Calm Yourself - a new book (not by me!)

Recommending Calm Yourself by Dr Vee Freir

I am delighted to recommend a new book on stress. It's probably the only one you need - because you've got mine (No Worries - how to deal with teenage anxiety) already, right?!

This one, Calm Yourself - Easy everyday ways for busy people to combat stress by Dr Vee Freir, is a bit special. The author is far better qualified than I am to write such a book - in fact, she taught me quite a lot of what I know.

The best way for me to explain why you should read this book is actually for me to reproduce the foreword - which I can do without permission because I wrote it...

Foreword by Nicola Morgan

I can’t honestly remember when I first came across Vee Freir’s work and when we first met, but I do know that right from the start we were on the same page. We share an intense desire to help as many people as possible feel in control of their own minds, brains, bodies, starting with an understanding of how those three concepts inextricably interact before moving on to powerful, practical strategies.

When we talked, I loved her simple tricks to get people (including me!) to notice what is going on in their mind/body, how she listens with deep empathy, how what she says makes perfect sense and how calming she is, without ever making the mistake of resorting to clichés. Once, we went for coffee in a busy restaurant with her young Labrador in guide-dog training and, as a Labrador-owner myself, I was in awe of how calmly her puppy sat inches away from food without any sign of agitation! You, as a reader of her new book, Calm Yourself, can now experience that sense of calm, strength and control. You’ll learn that, just like every human since humans began, Vee experiences stress and you’ll see her activate her knowledge and strategies to put it back in its place so it can do its job. She will show you how to do the same yourself. You’ll need to practise the skills, of course – we all do and I don’t think we ever stop practising, or not if we’re wise. As with any skill, we get better at it, especially when we have a good teacher.

Calm Yourself is perfect for busy people. It’s not a weighty tome – who wants that? If you’re anything like me, you want something that is neatly structured so that you can quickly find what you need and that says what it needs to say without waffling on. You also don’t want to read all the research that went into it – though there is a bibliography if you want it. You want to trust that the writer knows what she’s talking about – she does, after many years in clinical practice and many years of reading the research for you. And you want strategies that make sense, are easy to implement and that work – ideally, quickly!

Crucially, I think you also want choice – a buffet, rather than a set menu. You do not want to be told that you must do A, B and C and then find that you really don’t like Cand A doesn’t fit your life. Instead, you want a range of ideas to choose from, so that you can try them out and find what works for you. For example, Calm Yourself is the first book I’ve read on stress which doesn’t make me feel inadequate for not being into mindfulness! Even though Vee very much does practise mindfulness, she never once tries to hector the reader into doing it. Calm Yourself is an important book. It might be the only one you need to gain control of your stress levels. It is not a large book but it is immensely powerful nevertheless.

I call it a still, small voice of calm.

Calm Yourself is available from Amazon as an ebook and as a paperback.

(I gain nothing from the recommendation of this book. I’m not on commission! I did receive a free ebook version but then I had to otherwise I couldn’t have written the foreword.)