"Habit Swap: Mindfulness Skills to Change Habits for Good" by Hugh G. Byrne offers a refreshing approach to habit change by integrating mindfulness practices into the process. Byrne provides readers with insightful guidance on how to identify and understand their habits, offering mindfulness techniques to help interrupt automatic behaviors and cultivate healthier alternatives. The book is well-structured, with clear explanations and practical exercises to support readers on their journey to breaking old habits and forming new ones. However, some readers may find the content to be overly repetitive or lacking in depth, especially if they are already familiar with mindfulness principles. Additionally, while Byrne's approach is effective for many, it may not resonate with all readers seeking to change their habits. Overall, "Habit Swap" earns a solid three-star rating for its practical wisdom and integration of mindfulness into habit change, but falls short of higher acclaim due to potential repetitiveness and limited depth.

I am happy to have received a free e-arc of this title in exchange for a review. I plan on implementing the tactics I learned into my everyday life and using it to help me pursue my goals.

In its entirety, the book—just like what it wants to teach—is a completely meditative read. It shares to its readers ways to be mindful of life but at the same time, accepting the truths, realities, and all that comes with it. Denial can be such a difficult thing to overlook, but acceptance is the path to a healthier mind.

I enjoyed reading this book. It was something that really resonated with me at the time since I was really looking into doing more mindfulness activities.

Good self help book . Was well written and I want to apply the science from this book to my daily living .

I was expecting this book to be more of a practical guide to changing your habits rather than a mindfulness based approach. I enjoyed this book but I was looking for support in changing my behaviours on a practical rather than spiritual level.

I think the title is a bit misleading. Habit Swap didn't offer much in the way of providing strategies for replacing unhealthy habits but rather focused a lot on mindfulness. While mindfulness can bring you to a place of being able to swap negative behavior patterns for healthier ones, the book doesn't deliver the bridge that is necessary to make that leap.

Definitely one of the worst books I've read about creating new habits. This was just a book that judged you on your bad habits. It didn't teach you anything about how to change them.
I highly recommend reading The Power of Habit instead.

The author focuses a lot on mindfulness, which is typically practiced by people that are open minded. However, this book was written in a very judgmental point of view. Instead of feeling like I was being helped with my issues, I felt worse about myself as I read.

Kind of confused on what I just read. Not very helpful. I felt the advice was coming from a very Judgy point of view, making it very hard to relate. Perhaps it was just the way that I read it. I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

Thanks to NetGalley and New Harbinger Publications, Inc. for the ARC in exchange for my honest review!

"Habit Swap" by Hugh G. Byrne is all about trading in your unhealthy habits through mindfulness. Byrne goes through all kinds of different life situations and provides techniques for how to mindfully power through or replace your initial habit for a better option.

This book was interesting because I don't often connect the idea of mindfulness with habits. Mindfulness feels like a separate practice, not something you can often do in the moment. It makes a lot of sense when placed together, but before now I usually felt like to break a habit I needed to replace the trigger. This book shows how we can tune into what we are feeling to change habits and it's unique to me.

I liked the length of this book for the topic. Byrne kept things short and concise with lots of tips. The short length allowed me to read this book in a couple sittings so as to fully put together all the points. This is the kind of reading I prefer, but sometimes it's not possible with self-help books. 

Overall, I gave this book 4 stars for giving me two things that I already know and connecting them in a practical way.

Habit Swap was not what I was expecting, but I loved it. If you're looking for concrete steps to take to become more active, sleep better, or change other habits, this book is not for you. Instead, Hugh G. Byrne outlines how the practice of mindfulness can help you identify urges and desires as they arise, and slow down so you can choose whether you want to engage in your old behavior or choose something new. He lists three steps to accomplish this: understanding why and how we get stuck in old habits, recognizing the possibility of training our mind, and engaging in a mindfulness practice. I especially appreciate Byrne's focus on non-judgment: rather than suggesting that habit change comes when we stop being lazy and access our "will power," he acknowledges that habits are difficult to change for evolutionary reasons we all fall prey to. I would recommend this book for anyone who is looking for a different take on habit change or wants to learn about mindfulness in general.

I was given the free ARC from NetGalley in exchange for my honest review.

3.5 stars
I enjoyed this book. I have a lot of unhealthy habits; that's what drew me to this one. Hugh talks about changing your mindset to be more positive, talking to yourself more positively (as most of us talk negatively about ourselves in our head), and how it can change your life for the better. I am naturally a negative person so I really tried following the advice he was giving in the book. I have to say that it worked on a number of items (self-esteem, my confidence at work to name a few) It is a work in progress however; it won't change your habits overnight - you have to work through it and eventually you will get there. Swapping out negative talk to positive was the jist of the book. A solid self-help book.

Thanks #netgalley for the ARC.
#habitswap

Uses information from journals and articles, others and own stories. Tips and information to help you change your habits. Some nice ideas brought into the book.

Thank you to Netgalley for giving me the opportunity to read an advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

This book could not have come to me at a better time as I'm focusing on trying to change some habits (particularly, overeating). I've read many books on habits and had practiced mindfulness and gratitude in the past, but "Habit Swap" but it all together in a new and interesting way. The book was easy to digest, offered great real-life examples and steps to take to put recommendations into practice.

In our day-to-day busy lives, it's important to follow some of the tips from this book to reconnect to center. Also, understanding that "bad" habits change our neural pathways and those pathways need to be changed again in order to counteract the habits previously formed was very important to learn. I now have a path forward to get myself back on the right track.

Highly recommend this book to those wanting to understand habits or wanting to delve deeper into mindfulness, meditation, awareness, and gratitude.

This was a really interesting read and I had hoped that I would have learnt how to swap my habits. Alas, it didn't! It was based more on mindfulness than how to really address the issues and change. Shame really, as it sounded like it has such potential.

The title is a bit misleading as it is more about mindfully thinking about your habits rather than swapping them. It is more a book on awareness and addressing bad habits from the root. It is a good book because it encourages you to think more about what you are doing and why, but the title needs changing. I think it will not be appreciated for what it is because readers are expecting something else based on the title. The picture on the front also suggests a 'doing' book full of practical ways to swap bad habits for better ones and the book does not really do that at all. With a change of title and reader expectation this is a good book. In its present form a bit misleading.

I was looking forward to this book in hopes it gave some new ideas on how to incorporate some better habits in my life, i.e., workout daily, spend less time on social media, etc. While I appreciate the insight on mindfulness, the book did not really address how to change your habits. It's only focus was to be more mindful.

I was given the free ARC from NetGalley in exchange for my honest review.

This is a great book about mindfulness and reframing the way you talk to yourself. It's not the best book about how to develop better habits, which is why I didn't mark it a bit higher. I went into it wanting some great concrete ideas on how to get myself to get better at managing my many responsibilities as a writer, homeschooling mother and woman -- i.e. at the moment I'm helping four of my kids write books, try to work on my own writing every day, have to keep up a non-profit free nature magazine for kids that I always do at the last minute, cook for a large family from scratch, always get behind in my garden, want to drink less wine and more herbal tea, want to get my messy house in order, really need to exercise every day, and so on.

This book has a little information on how to replace unhealthy habits with healthy ones, but it's more about changing the way you talk to yourself and stuff like why social media is bad for you and meditation is good for you. There's lots of talk about what doesn't help you, and good information, but it's rather general. It probably will be very helpful for lots of people and I do recommend it, but it's not the best at giving you the actual steps to swap your habits other than basic information like make it easier for yourself to do the good habits, harder and less pleasant to do the bad ones, and put reminders in your environment.

I read a digital ARC of this book for the purpose of review.

A mindfulness manual, really. The habit part is basically developing the habits of mindfulness. That is, meditation practice, habit of intention and mindful tasks. The presentation wasn’t particularly appealing to me and the information nothing new. But, these ideas presented differently is good out there, this will speak to some people.