#AD (Gifted) "My Mind Won't Shut Up" Book Review.

Before I begin, I want to clearly point out that this is an #AD (Gifted) book review. This book was kindly gifted in return for an honest review and as always, my views are one hundred percent my own.

Reading over the last few years has been something that I have absolutely loved and my favourite type is the self-help and personal development genre. I find I'm able to connect with it much more than any other style of book, so when Trigger got in touch and asked if I would like to review it, it was a no-brainer for me.

This book's tagline perfectly explains what you're about to read, "Meditation For People Who Don't Meditate". Meditation is something that absolutely everyone can benefit from but until you're in that routine of doing it every day or even a few times a week, it can seem very out of reach.

So what exactly does the book cover?

Well, it covers these five subjects which are all very self explanatory but it gives you a really good introduction into each section:

• What your mind does and why meditation helps.

• Nine inspiring benefits.

• How to meditate.

• Dealing with what comes up.

• How to reap rewards of meditation.

For those of you who are interested in what the blurb has to say (before we really get into the key pieces I chose):

Realistic, cheeky and easy-to-read, My Mind Won’t Shut Up! is a book that challenges meditation myths. It’s for ordinary, stressed out people with money worries, weird families and haemorrhoids.

Written by two sturdy-legged Glaswegians with short attention spans, My Mind Won’t Shut Up! is aimed at anyone who is curious about meditation but turned off by anything too woo-woo.

It is not a spiritual journey, and it won’t make you better at kung fu. It will help you be kinder to yourself, stop you from spinning out and make you less prone to emotional wobbles.

With anything new that we learn about, there are always going to be myths or old wives' tales that we've heard about it, so I chosen three myths that I originally thought years ago, that the authors have also pointed out.

It's not about thinking about nothing

This, without a doubt, is one of the biggest misconceptions about meditation and I know I believed it for so long. When you think about it though, when can we ever think about nothing? Even in meditation, we're also focusing on our breathing so we're thinking about something. We've been led to believe that we're not meditating correctly if we can't clear our mind, but we're human beings that have complex emotions and thoughts so the thought of "nothing" is pretty impossible.

It's not about only sitting on the floor with your legs crossed

The beauty of meditation is that it can be done absolutely anywhere; your yoga mat, your bed, your car or even when you're out for a walk. You don't have to sit in one position the entire time and for me, it's so important for it to be so versatile because this way, it's so much more accessible.

Not every single meditation will be your cup of tea

One of the biggest worries about any practice like this, is that you may choose a style that doesn't work with you and you're completely put off. That's it, you're signed off from meditation altogether, but like most physical and mental exercises, you're not going to love everything. Let's take the gym for example; you may love working out on the bike but you can't stand the stepper. You may love going for a run on the treadmill but the cross trainer is a no-go. While that's a physical exercise, there is always a mental side to that too. It's the same with a relaxation practice, you may love a body scan but you might find a walking meditation tough; you might be too distracted with everything outside but you know that your body scan is a zone you can get into on your bed to truly wind down. It's a balancing act and it will take time, but that's part of the process.

Sometimes before or during your practice, you'll think about something that you say to yourself, "Surely no-one else thinks this?" right? Well, these three points I've chosen from the book are some of the things I first thought too. It's all about normalising our emotions during this journey.

"Feel what you feel, don't fight it, don't judge it"

Being friendly to yourself during your practice is so important because you may feel some uncomfortable and emotional thoughts at times that you weren't ready for. It's okay to feel those things and meditation isn't just about listening to your breath, it's also about how we combat those feelings and look at them at a later stage. That's why mindfulness and meditation go so beautifully together (but for the sole purpose of this review, I won't be going into mindfulness today).

"There's no such thing as being bad at meditation"

When you go deeper into the practice, you realise that you can't be bad at it. There are no rules necessarily to it; you have your base line ideas to how to start it but there are no actual rules. So that's why learning how to do it can seem overwhelming at first, but you pick it up in your own way and there is no wrong way to do it, it's what works for you.

"Don't get too preachy"

The authors make a really good point at the end briefly writing about not being preachy about your new practice and it's something that can be applied to anything new that we do. As much as we love what we have learned (and continue to develop a passion for) sometimes it can come across as preachy to those around you, and while that can seem frustrating at times if you feel like no-one is listening, that's okay. You're allowed to love what you love, but others are allowed to not feel the same way you do. It's all about finding that balance, right?

• • •

So, would I recommend this book? Who is it perfect for?

As a first time meditator or someone who is trying to build a habit, this is the perfect book to get you started. It doesn't go for hundreds of pages, telling you all the benefits and giving you every single detail of what meditation truly is. Yes, it gives you a brief insight into what meditation can do for you, but this book is not going to overwhelm you.

With the little illustrations and bolded statements made throughout it (which I personally love because I feel like it brings the personality to life, but I know that not everyone is a fan of that style), it helps break up each of the chapters, but they honestly don't need broken up that much because they are fairly short.

Who is it not for?

For someone who is more advanced in meditation and has already built it as a habit, I don't know how much you would take away from this book. However, there are so many more books out there that focus on so many different areas, like the science behind it all, the religious and spirituality viewpoint and how it can delve deeper into the mental health perspective, so you certainly aren't out of options.

There is some colourful language throughout the book, and that's not a bad thing but if it didn't have it, I would have said that this would be the perfect starter book for possibly a teenager or young person who is trying to help with their stress or anxiety, and wants to try meditation as a strategy. It's individual to each parent or guardian if that's something you wouldn't mind your child reading, but I thought it might be good to point out anyway.

If you fancy looking at other reviews of this book, click here for their Good Reads page or if you want to buy the book, click here to go to the Trigger website. (None of these links are affiliate links, I just thought I would make it easier to find) I hope you enjoyed today's review, I haven't done a lot of book reviews before but I wanted to change it up from what I've read before.

Have a great day!