Notes on a Nervous Planet: Matt Haig

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Haig was born in Sheffield, England, in 1975. He studied English at the University of York and then worked as a journalist for several years. His first novel, The Radleys, was published in 2010. It was followed by The Humans (2013) and How To Stop Time (2017). A primer for how to live in the present moment, this book will find grateful readers everywhere. Nigella Lawson The book begins with an overview of some of the changes in society that have occurred since the Industrial Revolution. These include the rise of technology, the increase in communication and transportation, and the globalization of economies. It is argued that these changes have led to a more complex and interconnected world, which has had both positive and negative effects on human beings.

I can't even take the time to rebut this seriously, because I have already taken more time to think about it than Matt Haig did. Haig writes with a familiar, soft-spoken intimacy, an accessibility and plain-spoken clarity that is free of drama. It is, make no mistake, essential reading. Toronto Star I had already written about my mental health in Reasons to Stay Alive. But the question now was not: why should I stay alive? The question this time was a broader one: how can we live in a mad world without ourselves going mad?Matt Haig takes on how modern day life, with abundant choices and psychologist involved in marketing of almost any product, effects our state of mind. If you are struggling with anxiety, or if you want to learn more about it, then Yes – this book is for you. Thought-provoking … [Haig’s] hard-won wisdom asks us to think about how we can live in the present – and in so doing, he creates a wonderfully perceptive chronicle of life in the always-on social media age. A real-world guide to mindfulness” I tried to distract myself out of it. However, I knew from past experience alcohol was off limits. So I did the things that had helped before to climb out of a hole. The things I forget to do in day-to-day life. I was careful about what I ate. I did yoga. I tried to meditate. I lay on the floor and placed my hand on my stomach and inhaled deeply-in, out, in, out-and noticed the stuttery rhythm of my breath. Take Notes on a Nervous Planettwice daily, with or without food. Crammed with wisdom, insight, love and wit." —Stephen Fry

also, did you REALLY make me read the words “the guilt of privilege” with my own two eyes? really?? Try it again. Deep breath in. Deep breath out. If you feel just a wee bit better now, then I have no doubt you’ll feel a whole lot better after reading this book.This book has so much power to bring you the arguments that you probably thought you would never need to make you see the inevitable 'nothing' in all the craze we are involved in everyday. Okay! Here we go. This is July. The UK tour for Notes on a Nervous Planet. Including the launch in London on July 3rd - my birthday - at the Southbank Centre. Be wonderful to meet you at one of these. It sometimes feels as if we have temporarily solved the problem of scarcity and replaced it with the problem of excess. An insightful, personal, practical guide on how to cope with modern-day stresses. Good Housekeeping

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. And certainly a technology overload. The only real technology I interacted with during this present recovery-aside from the car and the cooker-were yoga videos on YouTube, which I watched with the brightness turned low. To enjoy life, we might have to stop thinking about what we will never be able to read and watch and say and do, and start to think of how to enjoy the world within our boundaries. To live on a human scale. To focus on the few things we can do, rather than the millions of things we can’t. To not crave parallel lives. To find a smaller mathematics. To be a proud and singular one. An indivisible prime.” Haig is very honest about his own mental health and shares doable activities that might help anyone feeling less overwhelmed by the world: from watching the sea, the sky, walking in forests to yoga and focussing on breathing. An honest and human guide to coping with the modern world . . . Notes on a Nervous Planet is generous, sensible and timely. The GuardianIn the house, I tried to lie in darkness as much as possible, the way you might deal with a migraine. I had always, since I was first suicidally ill in my twenties, understood that getting better involved a kind of life edit. Notes on a Nervous Planet contains lists, imagined conversations, essays, and personal stories that critique the damage that worry—about the environment, politics, the news, and everything else that demands our attention on a daily basis—wreaks on our ability to live a full life. Haig artfully, powerfully counters these challenges with battle-tested advice from his own hard-won experience.” —Booklist The best non-fiction from the author and arguably my most favourite book of the new year, this one is life-changing. Overall I liked the book, and will go around recommending this to colleagues, if only for the following wholesome, thought provoking one liners: