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A review by wandering_not_lost
Walking on Custard & the Meaning of Life: A Guide for Anxious Humans by Neil Hughes
5.0
I did not expect this book to be so awesome. I was drawn in by the self-effacing and amusing voice and even as I bought it I thought, "this is probably going to be pretty lightweight, but hey, it looks like a fun read."
I was so very wrong. This is a substantial, surprisingly comprehensive, multifaceted, and utterly down-to-earth guide to how to work with your own brain to short-circuit bad habits, habitual worries, feedback loops, and crusty old beliefs to free yourself from the quicksand/custard of your own head. It offers practical tools and tips to help you work with your own beliefs, thoughts, and behaviors to help relieve anxiety by increasing your ability to let go of things that aren't important and giving you overall coping mechanisms to deal with everything else.
Before I get into the things I loved, a few things that might be helpful: this book mentions suicidal thoughts pretty early on, so anyone who would be affected by that, beware. Also, it does not touch on medication or seeking professional help for anxiety or other mental illnesses. In fact, that's a downside, I think. The tips in here will likely be helpful to everyone, but some acknowledgement that altered brain chemistries can sometimes be made 1000X easier to deal with when medicated would have been nice.
On to: Reasons I Love This Book:
- It is practical. The book is filled with actual exercises that you can do to put into practice what you're reading about. These are all excellent and usually focus not on "do X and you will feel Y", but at training your brain to look at things differently. This is something I like best about this book: it's not going to beat you up for not being able to meditate for 30 min every day. It will instead give you a plethora of tools and let you decide what will work best for you.
- It has a fresh voice and an innovative, down-home take on the topic. This book is about putting mindfulness and thought processes to work for you. But it does not get too deeply into the whys and wherefores of either religion or science. It's advice that doesn't take itself too seriously, like the author is friend you asked to help you out. It's a conversation, not a lecture. The author doesn't set himself up as an expert, and neither is he selling anything, and that combination is actually very refreshing in this genre.
- It is comprehensive. This is a substantial book, and I found myself several times going "I hope he talks about X!" and lo and behold, he did two chapters later. It's organized differently than other self-help books I've read, but he rounded out his thoughts, covered all the major bases, and overall left you feeling like he'd adequately covered every issue he brought up.
- It isn't afraid to wade into the deep water topics and how they actually impact your life. Instead of lumping all existential questions into a chapter on "dealing with death", there's a wider discussion. There's even a section at the end that talks about how to live with the knowledge that eventually the universe will collapse into its own heat death, or with lack of meaning in general. And the advice here is solid, giving you fresh perspectives on those thoughts and possible ways to look at the issues differently.
This book is at least 5X better than I was expecting. Maybe 10x better. I bought it for myself and actually now want to give physical copies to everyone I know who could use a little mindfulness in their life but who would be scared off by any whiff of New Age or Buddhism. This is a book on mindfulness you could give to your white-bread grandmother (and I might do just that.)
I was so very wrong. This is a substantial, surprisingly comprehensive, multifaceted, and utterly down-to-earth guide to how to work with your own brain to short-circuit bad habits, habitual worries, feedback loops, and crusty old beliefs to free yourself from the quicksand/custard of your own head. It offers practical tools and tips to help you work with your own beliefs, thoughts, and behaviors to help relieve anxiety by increasing your ability to let go of things that aren't important and giving you overall coping mechanisms to deal with everything else.
Before I get into the things I loved, a few things that might be helpful: this book mentions suicidal thoughts pretty early on, so anyone who would be affected by that, beware. Also, it does not touch on medication or seeking professional help for anxiety or other mental illnesses. In fact, that's a downside, I think. The tips in here will likely be helpful to everyone, but some acknowledgement that altered brain chemistries can sometimes be made 1000X easier to deal with when medicated would have been nice.
On to: Reasons I Love This Book:
- It is practical. The book is filled with actual exercises that you can do to put into practice what you're reading about. These are all excellent and usually focus not on "do X and you will feel Y", but at training your brain to look at things differently. This is something I like best about this book: it's not going to beat you up for not being able to meditate for 30 min every day. It will instead give you a plethora of tools and let you decide what will work best for you.
- It has a fresh voice and an innovative, down-home take on the topic. This book is about putting mindfulness and thought processes to work for you. But it does not get too deeply into the whys and wherefores of either religion or science. It's advice that doesn't take itself too seriously, like the author is friend you asked to help you out. It's a conversation, not a lecture. The author doesn't set himself up as an expert, and neither is he selling anything, and that combination is actually very refreshing in this genre.
- It is comprehensive. This is a substantial book, and I found myself several times going "I hope he talks about X!" and lo and behold, he did two chapters later. It's organized differently than other self-help books I've read, but he rounded out his thoughts, covered all the major bases, and overall left you feeling like he'd adequately covered every issue he brought up.
- It isn't afraid to wade into the deep water topics and how they actually impact your life. Instead of lumping all existential questions into a chapter on "dealing with death", there's a wider discussion. There's even a section at the end that talks about how to live with the knowledge that eventually the universe will collapse into its own heat death, or with lack of meaning in general. And the advice here is solid, giving you fresh perspectives on those thoughts and possible ways to look at the issues differently.
This book is at least 5X better than I was expecting. Maybe 10x better. I bought it for myself and actually now want to give physical copies to everyone I know who could use a little mindfulness in their life but who would be scared off by any whiff of New Age or Buddhism. This is a book on mindfulness you could give to your white-bread grandmother (and I might do just that.)