Feel Better in 5

What an effective book with easy changes to improve mind, body and emotions.

Dr. Rangan Chatterjee, a pioneer in progressive medicine and star of BBC's Doctor in the House, offers a program based on the newest scientific research that makes lasting health achievable in just three 5-minute periods per day, five days a week.

Features 30+ health tips including:
. Yoga for agility
. Breathwork for calm
. Snacks for gut health
. Portable workout for strength

I can’t wait to try it!

5 of 5 Stars

Pub Date 01 Sep 2020

Thanks to the author, BenBella Books and NetGalley for the review copy. Opinions are fully mine.

#FeelBetterin5 #NetGalley

Chatterjee offers really actionable steps you can take to address many of life's challenges.

Most personal growth books get bogged down in extraneous information, and bury the actual advice. Chatterjee transcends this and give you specific tools for specific challenges. He even provides step-by-step instructions on how to implement his suggestions

A strong recommend!

Thanks to NetGalley and BenBella books for the chance to read a copy!

I love the idea of this book -- starting with the lowest possible barrier to entry to step into change. 3 small habits, 5 minutes each, 5 days each week. The author does a great job encouraging flexibility in the approach and offering "make it stick" sections about how to tie habits to existing ones like brushing your teeth or drinking a morning cup of coffee.

I also liked the "mind-body" approach of focusing on mental, physical, and emotional health, even if the "mind" and "heart" categories kind of muddle together a bit (journaling everything that's on your mind is under mind, but journaling 5 things you're grateful for is under heart?). The physical workouts have a great variety from strength and HIIT to yoga and stretching. Toward the end he points out that if you already have an exercise habit, you can select a habit that complements it, like yoga if you're a runner (I wish this had been mentioned earlier, it's a great point).

And I like the way that this book is laid out, giving you all the structure and background before diving into the different techniques. One unusual but helpful thing included was recommending certain approaches for different health goals -- for example doing yoga for stress and low-impact HIIT for weight loss, or working on a forgiveness practice for anger or a reframing practice for being kinder to yourself. This was great because the book has so much flexibility that it's not trying to make you do *everything* in its pages. Especially important, it points out a few places where simple self-help habits are not appropriate, such as how trauma survivors should seek professional help rather than selecting the forgiveness exercises.

As I mentioned above, the similarity of mind and heart exercises were a little frustrating and feel arbitrary. Additionally, some of the heart exercises are harder to do daily and start to overflow the 5-minute boundary -- having tea with another person or calling a friend seem a little hard to cut off after 5 minutes. And the flip side of the flexibility is that there isn't much talk about how to know when you could pick up a new habit or try a different one in its place.

I also have quibbles about various things that seemed extraneous: first of all, the "instragram"-type photos of the author's house, or the author drinking tea, or whatever. The pictures of people performing the physical exercises or yoga poses were really helpful, but everything else just kind of made me giggle. There are also a lot of case studies where having mint tea every day or journaling helped change someone's life; maybe it will be inspiring for other people, but I mostly just skimmed these. Finally, there are these cute little icons about exercises that are good for morning, or evening, or building strength, or lowering blood pressure...but after the key saying what they were I never noticed them again. Looking back I see those icons are at the bottom of each page, but they're very easy to skip over and so probably aren't working as well as intended.

Overall, I liked this book and I'll be trying to pick up a few of the mentioned habits. I really need to get better about stretching, so I'll be taking a look at some of those physical routines. And I find it very cathartic to write things down but haven't been able to stick to a journaling habit, so I might try the approaches he suggests. I think this is a fun read that has some good ideas for starting small and developing new habits so that they stick and blossom into a ripple effect.

I really enjoyed this book and found it helpful. I already want to re-read it, as I think it’s very useful and informative. I like the way it’s written and easy to take on board the information/advice.

Thank you NetGalley for my complimentary copy in return for my honest review.

Who doesn't want their bodies to feel better? And what if I told you that all it took was 5 minutes, three times a day? "Feel Better in 5" by Dr. Rangan Chatterjee lays out a roadmap of a variety of 5 minute activities that will arguably improve both your mind and your body. Implementing these habits is easy and functional, often creating a more sustainable routine than other health practices.

The biggest perk of this book is the specificity of not only the "Feel Better in 5" routine options, but also the detailing of each 5 minute routine. Chatterjee leaves no aspect without a description, unlike some health routines. Even exercises are explained and modifications given. These details leave people with little excuse to not create these habits. Everything is flexible and personalized to whatever you're looking to improve or gain.

I also love how Chatterjee works with our natural behaviors to create new behaviors. He often encourages patients to add in the new behaviors to things you already do, such as brushing your teeth or boiling a pot of tea. These routines are already a natural part of your day. By connecting the new thing to something you always do, you are more likely to pick up the new habit as well. Chatterjee goes a step further and encourages you to place the items for the new routine next to your old routine items, like placing a journal next to your coffee pot. By keeping items in plain sight you will be more likely to complete the habit.

I gave this book 4 stars. I like the routines and the practicality of it all, but I think that this book is missing a new step on what to do after you have established the new habits. Is there a next step or is this it? In the end though I think this book is extremely helpful and a great place to start focusing your mental health, especially as Covid continues to plague many of our minds and bodies.

Thanks to NetGalley and BenBella Books for the ARC in exchange for my honest review. This book is now available for purchase! Be sure to check it out and see if this book could be beneficial to you!

Amazing tips and suggestions! Wellness culture is often defined by its unattainability, but Dr. Chatterjee is turning that narrative on its head, as he offers simple and easy ways to improve your mood and your life in just a few minutes, with suggestions ranging from breathwork exercises, to yoga poses, and ways to take care of your gut.

I like a lot of the ideas in this book. Not all of them will work for me but there are many, many good ideas and advice. Will try it and see if it works for me. A terrific and helpful book!

I am a huge fan of these kind of self help books. There's so many different ways to coping and emotional support and strategies

This is an excellent self-help book from a medical doctor who proposes doing just three five-minute "health snacks" a day to greatly improve physical and emotional health. He breaks them down into sections -- mind, body and heart. You anchor each of these new habits to something you already do every day, like brushing your teeth. All you have to do is commit to doing each one for 5 minutes, 5 days a week (I plan on every day, personally).

What I especially like about the plan is that you get to pick which habits you do, and you're supposed to do the ones that sound the most enjoyable to you. There are several that really appealed to me, like painting for 5 minutes a day. I never would have even considered painting for 5 minutes because it would take that long to just get out the supplies, but it occurred to me that if I had the supplies all ready in one place and had little index cards as canvases I could totally paint for 5 minutes each morning sometime and would likely do more (which is fine). Many are much simpler, like just going outside in the sunlight and being outside for 5 minutes at the start of each day. There are habits that strengthen connections with others, help relieve stress and much more.

Chatterjee also has recommended habit lists to help a huge variety of issues, from diabetes to depression.

The book is a quick read and has illustrations of all of the yoga poses and such to help you. It's also very encouraging, with case studies of his patients who greatly improved their lives with small changes like these. I never stick to huge changes but the combination of short duration and getting to choose habits that sound fun makes this something I'm excited to begin.

I read a digital ARC of this book for review.