3. Writing For The Public (00:03:26)
4. Defining Anxiety Clearly (00:05:27)
5. From Stigma To Signal (00:09:10)
6. Culture Change Inside Companies (00:11:05)
7. Pause, Identify, And Reflect (00:13:32)
8. Building Skills, Not Suppression (00:18:08)
9. Reframing Team Stress As Care (00:23:37)
10. A Simple 1–9 Anxiety Scale (00:26:10)
11. The Four Steps Summarized (00:29:10)
12. About David And How To Connect (00:30:15)
150 episodes
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