"Help in a Hurry" by Dr. Caroline Leaf is a practical guide that helps explain the connection between the brain, mind, and body. 

The book is a how-to guide that helps identify areas of rumination and stop overthinking before it spirals out of control. The book is well-organized and tackles a variety of common mental health topics like perfectionism, overwhelm, and people pleasing. Dr. Leaf's evidence-based strategies are simple and applicable to a wide variety of situations. While many self-help books can be dense, Dr. Leaf's book is compiled in an easy-to-read manner with no extraneous information. It can be read in one sitting, out of order, or linearly, depending on your individual goals and what you hope to gain from it. It's a great resource to refer back to time and time again, as its advice is timeless. 

Thank you to NetGalley and Baker Books for the ARC. All opinions are my own.

After way too long of an introduction if you’re reading this book for help in a literal hurry, there are lots of short chapters with casual, positive advice for all different issues like having intrusive thoughts, being a people pleaser and feeling overwhelmed. There are quite a few of these scenarios but they are sort of like light life coaching. For example, in the very short chapter on needing help because your past was traumatic, you are supposed to think of three positive memories every time you remember a bad one, and not let yourself think of bad memories for more than five minutes. An example given for the bad experience is if your father was emotionally absent.

I don’t even know what to say to that. I don’t think this book is intended for those of us with really traumatic pasts. It will be a helpful resource if you want help of the more standard variety, though it does feel like it veers into toxic positivity and victim blaming at times.

I read a digital review copy of this book via netgalley.

This book is full of practical tips and reminders that we can immediately implement. I found it more helpful than 'Your Mental Mess,' which focused heavily on studies. This book gets straight to actionable steps for managing specific thoughts. The quotes 'If words control you, then everyone can control you,' 'You can control the way you react to a situation,' and 'move away from absolutes' resonated with me. It empowered me to become more aware of my thoughts and control my emotions.
Thank you #NetGalley and #Bakerbooks for a copy of the book in exchange of my honest review.

#Helpinahurry #NetGalley #Happilyaddictedtobooks #Bakerbooks #BakerPublishingGroup #CarolineLeaf

Very basic and repetitive, but good, simple tips for someone completely new to navigating anxiety. I was hoping more for ideas I hadn’t heard before. This book is a starting point- that first step in the right direction.

When life become too much, and I need to do something immediately to help myself emotionally regulate, this is the book I will turn to for guidance. Dr. Caroline Leaf, author of Help in a Hurry, is a communication pathologist, audiologist and clinical neuroscientist specializing in research in psychoneurobiology. In this book, she offers advice on how to manage emotions in the moment of overwhelm. I loved that the table of contents lists very specific feelings of overwhelm, such as, "Help, Everything is Going Wrong!" and "Help, My Brain Won't Shut Up!" With each chapter, she compassionately understands the feelings accompanying each concern and offers specific steps to quiet the negative reaction. Her approach is grounded in the mind-brain-body science and focuses on building good habits that will last a lifetime.

I turned to this book multiple times already and felt her guides were helpful with calming me, which then allowed me to make better decisions on how to move forward with the challenging situation. As she stated in her book, it will take time and practice to develop these habits. I will continue to use this book as part of my toolkit when I am feeling that life is overwhelming. This book was easy to understand, the chapters are easy to navigate, and the solutions are beneficial for quieting my overactive brain. Thank you to Baker Publishing Group, NetGalley, and Dr. Caroline Leaf for the opportunity to read and review this book.