This book opened my eyes to habits and traits that contribute to an anxious mind. I think there were many insightful tips and tools. Overall, well written.

This book wasn't for me. I think maybe the type of anxiety I have isn't the kind that responds to these techniques. I'm not sure but I found the book more triggering than helpful. I wouldn't discourage anyone else from buying it. It wasn't bad. It just wasn't for me.

The idea of a "monkey mind" is a powerful metaphor, and definitely the "problem presentation" part of the book is the most interesting. Unfortunately, the "solutions & suggestions" part is lacking. At the end of the book you don't know how to tame the monkey yet.

This book was very accessible. The fact that Shannon herself grapples with the "monkey mind", only made this book more authentic. This book offers practical solutions and approaches, that, as with everything else, might work better for some than others.

It's worth spending a couple of hours reading it - especially if your "monkey mind" is at play.

Very good book to help focus your mind and self help guide.

This book is great for anyone suffering from anxiety. The points made by the author are simple and easy to understand. It is not easy to get rid of negativity and fear but it teaches tricks to help manage and alleviate it. She teaches us to identify when your monkey mind is active and how to help calm the chatter. This book has a lot of helpful ideas and suggestions. This is a great read for anyone struggling with anxiety.

I have been guilty IFB feeding the monkey mind constantly... until I read this book. Now, I am much more aware of how much I am feeding the monkey mind and has resulted in a much more calmer and a focused me...

Excellent contribution of self-help and for psychotherapists.
Sometimes we are so disconnected from nature living in concrete cities, surrounded by artificial artifacts that we forget that we are part of it and that our character, brain and biology are closely related and are the product of evolution. So that we share with other species an instinct for survival, but it has not been programmed for modern civilized life, then this mechanism makes many misperceptions of what can be possible threats, which keeps us in constant anxiety, fear, concern and stress.
The author describes in a very clear way how it works, what triggers and what habits feed this way of survival that she names the Monkey mind, since this component of our brain "It just gets a little wild and overreactive sometimes, like a monkey" . So when this hypervigilant mechanism is activated no matter how intelligent you are all your perception is distorted by fear and it sequesters our mind.
One of the explanations that shed more light to understand many of my reactions, including my emotional motives in decision making, is what is referred to as the monkey mid-set: Intolerance of uncertainty, Perfectionism and Over-responsibility. It is surprising that we continue to think that we are rational beings when everything really revolves around emotional motivations, feeling safe, feeling accepted and part of a tribe, not making mistakes not to be judged negatively, etc. Rationality implies our ability to justify those emotional motivations; Plan and have future strategies to anticipate emotional conflicts.
This simple script is programmed to drive survival at all costs. It works exceedingly well for this purpose, but it leaves us feeling stress and unpleasantness much of the time. And we strive a bit much to make decisions, to make the right choices, to control all the steps to follow, overplan things, we spend a lot of time worried, wanting to make others happy. From this monkey mindset many problems arise that fill us with anxiety and fear, affect our self-esteem, our concentration to achieve goals, overworking, depression, addiction, obsessive compulsive tendencies, among others.
To live more relaxed, enjoy the moment, raise our self esteem, live purposefully, reach our goals and manage our monkey mind Jennifer Shannon provides us with the "Expansion Strategies". She explains how to integrate this new mind-set and how to make this expansive thinking a life experience. The monkey mind will continue to be part of us, but these strategies teach us to choose between remaining stressed and upset, or taking it as an opportunity for expansion, and claiming to live the moment in a new way.
My gratitude to the Publisher and NetGalley for allowing me to review the book

I loved this book. I suffer from a slight case of anxiety. I've had my moments. It gets worse as I get older. This book put it in perspective and showed me that some of the things I was doing to relieve my anxiety was actually feeding it. It was cute and playful at times, but had some serious advice. There are chapter take aways and quizzes. They theory of a "monkey mind" is a good one .... but after awhile it is sort of played out and wearisome. Thats my only criticism.

When I seen the title Don’t Feed the Monkey Mind: How to Stop the Cycle of Anxiety, Fear, and Worry I knew this book was for me and it sure was. I have been known to call my anxiety Monkey Chatter and was able to relate well to to the anxiety, fears and worry describe in this book.

Jennifer Shannon has taken evidence based cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) and acceptance commitment theory (ACT), given it an easy to understand, fun unique spin using the analogy Monkey Mind and feeding the monkey(which I call monkey chatter). She gives, examples, and powerful strategies to use to stop feeding the thoughts and overcome anxiety that I think are very helpful and useful.

I highly recommend this interesting, useful, concise and enjoyable guide for anxiety, fears and worry.

Thank you Netgalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read this book.

A very interesting and well-structured book, dealing with a common problem nowadays: anxiety. Instead of following the drive to perfection, safety and overprotection, the author suggests - through examples and charts - to rather face the anxiety and set-up elaborated expansion charts. One of the many useful recommendations is to start being more focused on our needs and cope straight forward with our challenges, including by taking risks. Life is a never-ending lessons and there is always a chance to grow. A very useful and strongly recommended read, especially if you are looking for a dramatic life change this year.

I'm a card carrying member of they worriers' club and this book definitely addresses people like me.

It starts out by identifying what part of the brain plays worry like a loop and how you can develop the resilience needed to think clearly in situations that may make you fret.

Jennifer provides quizzes at various stage in the book to enable readers assess themselves and determine what spectrum they fall under different headings. I particularly liked the drawings/ illustrations in the book.

Rating: 4/5

Favourite quote: "Difficulty tolerating doubt can lead to compulsive checking behaviors like making sure doors are locked and appliances are turned off. You’ll tend to overplan things; even weekends and vacations have a to-do list. And when the list doesn’t get finished or things don’t go as you planned them, you become upset and have difficulty enjoying the moment".

Just like many reviews I also have general and social Anxiety. I have struggled most of my life with it not really knowing what it was until the last 6 years ago. I hated and loved being around crowds. I would go home and analyze ever last thing I said hoping I didn't say the wrong thing or make people think I was a werido. Than I would get myself so tired up in knots I wouldn't be able to eat or sleep for days on end.
I struggled daily to find peace and while I do take care of my anxiety not in the natural way this book was a great guide to understanding anxiety in general. The author write using the analogy of the "Monkey Brain" which make understanding anxiety simple as well as the fun illustrations that she uses to help digest they more dryer and medical side to Anxiety make this a very enjoyable read.

The author tells her personal struggles with anxiety and even shares that fact she had anxiety writing this book which helps the readers relate to the author on a more personal level.
This book takes a story of feeling lost, crazy and unable to find peace of mind and fill in the details
The author includes quizzes and exercisers that are great suggestions to cope with anxiety. Several are very tradition and others are very innovative.

If you love someone dealing with Anxiety read this book and help them find the peace and guidance they need.
Advance COpy from Netgalley

As someone who has suffered from generalized anxiety for the last three years, I have read many many books on the subject looking for a little relief. Jennifer Shannon's book captures the whirlwind of emotions and thoughts swirling around inside an anxious person's head. This may stem from the fact that the author lives with a "monkey mind" herself, and the inclusion of her personal stories gives the reader a way to connect with someone who truly understands what he or she is going through on a daily basis. Her approach to dealing with anxiety differs from the typical relaxation and meditation advice and uses the counterintuitive approach of confrontation, which I found refreshing.

Shannon's simplification of the topic, especially the causes, allows the book to be more approachable for most readers. Using the image of a monkey inside our minds helps illustrate the concept in a way that makes sense. Narrowing down the root assumptions of an anxious person's belief system is a great classification system that most readers will be able to relate to themselves. Another aspect that helped the book stand out was the repetition of her core principles and concepts such as the cycle of anxiety and the use of expansion charts. While the website was not operational at the time of reading, the way it was integrated throughout the book could be quite helpful.

On a personal level, there were a few areas that didn't work for me. The writing style was a little too simplified in parts and the continuous use of the monkey metaphor did become tiring by the end. Also, the intended audience seemed to change during the book. Sometimes it felt intended for educated adults but at other times the repetition and simplification lent itself to a book intended for adolescents. Overall, these points probably wouldn't be considered issues by most readers so I don't think it negatively affects the book as a whole. There were many sentences and talking points that I marked as I read that definitely gave me things to think about.

While maybe this book's writing style wasn't my favorite, I do recommend this book for anyone suffering from anxiety looking for a little relief and/or validation. The included exercises and quizzes are a nice addition, and the techniques for coping with anxiety and it's symptoms are innovative and nontraditional in a way I haven't seen in other books.

A practical approach to dealing with anxiety laid out in everyday terms and with extensive use of relatable examples that make it easy to understand and follow. The personal experience the author has on the subject, both as a professional and as someone who have dealt with anxiety in her own life, is tangible throughout the whole book. I would strongly recommend it to, well, everyone. Because chances are, we are all hijacked to some extend by our "monkey mind" in our daily life and more often than not, we don't even realize it.
I give it a 5 out of 5.

A great introduction to cognitive therapy for people who want to reign in their thoughts. The author shows several different problems that might respond to CBT, there is an associated web site with more information and some exercises.