The Ritual Yearbook has a interesting premise, but the author's opinions are just that opinions, nothing medically proven or from a doctor.

ARC provided by Netgalley and publisher in exchange for an honest review. The opinions expressed below are purely my own!

This book is truly a gem that has the power to be life-changing. This is a road map to self-care, disconnecting from the web and social media, and establishing powerful habits that positively impact your life. I have tried a couple of the "rituals" described in this book and have already started feeling the benefits of tidiness, meditation, and disconnecting. A perfect book to start 2020 with and to keep close to your self-care regimen. I will definitely be suggesting this book to be added to my library's collection.

This book was about forming rituals that can impact your day with very little effort or time on the part of things needed completed them. The book is broken down into seven categories that goes 365 rituals that can completed each day of the year. Their are foundation rituals and closing rituals which play a key role in starting and ending. The book does have a table of contents that clearly lays out what can be found in each of key seven categories.

The ideas are clear and well explained. The flow is logical and organized and the sentence structure and word choice help to enhancing the reader’s enjoyment and ease of understanding. Yes, I would recommend this book. This would be good for anyone looking for science based rituals, explanations, and simple techniques. This book would not be good for those who are dislike science being used in self-help or a looking for more complex rituals.

Thank you for the ARC for review. My review opinion is my own.
This is a self help guide of rituals to implement into your daily life. It's written to able body people and not helpful for those of us physically disabled. I felt left out of most of the book. Some of the usual rituals are here such as drink more wster, stretch and meditate as in most self help books. Each reader can take something from this but not recommend for those of us physically disabled.

Thank you to NetGalley and Watkins Publishing for an advanced reader's copy in exchange for an honest review.

I am generally a big fan of self-improvement non-fiction, and I am always a huge fan of well-written books that offer insight for making small and simple changes for the purpose of a better life. I am a big fan of routine and ritual, particularly in the long winter months, so I was quite excited to read this book.

Unfortunately, while the book initially excited me and I grabbed a journal to jot down some notes, I quickly found the format to be tedious and I slowly lost interest in the material. While many of the suggested rituals are small, when reading through a review copy, the endless list of even the smallest rituals began to feel impossible to implement. I became quite apathetic towards the material.

I feel like the information in this book would be more engaging through a series of blog posts, Instagram posts, or YouTube videos. Ultimately, I cannot recommend this book.

This book does exactly what it says on the tin - a year of rituals, some I will adopt, some I won't. There's something for everyone in here, and quite honestly, adding a bit of structure to your life is good for your mental and physical health, so it's great to plan 202 using this book as a map to see what I want to do in various places.

“A meaningful life is a never-ending journey and not a destination”.

I love the concept the author has that life changes through ACTION by incorporating specific rituals in our everyday lives with mindfulness and intention and not only positive thinking. As the author writes: “Numerous studies show that your brain is led more by your daily actions than by your thoughts”.

In the book, there are 365 rituals for the 365 days of a year to boost our happiness and life fulfilment.

21 FOUNDATION RITUALS (Morning / Daytime / Evening). These should be repeated every day of the year.
BODY RITUALS
MIND RITUALS
SPIRIT RITUALS
HEART RITUALS
CLOSING RITUALS (at your birthday / Anniversary / Holidays / for the end of your ritual year)
POWER RITUALS that reinforce other rituals.

It is true that most of the rituals are things that you have heard before especially if you have read a lot of self-help books. What IS original is that the author has found and is proposing ways to ritualise, to incorporate in your every day life practical steps for your well-being. One chapter that I found really special and unique was the one that presented the HEART Rituals that really dive deep into what our hearts desire and help us practice acts of self-love in our busy lives.
I would also like to point out that the author has also a free ritual tracker at her website if you want to check your progress.
I think that it would make a wonderful present for the new year and if you commit to do the rituals, I think that this year will be a transformative one, too!

This book is a simple guide to ritualising self awareness task. More self help than ritual I felt, and sometimes a little too simplistic. Well written, although I did find myself skim reading a lot of it just to get through it.

This book is a nice exploration of self love. The thought put into each ritual was a great calming effect on life, body and soul. The author did a very nice job of laying out a positive ritual to get everyone moving in the right direction. This was a nice guide book.

I wanted to believe that this book and I got off on the wrong foot because of the references to the law of attraction in the introduction (in my opinion, not a great start), but things didn't really get better. Each of the "rituals" is just a different tidbit picked from every popular self-help trend over the last five years. Eat more blueberries, eat more tomatoes, make your bed, drink more water, do a power pose, do this yoga stretch...I found the rituals to be very very repetitive because of it. I was hoping for some ritual ideas with some more substance, and not the regurgitation of self-help trends that I actually got. In addition, I am disabled, and while there was a note in the beginning inviting folks who are less mobile to work around the many, many physical activities in the book, it was clear that this book was not really written with us in mind. I do appreciate that Cheung mentions some worksheets and trackers on her website, which I did look at, because they seem like they would be excellent resources for folks with executive function issues.

I'm sure this book will be great help for a lot of folks in the new age community who tend to follow this kind of trending information about increasing personal wellbeing, but there are a lot of folks forgotten and left behind in this text, and that is really sad.

An interesting book, useful, well written and presented. You can jump in at any point, you don’t need a specific date to start, but I wasn’t keen on some of the authors attitudes to depression and other disorders, things like this can’t be solved with a few new age rituals, i enjoyed this book at times, but didn’t like these attitudes

Thanks to netgalley and the publisher for a free copy for an honest opinion

Where are all my 'to-do list people at? Maybe you are approaching Christmas and the New Year, and considering adopting a bunch of new habits that will attract positive experiences and expand your mind? Perhaps you are a fan of self development and seeking books that align with values of long term mental and physical health? Maybe your life is in a kerfuffle and you feel like it needs a Marie Kondo-esque overhaul but you are too overwhelmed to know where to start? The Ritual Yearbook is a giant list of small and achieveable tasks to implement, one a day for a full year. It begins by introducing 21 foundation habits before launching into 6 categories designed to target exercise, healthy eating, sleep, body image, energy boosting and stress reduction. While most of the rituals are not covering new ground, I enjoyed the way the book is presented and it was a timely reminder to refocus my intentions. Many of the habits include links to additional reading for those interested in a deeper understanding of the psychology behind them. The overall concept is that grand gestures aren't the most effective way to increase our chances of happiness - it's the accumulation of many small actions that can have a lasting and measurable impact. November 19th is the date that you can get your hands on a published copy, and away you go! Happy habit-stacking! Thank you very much to Watkins Publishing and Net Galley for kindly gifting me with this ARC. 🙏

Interesting book. I liked the talk about rituals, helping you to enjoy and engage mindfully in various activities in your daily life. The first section of 21 rituals might well be things you are doing already and given that one of them is making your bed each morning, they aren't as demanding to complete as you might think. After that the book divides into different areas of your life, mind, body etc, which the author encourages you to try in turn as suits you.

The ritual or mindfulness idea behind a lot of the practises is thoughtfully discussed and a useful counterbalance to the rush of every day busy-busy lives. I did find dipping into too many of the follow up sections in one go left me feeling like I could never work through all the book, I felt overwhelmed by all the suggestions.

Really, I think this is a book to do the rituals of one particular section at a time, to help ground that specific part of your life. I'm not convinced that many people would have the time, or indeed inclination, to add all suggested rituals to their everyday life. Equally, I'm not sure all the rituals are relevant to everyone. However, I do like the idea of slowing down and doing things mindfully, so this book is a useful way to do that.

I kept waffling between giving The Ritual Yearbook three stars or four. Although this book is well written and flows well, I feel you would have to be unemployed, rich (so you don’t have to work), or not have children to complete the book.

Being your best, healthy self is very important to me. But (and you saw that coming) there is so much to do in this book that I couldn’t even see myself being able to keep up with it, and I retired in June and have no children.

I think the 21 one simple foundation rituals at the beginning of the book have a lot of value, and if people do those every day they would be on a great course for improving themselves. They may seem simple, like making your bed or journaling what you are thankful for, but they have a positive aspect that can help your day start in the right direction. And for people who do none of these right now, they would see a huge improvement in their lives.

It’s when you get into the largest section of the book that contains rituals for the Body, Mind, Spirit and Heart that I can see people getting frustrated and not finishing the course. Each of the four section has 74 rituals. Some can be done relatively quickly, but others take a lot more time.

If you come home from work, have children that need to be fed and helped with their homework, and chores to do around the house, 10pm or 11pm comes very quickly. Leaving you with no time to do that days ritual. That’s why I say you need to not be working or at least not have children to be able to get through The Ritual Yearbook.

If I were to just look at it that way I would have given it three stars, because in my mind you would be buying a book that you would probably only be using ¼ of. But I can see someone taking longer than a year to complete the book. Perhaps doing the 21 beginning rituals everyday and only three or four of the others during the week.

Also there were quite a few of the rituals in the four sections that overlapped. Decluttering, journal writing, affirmations, and yoga poses (although they were different poses) where mentioned in two, three, or even all four of the Body, Mind, Spirit, and Heart sections. So this could speed up the book a bit and perhaps you could complete it in one year.

I’ve already started doing the first 21 rituals daily, and I really do enjoy seeing my bed made and journaling puts my heart in a happy place every morning. My podcast partner for Books Don’t Review Themselves and I were thinking of doing The Ritual Yearbook starting January 1st and recording our progress on social media. So if you’re interested, sign up to follow us on Instagram.

I love the concert of this book. With 2020 coming up I was trying to think of what changes I should make. After reading this book I think I am going to do several small changes, ones that are suggested in this book.

Cool things to try, a new thing every day. Not date specific so you can start whenever you want. A piece of information and a quick little about the ritual and off you go. Introduces the reader to a variety of things - some may already heard of.

I came across this book just when I needed it. You need to add this to your self-care shelf. I’ve tried some of the rituals and it has brought such a calming tranquility to my life. I will definitely be trying to implement a daily practice.

A useful, interesting and well written book. I will surely make some of the rituals part of my daily routine.
I look forward to reading other books by this author.
Many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this ARC, all opinions are mine.

When I first started reading this I did not like the tone of it telling me what to do so I put it down and tried again later. Turns out I was just in a bad mood, because it was fine later on. There is a ton of information, nothing really new, but good brief information all the same. This would be a good book for a beginner wanting to focus on themselves that is not sure where to start. This book literally covers every part of a person from physical, mental, to surroundings and behaviors. I can see this being popular in the self help section!

“We are not what we think but what we repeatedly do. Repeat an action often enough and it becomes a habit.” However habits are not enough according to author Theresa Cheung. Our habits needs to have meaning and become rituals. “Rituals are repeatable actions performed with mindfulness, feeling and intention. Rituals give our lives meaning. They bring an element of the sacred into our lives or an awareness of something higher or greater than ourselves.”

The opening of The Ritual Yearbook gave me a lot to chew on as I considered my habits and actions, and how I order my life. This book shares rituals fo 365 days, starting with 21 foundational rituals (things like making your bed every day to drinking water) Ranging from body, soul, mind, fiancés, and more this book teaches you practices that bring joy and health to your life. I have a digital arc and am eager to stop by my local bookstore and see a finished copy of this wonderful resource.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read and review this book.