WILEY Real Calm: Handle stress and take back control

Good tips and calm advice in easy to read book.

Great book based on mindfulness principles, really good advice

For the right audience this book is going to be very helpful, but it didnt help me at all. I suffer with Complex Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and i tend to read all the self help books going as i cannot get treatment for my condition on the NHS as it costs too much money.This touches on the very basics of cbt, mindfulness and meditation. Its a basic introduction to resolving simple stress, but if you suffer with any form of severe stress conditions then this book is not going to help you.The book however is jam packed full of useful tips and tricks for managing your day to day lives, from finding time to meditate first thing in the morning and at least another 2 times in the day, i can attest to that because i meditate all the time, i would go nuts if i didnt. I found the dietary advice helpful, things like raw foods take longer to digest which make you more stressed, introducing daily probiotics, not drinking cofee on empty stomachs, eating grass fed meat, and eating 2 brazil nuts gives you selenium which can help you sleep.There are quite a few quizzes for you to accomplish plus the results of your scores. The breathing portion was in direct contrast to what my own Psychologist told me. This book tells you that breathing should be 4-7-8, that is breathe in for 4 seconds, hold your breath for 7 seconds, and exhale for 8 seconds. I was told to do it for 3-6-6, but i found through practice that by constantly counting it made me much more anxious and so i now just feel full, hold until i feel my lungs begin to hurt which sadly at maximum is 15 seconds before my heart starts racing and i feel a panic attack coming on, i have no idea how people can hold their breath for minutes at a time. The thing to remember is that you have to do whats comfortable for you, i dont find holding my breath for any amount of time relaxing, it makes me worse so i just inhale and then make sure i exhale my entire breath and its normally exhaling for double the time of inhaling so 4-8.I really liked the way the book was printed, it has bright white thick quality paper, the text is bold, font easy to read, nicely spaced out in defined paragraphs and boxes, i like the blue accents which is clever really as blue is the most calming colour.On that thread i wish that they had included a chapter about your home life and how to decorate you home to induce a state of calm. I went into this with my own Psychologist and completely changed my entire home based on that. To give you a brief explanation, soft blues and blue greys are the most calming, so i painted my entire house in calming colours, a very soft grey in my lounge, for my bedroom i painted a dusky lavender, my kitchen a bright orange, my hall a pale green, and my bathroom of course a soft pale blue. I was really surprised at how much difference it made. Orange seems an unusual choice for a kitchen as its uplifting and stimulating but it aids digestion and gives you stability and assurance which people with stress conditions really need.Anyway, overall i really enjoyed this book, i thought it was a nicely written and well thought out, with verifiable scientific evidence and written by real Psychologists. .

Very happy with the book and the delivery service

Fantastic