Mindfulness for Unravelling Anxiety

As someone that suffers from extreme anxiety attacks at times of high stress, I found this book to be extremely helpful.  The author provided the information in a manner that was easy to understand and utilize.

'The word 'anxiety derives from the Latin anxietas, meaning 'troubled in mind'.'
 
The book focuses on what anxiety it and how to overcome it but most of all how to embrace it, how to stand back and observe what is going on inside your mind and how your body reacts to the anxiety.
 
One quote that I strongly related to was this:
 
'The mind becomes possesd by the vague ideas of things bring, or going wrong.'
 
 
In one chapter the author discusses writing down dreams in a journal to see, writing down every aspect of what we saw including colours. I haven't tried this but I know writing in a journal from time to time does sometimes make me feel lighter.
 
'You might feel lighter if you didn't carry all your baggage around with you'
 
It's a lovely little book giving lots of tips and advice. What I loved most was the history and how anxiety has changed in a way from a fight for survival, of being in danger to social situations and worrying about the future. How we don't take notice of the now and that we are always focusing on the 'what next'. It asks us to take notice of things like opening the door, what we see walking down the street. There's some suggestions in the book on how people have coped, like a man who over works, staples pages in his diary for breaks so he can't book people in, I quite like that idea. The author called it 'gifting space to oneself' now for me I've been trying to have time reading for say an hour a day or to go for a walk at least once a day. Sometimes I find this really difficult and then others I can be sat reading for hours. For leaving the house it takes a while to motivate myself but once I'm out I wonder why I worried so much.
 
“Our worst misfortunes never happen, and most miseries lie in anticipation.”
― Honoré de Balzac
 
The author gives examples of when he has struggled and as he puts it 'drowns in his own deluge'.  Why do our minds do this? why do we become swamped by these thoughts? and that's why we need to focus on the present from time to time and as the author says focus on the activity and its ending. rather than what we are going to do next. This is not easy as I have tried but will be trying to put it into practice more in the future, along with noticing my breathing from time to time. In the end as the author says in today's world we think happiness can only be found in wealth and other unimportant things and encourages what we don't have yet instead of valuing what we have right now. One thing I try to keep reminding myself of.

As someone with anxiety, I found this book to be very helpful. I really enjoyed reading it.

Richard Gilpin is so wise. This book is beautiful, his words are beautiful and his meditation exercises are brilliant. I teach movement and have a guided meditation at the end of my class. I have read out "developing loving kindness' so far which is a meditation on applying the love you feel for other people to yourself and then to the world. Someone who was having a hard day started crying but actually found it very releasing. I also used his 'containing catastrophe' exercise (where you imagine the absolutely worst thing that can happen) to advise a friend who had a difficult decision to make and I have been using his weather reports exercise with my children and their stormy feelings. This book isn't just a series of exercises, Gilpin has such an appreciation for life and he reminds the reader to take pleasure in moments of small wonder and to embrace 'just being.' This really is a treasure.

A very useful book for helping to keep anxiety at bay. It's well written and full of sound advice.
Strongly recommended.
Many thanks to Quarto Publishing Books and Netgalley

This book is easy to read and very useful . Meditation exercises are brilliant and I can't wait to put them in practice. Thank you for the opportunity to read this book, it will help many other people.

I'm someone who has been diagnosed with an anxiety disorder and always looking for good books that can give me support with this. This is one of those books!

It focuses on what anxiety it and how to overcome it but most of all how to embrace it, objectively observe what is going on inside your mind and how your body reacts. It's a lovely little book giving lots of tips and advice. Mindfullness is one of the go to practices these days for support and for me works much better than anything else I've tried and this book, for me this book is an extra tool for my armoury of help.

The author also adds his own story which makes the book more personal and, while I would never wish anxiety on anyone, I think it's always a good thing when an author can talk to me about this illness because he can empathically understand and not because they have done a course in the subject. It gives the book an extra layer.

Really enjoyed this and would recommend to friends with similar issues

Free arc from netgalley

Thank you to Quatro Publishing and Netgalley for a complementary reading copy of this book in return for my honest review.

This was a great little book, that was very easy to read.  It gave a good over view of mindfulness  and the importance of not abiding by the McMindfulness sold In today’s society, but rather to have a clear understanding of what one values and how to in accordance to these values;  to be mindful of how and why we act the way we do.  The book follows the basis of Buddhist teaching without specifically referring to these ways of living as being Related to Buddha until about 3/4 the way through.  

I Believe this easily accessible book will resonate well with many as it is full of wisdom for living a good life every day, one breath and space at a time.

Thank you for the opportunity to review this great book.

Anxiety is something many of us experience at some stage in our lives.
Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD) is on the increase with as many as 1 in 25 people affected in the UK alone. 

This book is design to help untangle all the threads of anxiety that overtake many people, and it delves into  ways people can break their bonds that are suffo9cating them.  It explores the better understanding of the root of the problem – the mind. 

Richard Gilpin shares very personal anecdotes and therapeutic insights, revealing how mindfulness can create a path through anxiety. 
 This is a very interesting book to read.  Anxiety can be a debilitating condition and with Richard Gilpin's exploration through the world of anxiety, we can all help to move past and through this disorder and have some healing.