Introducing: Nervous Systems

Anxiety flows down from systems bigger than us that we can’t control. Here's hope.

If you’re anxious, it’s not your fault—so much of the anxiety we carry comes from systemic forces that we can’t control. Looking at my own life and at the broken state of the church and politics since I published Orphaned Believers in 2023, I kept asking myself the same question: Is it possible to live well in the presence of personal and collective worry?

After months of working behind the scenes, I’m thrilled to announce that my second book, Nervous Systems: Spiritual Practices to Calm Anxiety in Your Body, the Church, and Politics, is releasing November 4 from Baker Books.

How to live well in an anxious era isn’t a theoretical wondering, an interesting thesis or excuse to work with a designer on a cool cover (although, truly, I love what Jake Nicolella did here!)

Nervous Systems is a deeply personal book, written while I’ve lived out real questions of how to hold hope in the presence of uncertainty—as my body changes and wellness culture presses its thumb on our consciousness, as my role as a caregiver in the sandwich generation continues with both my parents, and as my concerns for the future of the church and democracy swirl together with each scroll.

In Nervous Systems I wanted to explore how modern themes of scrupulosity, tradwifery, and energy vampires scale up to a bigger cultural story of the forces at play on our mental health.

The book offers practical, daily ways I’ve learned to be grounded and find relief in the very presence of personal and systemic anxiety. I’ve found these helpful practices within the Spiritual Exercises and after exploring the Benedictine vows of stability and fidelity.

In the months since I’ve written the book, much remains out of my control: church scandals, geopolitical conflicts, and the health of my parents, which continues to decline. I have had to put what I’ve found to be true here into practice, and these tools continue to root and ground my faith.

If this resonates with your experience of anxiety, you can preorder Nervous Systems for yourself, a family member, and/or a friend online or via your favorite bookseller. Preorders help: 1. more people find the book and 2. the book have a strong start in what I hope to be a long, evergreen life.

Thank you, as always, for reading and supporting my work here! As always, please reach out in the comments below and share this post with someone who comes to mind.

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