Notes on a Nervous Planet: Matt Haig

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Occasionally wonky but overall a good case for how the dismal science can make the world less—well, dismal. An honest and human guide to coping with the modern world . . . Notes on a Nervous Planet is generous, sensible and timely. Reading it will probably be good for your mental health. Especially if you leave your smartphone in another room . . . Thought-provoking” ( Guardian) But I stopped feeling worse. I plateaued. And after a few days, things began to calm. The familiar path of recovery arrived sooner rather than later. And abstaining from stimulants – not just alcohol and caffeine, but these other things – was part of the process. I began, in short, to feel free again.

Matt shares and offers advice on how to deal and cope with anxiety and depression especially on the ‘nervous’ planet and age we are in. I love his tips and advice offered. I think there is something for everyone in this book. As I mentioned in my previous review of his book, there is something uplifting knowing that he is referring to his own personal experience and journey. Like many others, I feel I can relate to him. He reminds us to live and enjoy the moment. To create our own bubble of peace and happiness away from technology and the other things the ‘modern’ world drags us down with. His words makes you look at everything in a slightly different manner. He understands. Reading his words is as though he has walked around the avenues of my mind, collected my thoughts and feelings and presented them right in front of me. So you can imagine how good it feels to have someone else writing your feelings down and have someone you can relate with. Someone truly incredible who has a deep understanding and honestly shares it to help others.Penelope beautifully summed up this book by saying “…his writing is like a cup of tea and a warm blanket making you feel that no matter how crazy the world can get everything is going to be ok.” I couldn’t agree more. And I really can’t say more. Just read it. This is a perfect companion piece to Reasons to Stay Alive which also ties in the impact of the external world and as always, provides a frank and accessible look at mental health coupled with some fantastic advice. Haig is one of the most inspirational popular writers on mental health of our age and, in his latest novel, he has taken a clever, engaging concept and created a heart-warming story that offers wisdom in the same deceptively simple way as Mitch Albom's best tales"

Inadvertently, he has become somewhat of a modern day sage with his wise words and observations. By being so upfront with his own struggles with anxiety and depression (via his previous book "Reasons to Stay Alive"), this book continues on the theme of the pressures we place on ourselves in the modern world, and if it is indeed worth it. We are bombarded with information overload from the time we wake up to the moment our head hit the pillow. No wonder our inner circuitry often snaps. Haig’s non-fiction books include Reasons to Stay Alive (2015), a memoir about his experience of depression, and Notes on a Nervous Planet (2018), a book about mental health and modern life. Haig is a patron of the mental health charity Mind. He lives in York with his family. A primer for how to live in the present moment, this book will find grateful readers everywhere.”—Nigella Lawson, author of How to Be a Domestic Goddessand Nigella Bites And so, when I am well - but stressed - the things that make me feel a little bit worse are often the things that make me feel much worse when I am ill. What you learn when you are ill, about whst hurts, can be applied to better times, too. Pain is one hell of teacher. The book made me see how our lives are getting so chaotic day and night to the point of getting addicted to the screen which aggravates our ways of dealing with how we value ourselves with such unrealistic scales of likes, comments, following and such on social media.

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i mean, we could talk endlessly about the Bad Effects of social media and we’d probably have a good conversation with a lot of mutual agreement. i’m not sure if that would make us part of an online echo chamber or not. We need to carve out a place in time for ourselves, whether it is via books or meditation or appreciating the view out of a window. A place where we are not craving, or yearning, or working, or worrying, or over-thinking. A place where we might not even be hoping. A place where we are set to neutral. Where we can just breathe, just be, just bathe in the simple animal contentment of being, and not crave anything except what we already have: life itself. A somewhat repetitive but often wise and inspiring self-help title strengthened by the author’s very personal experiences and acquired insight. Whenever I start one of his books, the rest of the world falls to a blur, in slow motion. I become so engrossed in what he has to say, it’s as if time stands still. He writes of truth and hurt and feelings, and the discord so many of us feel in our oh-so-busy modern lives.

Take Notes on a Nervous Planettwice daily, with or without food. Crammed with wisdom, insight, love and wit.”—Stephen Fry Not to say that propagating a holistic approach to mental health, taking the environment and physical health into account, is not very important. I know it helps establish our jobs and it benefits us but the book argues if it's worth the way it's affecting our lives in a more negative manner most of the time. If you had a book club in sixteenth-century England, chances are you would eventually run out of things to read. The British Library estimates that during that time, only 40 books were published per year. In contrast, in 2016 the number of books in existence was estimated at 134,021,533. It can be depressing to realize that no matter how much of a bookworm you are, you will only ever read a fraction of all the titles in circulation. Is the modern world doing our heads in? Matt Haig shares our fears and gives answers to the question from many different angles. An enthralling book.”—Jo Brand, author of The More You Ignore MeReframe your idea of beauty. Be a rebel against marketing. Look forward to being a wise elder. Be the complex elegance of a melting candle. Be a map with 10,000 roads. Be the orange at sunset that outclasses the pink of sunrise. Be the self that dares to be true."