By Janae Jean and Spencer Schluter 
We had the pleasure of speaking with Corinne Zupko, Ed.S., author of From Anxiety to Love: A Radical New Approach for Letting Go of Fear and Finding Lasting Peace. Zupko has coached, counseled and educated thousands of people at national and regional conferences, in classes and workshops, and one-on-one. She co-hosts the largest virtual conference about A Course in Miracles through Miracle Share International, an organization which she co-founded. She also hosts the podcast From Anxiety to Love Radio. Zupko also serves as a corporate consultant for mindfulness practices, and she teaches mindfulness and wellness at the College of New Jersey. You can connect to her through fromanxietytolove.com . 
The following article only contains a portion of our conversation, listen to the podcast on our website to hear much more and subscribe on iTunes, Google Play, Stitcher, and/or YouTube. — J.J
Janae: What inspired you to write this book?
Corinne: I was pretty much born anxious. I received my first psychiatrist diagnosis at the age of two, separation anxiety disorder. I was always an anxious child, but once I got to college things got really intense for me, because that was the time I broke down with really debilitating anxiety and panic attacks. Those [attacks] were triggered by the death of a student on campus. I didn’t know this student, but it was a very sudden death. It really freaked me out. After I learned that news, the next morning, I woke up at about three o’clock in the morning in an all-out sweat. My heart was racing. I thought I was dying, and it turns out it was my first panic attack. Then for years, I had out of the blue and out of control panic attack…a high degree of anxiety. Through the help of a number of things, including counseling, and talking a lot with my mom because she was a true spiritual mentor for me. But, the thing that helped me the most was a spiritual pathway called A Course in Miracles. Through all those things, I found my way into really wanting to give back. I ended up becoming a therapist and working with one-on-one clients for many years, but I still had some degree of anxiety that followed me.
In 2009, I had another really debilitating episode of anxiety. When I say debilitating episode, I mean I couldn’t really function. It was hard for me to get off the couch. My stomach was in such a physical knot that it was hard for me to eat because it was spasming all the time. It was at that point that I started to really dive in deeply into my spiritual practice, and I started finding relief. I started noticing that a lot of my anxieties and my fears were falling away, and I knew at that point in time that I had to start writing about what was helping me. The results, from a total of six years, are in the pages of From Anxiety to Love.
Spencer: It’s really interesting that your spiritual practices helped you with that. For hundreds of thousands of years humans used spirituality as a coping mechanism. Now people don’t have that outlet. They go on a medication…stay on it for years… and sometimes, it doesn’t even help them.
JJ: I liked that in your book you pointed out that it’s sometimes necessary to have that medication. It saves people’s lives, especially in crisis situations.
CZ: I’m so glad you brought this point up about how society as a whole has moved away from spirituality and has gone to this strict medical model. Whatever your spiritual practice is, it’s all about coming back into your being, your true self. For me, I truly believe that love is at the center of everything. Learning how to reconnect with that myself, and trust that voice of love within me was huge. Like you said, a pill is not going to take us into ourselves; it’s just like a bandage. For me, it was temporary. I needed it during the very acute debilitating times,