Oprah Winfrey’s life coach reveals simple trick to help overcome anxiety

Fear and panic are natural emotions, but for some, they become overwhelming and persistent, leading to anxiety that disrupts daily life. This struggle can make even routine tasks feel daunting. To help people break free from this cycle, Dr. Martha Beck—widely known as “Oprah Winfrey’s life coach”—recently shared a powerful technique for managing anxiety. CNN (@cnn) posted a short clip from her interview on Instagram, where she explained her approach.

According to her website, Beck is an American speaker and New York Times bestselling author of nine books. She has been a long-time psychological counselor and a spiritual guide for Oprah Winfrey, who calls her “one of the smartest women I know.” Beck’s quest to discover antidotes to anxiety stemmed from her own experience of feeling anxious over a long period of her life, according to The Guardian. Despite following the standard advice like practicing meditation and taking medication, she constantly felt this lingering, paralyzing terror that seemed unmanageable.

In the clip, Beck explained that once she started exploring this feeling of anxiety, she realized that it is caused by the psychological story that runs like a cassette in the brain. “The story running in the brain is what causes continuous anxiety, even when there’s no danger around,” Beck explained. Once she understood how and why anxiety got triggered neurologically, she also discovered a solution to overcome this turbulent state of mind. “The opposite of anxiety seemed to be creativity,” said Beck.

The Harvard-educated life coach described how anxiety and creativity are like “kind of mirrors” that undergo a toggle effect. “When one is on, the other goes off. We know that when anxiety comes, our creativity goes off,” she said. After arriving at this insight, Beck decided to see “if pushing creativity—active creativity, of all kinds, not just the arts, like literally making anything—would shut down anxiety. And it turned out that it does.”

The author of “Beyond Anxiety,” Beck continued the interview by diving deeper into the concept of "pure creativity." She explained that creativity is just “making,” such as “writing a card to a friend, making a sandwich, inviting people to a dinner party, thinking about how to arrange your furniture or wear your clothes. Everything you make or rearrange counts as creativity.”

Beck encouraged people to break free from anxious thought loops by shifting their focus. “Instead of thinking you have to do the creative arts, just make stuff. If you’re worried about something, instead of thinking, ‘What should I do,’ ask yourself, ‘What could I make right now?’ And as you start to make it, even if you don’t really want to, as you start to make a sandwich or whatever it is, you’ll find that focusing on the creative activity flatlines your anxiety,” Beck said.

She shared with CNN that anxiety is like a “frightened creature in your brain.” The brain’s natural programming makes it easy for people to slip from calm to catastrophizing thinking, which ends up amplifying the anxiety. The remedy to dissolve this anxious state before it spreads like a domino in other aspects of life is “curiosity, wonder, connection, compassion, and awe.”

Beck’s simple yet powerful advice resonated with thousands of people who shared their insights in the comments. “The reason why it works is because creating something brings you into the present moment,” said @juliesarah13. @jeanettebronee wrote, “Shifting our attention onto something we have control or agency over is key to transforming anxiety into action.”

Apart from appreciating Beck’s tip, a flurry of people shared valuable ideas on what activities they usually do to overcome anxiety. “I take time to cook food, write, read, move my body- whether that’s dancing in my living room and it’s changed my life,” shared @yabkoala. @jltg09 said, “Cleaning around the house helped me, and so did going for a walk listening to music.” For @ms.yvette.guzman, it is “acupuncture,” while for @mariajscla, it is “Baking and cooking like a bandit.”

You can follow CNN (@cnn) to watch videos of other experts sharing different perspectives.