The life changing book which everyone really needs to read!

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So, I first came across this book a few years back when my mum was signed off work through stress from being a full-time teacher. She really hated working full time at a school and it honestly sent her mad.

I can’t actually cast myself back to the time of seeing her read the book but I can remember it playing a large part in her road to recovery.

I think she was given the book by another teacher at school who had also experienced chronic stress and had read it herself and then passed it onto my mum before she was signed off work.

Inside there is also a DVD and I just remember walking into my mum and dads room and  seeing my mum lie on the bed listening to this meditation DVD and just saying “what the heck are you watching?”.

At the time I would have been around 13/14 and I would not have understood at all what she was going through. After all, I didn’t have a care in the world. No job, no exams and no stress. But now, after experiencing stress myself I feel awful that I wasn’t very understanding and I should have done more to help.

I was a child who probably didn’t do much around the house, threw my dishes in the sink without a thought to who was going to wash them and these little things I now realise, would have made matters ten times worse for my mum.

Years on, my mum is still a teacher but only works two days a week at her school, simply because she does not want or does not think she could ever do it full-time again. That and also the fact she has a two-year old toddler to look after now and all she wants to do is be a fantastic mum. She is. She is honestly incredible and the strongest person I know.

But, even the strongest of people can be broken.

Anyway, so when I first started with stress symptoms, issues with self-confidence and anxiety last summer, my mum told me to read the book. She said it was amazing and it massively changed her outlook on life. Things that she would have screamed about three years ago, she now just puts it all in a box and imagines putting the box on a shelf and not opening it again until tomorrow and not to worry about it right now.

My thoughts were: ‘Well, I don’t like reading as it is. Bloody 280 pages of just rubbish, great. I won’t have the attention span to read a book which is just a load of rubbish about  how to chill out and then have someone telling me to relax and imagine I’m on a beach drifting fast sleep…… YAWN.

Well, I was completely wrong. No surprise. I still don’t like to give my mum the satisfaction though.

From the first chapter, I was hooked. It seemed as though the book had been written especially for me!. I think this is ultimately what the book sets out to do. It’s a book by which everyone can relate to, even if you haven’t experienced much stress in your life but still get agitated by certain things from time to time.

The aim of the book is to help people who may suffer from depression or types of anxiety-related disorders and to help challenge them. Questions are asked to the reader such as ‘What is it that makes me feel anxious?’ and ‘ Why do I feel so down and depressed lately?’. The book also aims to teach people how to look at life as it really is, seeing the true positives of incidents through clear eyes. With the aid of relaxation techniques and meditation, the reader can then start to develop coping strategies.

The teachings within this book fall into CBT (Cognitive Behavioural Therapy), and whilst the book should not be regarded as a substitute for professional guidance, it provided a great start on my journey.

In terms of my own experience within Cheshire, the waiting list to start my CBT was 3 months. So, you can imagine the downward spiral I was stuck in between the time being first being registered for CBT and my first appointment. Not a great system is it? So the book was a great thing to delve into in the meantime, helping to keep my mind busy and challenged.

I suppose I did treat it as my initial introduction to the therapy process. I would recommend this to anyone who is going or has even gone through the rubbish process of waiting on the mental health register in the UK to just read this book. It helps, it really does and it even put my mind to rest that It wasn’t just me going through this, how could it be? A whole book dedicated to retraining our thought processes and gosh how brilliant it is.

I am so grateful to this book and how I was consistently able to apply its techniques to my own life. I would certainly recommend it to anyone, even those who are not suffering from depression, for a thorough insight into how to become more compassionate, loving and patient towards ourselves and those next to us.

Click here to buy ‘Mindfulness’

Click Below on this Video to listen to the numerous mediation techniques discussed within the book. 

Overall Book Product Rating – 5/5

L x