I read two digital ARCs of upcoming meditation books back to back recently, this one (My Pocket Meditations for Anxiety: Anytime Exercises to Reduce Stress, Ease Worry, and Invite Calm) and Rockridge Press's Mindfulness Meditation for Beginners: 50 Meditations to Practice Awareness, Acceptance, and Peace. This one was by far my favorite.

Here's how they compare. MMFB has a very long introduction to mindfulness, which may be helpful for people who want to know the history, benefits and types, but felt like a textbook to me. This one has a couple of pages of short, basic information and instruction and then you're off to the meditations.

MMFB has 50 meditations. This one has 150. MMFB has them all mixed up so you get a random one in no particular order. This one has them by chapters: Meditations to Move Into Stillness, Meditations to Visualize Natural Calm, Meditations to Understand Stress and Anxiety, Meditations to Relax through Your Breath, Meditations to Find Focus with a Mantra or Phrase, Meditations to Get Out of Your Head and Into Your Senses, Meditations to Challenge Your Thinking Patterns, Meditations to Befriend Your Emotions, Meditations to Counter Fear with Self Love, Meditations to Face Your Fears, Meditations to Be Mindful in the Everyday, and Meditations to Surrender to Open Awareness.

MMFB is a lot more text-heavy. Each meditation starts with a longer paragraph about the meditation and its purpose, then there are about 4 steps, each with multiple lines. The meditations take about two pages (wide spaced) and it's a fair amount of reading. This one is short and to the point. There's also a brief introduction to the point of each meditation and then it's also numbered steps, but these ones seem more succinct.

Both books offer encouragement and a sort of cheerleading element. MMFB is more like the practitioner who talks a lot and guides you through your emotions. This one is more like the behavioral therapist who focuses on the actions. It also offers adjustments to tailor it to your needs at times. I also appreciated the meditations specific to the body in this one (heartbeat, breathing, movement, etc.)

I am in the recovery period from a pretty scary illness that really interfered with my blood pressure, breathing, circulation and heart rate (both from its physical effects and from the fear it caused) and breathing and meditation were tools that I learned over the past few months to help my body recover and manage my emotions as I supported my healing. I wish I'd had this book sooner in my recovery, because it offered meditations that specifically helped with my physical and emotional needs. It also offers meditations specific to a whole range of other needs too, from overcoming fears about things like needing to speak in public to clearing clutter (no, this one isn't a strict meditation but helpful advice to make a practice for 30 days of letting go of one thing a day and making a practice of doing any task that takes less than 5 minutes as it comes up).

One last comparison between the two books is that this one unfortunately won't be released for a couple of months, while MMFB was released this week. This book is due to be published on September 8, 2020. MMFB was published July 21, 2020.

That said, this book is by far my favorite meditation book, not just compared to Mindfulness for Beginners but compared to any other meditation books I've read. This is a really great resource for anyone who'd like to practice mindfulness and meditation to manage stress, worry and anxiety.

I read a digital ARC of this book for review.

This is a very useful pocketbook with many meditations and exercises to ease your tension, stress, and anxiety. Perfect for modern-day people who rush through their lives. This would make a great audiobook!

Many thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read this! All opinions are my own.

This pocket guide is so needed today. As a nurse, a mother, and a fellow human trying to make it through each day with a relatively sound mind ... having this available to quickly reset and recharge has been helpful. It makes each exercise so easy and accessible even while at work, since you don’t have to have someone else audibly walking you through each meditation. I’m definitely going to keep this handy!

I really enjoyed this collection of meditation techniques. I have anxiety and have recently been diagnosed with hypertension. I was looking for some meditation books when I came across My Pocket Meditations for Anxiety on Netgalley. I have tried lots of different techniques from this book and they really helped me. I particularly liked the mantras and self-affirmations.

This book is broken in 12 chapters, based on what type of meditations you are looking for, and is very easy to navigate. Each meditation is described in an accessible language. It even has a meditation on how to comfortably deliver a presentation! I will definitely be going back to this book to practice more techniques and discover new ways of controlling my breathing and thought patterns.

This book will be amazingly helpful to those of us who have anxiety about returning to the "new normal" after the pandemic. There are concrete examples of techniques to be used on a personal level. I, for one, will use this with my high school students to help ease the transition back to school.

This is the perfect guide for angst-ridden times. As I paged through, I found myself becoming more calm, relaxed and deeply at peace.

There are 150 short exercises for handling all that upsets us. I especially resonated to Practice Mindfulness for 2 Minutes Each Morning, Calm a Raging Storm, Block It All Out, and Let the Future Unfurl Itself. I only wish tranquil illustrations had been included as well to boost serenity. Nonetheless, I highly recommend MY POCKET MEDITATIONS FOR ANXIETY to destress and regain equanimity.

5 of 5 Stars

Pub Date 08 Sep 2020

Thanks to Adams Media and NetGalley for the review copy. Opinions are mine.

#MyPocketMeditationsforAnxiety #NetGalley