The Mommy Island: Thoughts on Mindfulness {Book Review}

I was given this book for the purpose of review, all views and opinions are my own honest evaluations. See Disclosure.

I was recently given the opportunity to review the Mindfulness Workbook for Dummies. As I cracked open this workbook to dig in and find out more, I wondered to myself, "Just what is mindfulness?". This book is designed to answer questions like, "What does it mean to be mindful?", and "How will this improve my life? Honestly I was worried it would be a little bit over my head, and I might get lost in the deepness of it all, but I learned the whole concept is quite simple, which means this book did a great job. Making mindfulness accessible to even the beginner or dummy as the case may be.

As you can see from the title this is a workbook. I'm a hands-on learner so having a book I can write in and actively work out the sections really helped convey the concepts in a way I could remember. There really aren't right or wrong answers too, so you won't fret that you're going to make a mistake. With an extremely user-friendly layout this workbook is made to be worked out as you the reader sees fit. Want to jump right to the chapter that interests you? Go for it. I jumped all around in the book working on things that interested me and skipping a few sections thinking I would come back to them later. I doodled, highlighted and even drew stars on things that stood out to me throughout the book. What I enjoyed the most was learning that I've already practiced mindfulness in certain areas of my life for a long time, without even realizing there was a name for it.

The great thing about mindfulness is you can use it as little or as much as you want but if you use it at all, you will probably feel the benefits of it in your life. For example mindfulness in parenting is a must in my opinion. Being mindful that the things I do today will affect the way my son views the world tomorrow. Which brings me to one of my favorite chapters Bringing the Benefits of Mindfulness to Children. Not just for parents this chapter is great for caregivers or anyone who works with children on a regular basis. To sum this chapter up in my own words I would say, you have to know yourself and know your own limits and use that knowledge about yourself when raising your children. I think it's a matter of recognizing patterns in yourself and your children and if it's a bad trend actually taking a step back in your mind without the emotions and saying to yourself this is (stress), so you can let it go and move on.

What I take away from this workbook, is the key to using mindfulness successfully is to keep working at it. I think there will always be room for improvement and always more to learn about myself so as I grow and change to keep that inner dialog going. Always asking myself the important questions, and trying to cut the emotion from my answers to ease my own stress, anxiety or to build on my self-confidence. I would definitely recommend this book to anyone looking for a calm in the middle of their life storm.This book is packed full of great advice and mindful tools that you can apply immediately and start seeing the benefits.

I loved this quote mentioned in the book.