This book provides practical suggestions for dealing with stress in a positive and healthy way. It includes commonly stressful scenarios and how to cope when dealing with each one. Some of the scenarios include, death of a loved one, losing a job, starting college, retiring, buying a home, parenting a difficult child, getting dinner on the table, commuting to work, feeling lonely, or being in a car accident.

Each section begins with a description of the struggles of the scenario and the possible emotions that may arise. Then there is a stress-relieving exercise to try such as meditation, physical exercise, journaling, or reframing your thoughts in a more positive light.

I love that this book focuses on gratitude, resilience, and gentleness. The writing is very encouraging, and gives excellent advice for navigating the strong emotions that can come up during stressful times.
Some of the exercises are pretty obvious, like getting enough sleep and eating healthfully. However, when you are under a lot of stress, you really can forget to eat well or sleep properly. It’s as though the stressful thing takes over your thoughts, and you really do need a reminder to get some sleep and eat a healthy dinner.

The first chapter is a lengthy explanation of how our hormones respond during stress, and how cortisol and chronic stress can affect your health in negative ways. It’s good information to know, but if you are already under stress, I would skip to the section that deals with your situation. You don’t need to know all the details about the hormones to benefit from the calming exercises.

You don’t have to be in that particular stressful scenario to do the exercise either. You could jump around to different sections and try the exercises for each one, because most of them would apply to any stressful time and be helpful for promoting calm thoughts and steady emotions.

I like how this book is designed, and I love the positive messages!

Disclaimer: I received a copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for a free and honest review. All the opinions stated here are my own true thoughts and are not influenced by anyone.