Would Recommend! An excellent read for anyone struggling with their physical and mental health. Given the circumstances of everything that's happened this year, this book is a great tool to help you deal with stress and anxiety. I found this book very helpful, especially when working and studying. What was especially helpful, was exercise 2 on page 38. It’s a breathing exercise which massively helped me take control of my stress and made my decision making more concise and effective. Would definitely recommend it!
Tommy MechellReviewed on Amazon UK on 5 October 2020
A beneficial book with easily accessible and adaptable techniques. Definitely recommended. Manifesting Your Best Future Self is a short self-help book concerned with developing adaptive resilience in challenging situations. Dr Gruenewald explains the four different areas of resilience and introduces exercises and techniques such as Coherence Training to effectively deal with the unhealthy stresses and negativity that can lead to poor physical and emotional health. This year has been and continues to be incredibly difficult due to the ravages of Covid-19 and for many stress levels have risen dramatically. I found Dr Gruenewald’s book to be concisely written and practical. It is not too dense or jargon-heavy and does not take a superior tone. Dr Gruenewald explains the issues and techniques in very easy to understand, reassuring language that is also quite soothing. There are seven exercises which deal with various areas of life where overwhelming tensions can arise. Each of them is clearly explained and simple to follow. They also have the flexibility to be adapted to your personal life and challenges. I tend not to have too much patience and can lose focus with breathing techniques but the first exercise in Coherence Training was relatively uncomplicated (you did not need to keep referring to the text to remember what to do whilst attempting to focus which always rather ruins it). The concept of ‘gratitude’ which features in the first exercise is something we take for granted and taking time out to exclusively focus on this did make me feel relaxed. I also felt more motivated after undertaking this again the following day. I also thought the exercises on Active Listening and Transforming Difficult Relationships were thought-provoking and certainly techniques I would refer back to. The inclusion of diagrams that condensed the information was helpful in consolidating issues and their possible solutions. I also liked the ‘Troubleshooting’ section. Personally, I would have left the Case Studies to the end of the book or left them out. Manifesting Your Best Future Self is a beneficial little book with easily accessible and adaptable techniques. Definitely recommended.
Rose AuburnReviewed on Amazon UK on 16 October 2020
Manifesting Your Best Future Self by Dr. Peter Gruenewald, MD educates its readers on how to become calmer, more positive versions of themselves through a method called adaptive resilience. Gruenewald begins by defining adaptive resilience and how it can help to transform negative feelings into positive ones, ultimately aiding one to maximize their potential without being stressed out. He went on to explain several skills and easy instructions, including breathing exercises and how to have honest conversations with oneself, which will help the reader in their adaptive resilience journey. Even though this is a short book of just over a hundred pages, it is not a quick read at all. Its content is supposed to be slowly read, understood, and internalized. It features information that you may think is common knowledge, but it explains all with a fresh perspective. For example, I always knew that it’s important to remain positive and that my thoughts have an effect on my relationship with others, but I never knew that something as simple as breathing could help transform my life. This is a book that helps mostly with psychological awareness; people looking for a more holistic method to living better, including physical fitness, medical care, and so on, should read other books along with this one. The author presented his methods in a very simple manner while remaining professional and backing it up with several pieces of research. The author’s steps were so easy that I resolved to incorporate them into my daily life. I got even more confident in the author’s words after finding out, at the end of the book, that he is a professional and works as an “Honorary Clinical Specialist in Sleep Medicine and General Medicine for the University College London University.” At some points, Gruenewald’s explanations got a bit complicated, but he was always quick to follow up with a simpler definition of the whole thing. I found nothing to dislike about this book. I could relate to everything the author wrote. When the author wrote about the nervous system, including the Sympathetic Nervous System (SNS) and the Parasympathetic Nervous System (PNS), I couldn’t believe how much I could relate to the information. It felt like the author had gone into my mind, understood the symptoms of stress I have, and explained it better than I ever could. Gruenewald also included case studies, which are brief stories of individuals that have used the adaptive resilience method; my favorite was Tom’s story. The stories made the steps feel genuine and effective. I didn’t find any errors, but I did notice abnormal spacing between some words. Nevertheless, I think this book’s editing was great. In the end, the writer included references that also had links to various studies, which would be helpful to a reader who would like to research further. Because of the immense benefit of this book, I recommend it to everyone. Young adults will also be able to understand most of it. My rating is, deservedly, 4 out of 4 stars. Know that in reading this piece, you’re going to have tough conversations with yourself, but you’ll come out feeling smooth and shiny.
Christeee 23.10.2020