This is a great introduction to the practice of mindfulness. There are explanations and exercises to do that are simple yet effective. I would give this to anyone looking to begin their mindfulness journey.

Thank you to NetGalley for the opportunity to review this book. The practical exercises in here have been instrumental in helping to introduce a touch of mindfulness into our lives. The underlying science and reasoning behind the activities is helpful to understand how they can have a positive impact. This is a book that I will no doubt keep dipping into to help support a more mindful lifestyle for our family.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for an advance readers copy of this book.

It’s a great workbook for beginners with a lot of information . I really appreciated the insights around mindful eating which is definitely something I need to practice more

Great book to unwind from a stressful day. It has great tips and things to do to be in a mindful state. Helped me and my family. I love meditating.

This is not a book to rush through, it is a book to live. Take your time and work through it in stages as mindfulness is a lifestyle.

Bob Stahl has written a wise book that is easy to read and filled with practices to improve our mindfulness and our lives. This book holds meditations, journal exercises and mindfulness practices. This offers a core understanding of mindfulness that will be helpful to the beginner but has something in here for all of us!

This book is a really good resource for practicing mindfulness and stress-reduction. There are various points that need to be stated that made me give 5 stars to this workbook.
1. The setup of the book is really convincing and well structured, aiding the reader in first understanding where a problem/stress might spring from, then explaining what can be done and last but not least many practical tips that one can act upon right now or implement in general.

2. The term workbook is actually true, as there are many practical tips and help for many situations and individual feelings and emotions. Furthermore, it is not only a list of exercises, but the text and exercises gradually build up and one is asked to reflect on previous exercises or situations.

3. Apart from a sole list of exercises there is always enough scientific and well researched background into the underlying phenomena.

Overall, this book is great for anyone wanting to improve his or her coping mechanisms with stress and relaxation. There is such a variety of exercises that I'm sure everyone will find at least one or two things to implement into daily life and gain and learn from.

Definitive recommendation and I'm beyond glad I got to read this book!

A useful workbook that helps people suffering from stress use a multi-pronged approach to coping. Lots of exercise poses and space for journaling.

This is the updated version of this book that was popular the first time around. It is designed to help readers with daily stress and reduce what overwhelms us or burns us out in everyday life. We can learn to make life less frustrating and perhaps easier. It is designed to only take a few weeks to notice a difference in our life. The goal is to help teach how to properly handle stress and what approaches to even use in the moment. This is a workbook teaching habits to replace stress actions with actions that are more relaxing or helpful. The outcome is to help manage a less stressed life that is not only happier, but healthier as well. There are helpful skills or hints in this workbook that can work. You get yoga poses as well as self-reflection questions and even fill-in answers to help work through your feelings and thoughts making it your own. It is helpful because your stress is your own and only you feel it. The author provides nice details and explanations on the practices in the book and how they are helpful too, which is nice. The prompts are helpful in most places and if you are interested in private guided stress reduction this workbook is helps. It allows you to do this on your own. It is a nice resource and helpful guide.

Mindfulness is a concept that some think of as being woo-woo, but the reality is that it’s actually very helpful. This book is part workbook and part explanatory text about mindfulness for a variety of different situations.

As someone who has been aware of mindfulness and its impact on relaxation for many years, I didn’t find much new in this book. However, it’s a solid resource for people who are new to mindfulness.

I enjoyed my time with this book. Some sections spoke to me more than others but I would guess that would be the case for most and would depend on what your stressors are in life. Some of the tools really helped me while others I won't continue with.

This workbook has actually helped with my anxiety and stress quite a lot. If you can't make it to a MBSR class, this is another good option. Bob Stahl has many helpful hints and tips to getting your stress levels down. A recommended read for sure; whether you have depression, anxiety, or just want to relax some.

Nice book to help you get to know yourself better. There are a lot of meditations to help get you through a lot of different areas in your life. Definitely a good read!

A Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction Workbook, 2nd ed., is written by Bob Stahl and Elisha Goldstein. MBSR is an approach that was developed by Jon Kabat-Zinn, whose book Wherever You Go There You Are I’ve previously reviewed.

The authors offer this description of mindfulness:

“Mindfulness is about being fully aware of whatever is happening in the present moment, without filters or the lens of judgment, and can be brought to any situation. Put simply, mindfulness consists of cultivating awareness of the mind and body and living in the here and now.”

The book describes the fight or flight system and stress responses, as well as the mind-body connection. Ten essential attitudes for mindfulness are identified, including nonjudgment and self-compassion. There is an overview of research supporting the benefits of meditation.

A variety of meditations are offered for the reader, including both formal (i.e. “meditation” meditation) and informal practices. The body scan is identified as an important practice to become more aware of your body and how it holds tension.

The formal practices were mostly sitting meditations, although there was also a walking meditation and yoga meditation. The copy of the book that I received was in PDF format, and there were 30 pages devoted to drawings and brief descriptions of yoga poses. The illustrations seemed rather unsophisticated, and I think they could have done a better job of that.

Throughout the book there are questions for self-reflection, and space is given for the reader to fill in answers.

A chapter of the book is devoted to chronic pain. It describes three steps to follow: investigate the pain, work with emotions that arise as a result of the pain, and live in the present moment, approach pain one moment at a time. While being more mindful of pain may seem like the last thing you want to do, the authors offer some convincing explanations as to why this would be helpful.

There was also a chapter devoted to mindfulness for anxiety and depression. The recommended approach for anxiety involved mindful self-inquiry, turning into emotions, and finding your heart.

The acronym SAFE was offered to deal with difficult emotions: soften around an emotion, acknowledge it’s there, feel where in the body it resides then bring compassion to yourself, then extend the compassion outwards to others feeling the same way

Mindfulness for insomnia was also discussed, which is a new way of approaching sleep difficulties. Recently I reviewed the book Mindfulness For Insomnia, which goes into this in more depth.

The book also covered other ways to apply mindfulness, including self-compassion, loving-kindness meditation, and bringing mindfulness to interpersonal relationships and communication.

At the end of the book there’s a suggested 8-week outline for how to go through it, based on how an MBSR course would be conducted.

A personal bias of mine is that I find some of the language that’s used in relation to meditation to be a bit hokey. A number of times this book describes mindfulness practice as “nourishing”. Maybe it is, which is great for them, but for me that wording is more of a turn-off than anything. That’s just my own personal preference, though.

I think this book would be a good pick for someone who’s interested in trying out meditation in a relatively structured way. If you’re looking to work on building mindful awareness without formal meditation, this probably wouldn’t be the best fit.

I heard about this book in my yoga training many years ago so, when the second edition came up on NetGalley, I jumped at the chance to read it. A very pragmatic book that lays out ways to reduce stress with even-handed well-written chapters. Each idea has exercises for the readers to follow.
This book is going to be best for someone who can follow through on keeping journals, daily entries, etc.

Three stars
This book comes out October 31st
ARC kindly provided by New Harbinger Publications, Inc. and NetGalley
Opinions are my own

This is a really great book for anyone who is unable to participate in a MBSR class. I was lucky enough to take a 8 week course with a day of mindfulness. I also got to attend an evening event with Jon Kabat-Zinn and Richie Davidson. The course I took gave a booklet as well as CD’s to listen to. I think our class would have really benefited from this workbook. I was able to journal at that time but my arthritis makes writing more difficult now. I am very happy I was able to review this electronic workbook to reboot my own practice. Thank you for allowing me to review an advanced copy.

Does give pages where there is prompts and space to write to help with mindfulness, stress and anxiety. There is information and helpful tips along with a few stories from people. Not a complete full on workbook, but a good start to help. And can be used as a reference.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for providing this book in exchange for an honest review.
This is a great beginners book on stress management with meditation. It also provides instruction for reducing pain, anxiety, and other medical issues. I feel it is important to go slowly through this book and try each idea to get a feel for what works best for you.

A useful update for a book that is a constant tried and true bestseller in the category. Will be easy to hand sell the updated workbook with the book.

It's an interesting and well organised book full of interesting ideas and exercises.
Highly recommended!
Many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this ARC, all opinions are mine.

This is a fabulous workbook that anyone into mindfulness to should have. This workbook would make a great gift and I plan on buying it myself. Well written and easy to read.