{Thank you to Tiller Press for my gifted copy in exchange for my honest review}
The Handbook for Bad Days by Eveline Helmink
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Book Summary:
Keep your head held high even on the bad days with 70 mindful and wise strategies to finding happiness—The Handbook for Bad Days is the ultimate guide to happiness for anyone who strives to be present, not perfect, who knows that life isn’t always “good vibes only,” sure to resonate with fans of Glennon Doyle and Elizabeth Lesser.
In a time when social media encourages us to constantly highlight how great we’re doing, how #Blessed life is, and how perfect we are, there seems to be little room for the inevitable truth: in every life, there are days that are NOT great.
But decades in the self-help world have taught Helmink—editor-in-chief of Happinez magazine and a self-titled cheerleader for failure and discomfort—that true happiness isn’t about cutting out the bad days, it’s about accepting life as it is. And, in fact, it’s often on those days when everything falls apart that we learn the most about what brings us comfort, resilience, courage, strength and, yes, happiness.
Getting through some bad days require nothing more than a hot shower or a long walk. But others require us to be curious and courageous. In The Handbook for Bad Days, Helmink offers readers more than 70 proven strategies to find that lightness when things feel sideways. Her compassionate, no-bullshit approach teaches readers what it truly means to care for themselves, and she explores topics including:
-The benefits of a good cry
-Why, sometimes, it’s okay to give up
-Why a fuzzy pink cardigan and some Celine Dion is just as good as a Sanskrit mantra
The Handbook for Bad Days is a call to face our worst days with courage and compassion
Publication Date:
February 23rd, 2021
Genre:
Personal Development/Mental Health
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My Review:
The Handbook for Bad Days was one of those books that caught my eye because, at the time, I was having a bad day. I was not familiar with the author Eveline Helmink, or anything about it really, but knew it was a sign and I decided to dive right in.
First off, any book synopsis that shares “Why a fuzzy pink cardigan and some Celine Dion is just as good as a Sanskrit mantra” is a book for me. I a big fan of personal development books but I also am a person with my feet placed firmly in reality and the ones that just seem a bit too far-fetched and impractical often make me roll my eyes.
There is no perfect path to life, nor is there a secret equation to perfecting it so you never have a bad day again. And Eveline Helmink gets this. Her writing is approachable, humorous, and real. I also appreciated that from the very beginning she differentiated between a bad day and reaching out if bad days become the norm.
As someone who deals with both anxiety and depression, it is an immediate red flag when an author shares advice about mental health issues being something you can just “choose” to think differently about. Accessing and utilizing support and/or medication for mental health is something I feel strongly about normalizing, and I appreciate that she didn’t downplay this part.
Anyway, I could go on and on about this book because it just spoke to me so much. Her image of bad days being similar to the feeling of being in the dark woods, often drawn in almost unknowingly by an unpleasant feeling or negative thought is one of the most accurate ways I have ever heard it described.
I also appreciated her thoughts on how being in this space has its benefits when we let ourselves really feel them. Some of the most challenging times of my life, also brought me so much clarity and information about myself when I stopped fighting to “get out” and allowed myself to learn as I worked my way through them.
Written with compassion and the idea that life is indeed a learning process, I know this is a book that will stick with me for a very long time. I highly recommend this and also found that it was easy to consume as it is broken up into small sections that are easy to take in bit by bit.
Thank you to Tiller Press and Simon & Schuster for my gifted copy. As always, all thoughts and opinions are my own.
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