A Mindfulness Guide for the Frazzled, by Rub Wax

I enjoyed reading this book, as part of Fighting Fit Together, through November!
Although I didn’t fully dedicate myself to the exercises, I have made more effort to incorporate small practices into my daily life. For instance, I pay more attention to my food; I am making a conscious effort to turn off any distractions, like my phone/social media (Previously, even if I wasn’t scrolling, I’d be listening to a podcast/ an audiobook).

I would recommend this book to you if you find yourself feeling stressed out, overwhelmed, and/or anxious. Mindful practices allow you to be more present in the moment, focus better, and achieve a calmer, more grounded state. It does take practice though, and Ruby Wax has created a 6-week plan to guide you through this. It will not be easy, to begin with, but I would recommend that you persevere with it!

I found the chapters on children and teenagers interesting, even though I do not have my own! If you are a parent, or expecting to be, I would highly recommend this book, for the exercises for babies/children/teenagers. Although, I’d assume you’ll be needing the mindfulness yourself too.

The parts I found most interesting were the chapters on how the brain actually works (it’s quite complex, so don’t worry if it doesn’t all make sense to you!) and the chapter on ‘The social brain’ was my favourite. I love learning about how we can create more meaningful relationships.

As a society, we have lost many of our interpersonal skills, due to the internet – designed to ‘connect’ us, but causing us to lose much of our real, human, connection…
There was a part where Ruby mentioned that :

Motivational Speakers are now being hired by companies to teach some of the most powerful people in the world skills such as rapport, trust, and compassion.

These are such vital skills, to allow us to live our lives with happiness; yet we are losing the ability.
We are part of a society where some of the most ‘successful’ people in the world are needing to learn them.

The ability to ‘switch off’ from always being stressed can help us create a more balanced state, which we can access that through regular mindfulness practice.
A practice we should be prioritising!

‘We need to drop our ‘me-ness’ and start thinking about ‘we-ness’.

Ruby Wax

An important element mentioned, with regards to our social relationships, was the ability to properly listen to others.
My friend, and fellow hypnotist, Caruso, has a webinar on this, which I listened to this week, and he explains this better than I could (And this is why I love learning from other inspiring individuals!) here is the link:

One final note – What is your judgement of Ruby Wax?
Don’t allow it to put you off reading this book.

I’m not sure where my slightly negative judgement came from (seeing her on T.V as a child? I guess I had created it subconsciously from then…). That perception has now changed. Ruby wax is an incredibly intelligent woman, who has a Master’s degree in ‘Mindfulness-based cognitive therapy’ and has been struggling with her mental health all her life. She had a tough upbringing and then was thrown into fame… so, it’s not really surprising, is it?
She writes in a conversational way, which is easy to read, with wit and humour, telling parts of her own story throughout, making it interesting alongside being informative.

If you would like to buy a copy for yourself, here is my Amazon affiliate link – You don’t get charged more, I earn a small commission instead of it all going to Amazon! I plan to spend that commission on more books!
https://amzn.to/3gyQAIF