Review: Eff This! Meditation by Liza Kindred

Posted October 22, 2019 by Lola in Non-Fiction, Review / 8 Comments

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Eff This! MeditationEff This! Meditation: 108 Tips, Tricks, and Ideas for When You’re Feeling Stressed Out, Anxious, or Overwhelmed
by Liza Kindred

My Rating: 3 stars

Genre: Non-fiction/ self-help
Type of romance: no romance

Blurb:
Eff This Meditation is a Shamata (mindfulness-awareness) practice rooted in radical compassion for self presented in 108 tips, tricks, and ideas. They are all centered on the idea that, as humans, we might not be “finished”; but we are complete. Everything you need to attain enlightenment is already contained within you—and you can use meditation to connect with it.

Yes, yes. You already know that you should meditate, and that meditation will make you happier and healthier. But you’re tired and irritated and every time you try to meditate, your mind races and you can’t stop thinking about that jerk at work. You’ve tried meditating, but are pretty sure that you’re bad at it. If this describes you, then this might be just what you need. This is not a joke—this is real meditation, for real life.

Using humor, love, and a deep respect for the foundational teachings of Buddhism, Eff This Meditation is a practice designed to get you out of that storm swirling around in your head, and into your throne (if even for a moment). Learn to celebrate the small victories in life with a “To Done” list. Release yourself from phone addiction with a digital detox plan. Get your body out of stress mode by practicing diaphragmatic breathing. Be transported and open your heart with a pick-me-up playlist. These are just a few of the simple strategies that will help you find your center.

Take any path into the practice that works for you. Choose your meditations by considering:

Amount of time it will take: one minute, an hour, or much longer

How you’re feeling: stressed out, anxious, overwhelmed

How you’re coping: food, scrolling, bingeing on TV or movies

There are a number of overall ways you can dive into the book:
Read it all the way through
Flip through and mark what seems interesting
Try all of the techniques, one by one
Grab the book in a panic and thumb through until something sticks out
Open the book to a random page and do that thing
However the eff you want; it’s your book now

My Review

I received a free copy from the publisher through Netgalley and voluntarily reviewed it.

Eff This Meditation is a book about how to take care of yourself, relax more, acceptance, meditation and mindfulness. I feel like the title is a bit misleading or doesn’t give you the full scope of the book. To me it felt like it was about so much more than meditation or maybe the author uses a different definition of the word than I do. It’s not just about sitting and focusing on your breathing or being present in the moment, it’s about that, but also much more. It’s about self care in general, relaxing and being accepting of things and not judging.

I liked the authors tone in which she wrote this book and how she makes it clear that not every tip is for you and if it doesn’t feel right you should stop with it, she even encourages this. I liked that and how it wasn’t a plan or guideline you had to follow and how you have do what feels right for you. I also think that this book is very accessible, especially for those new to meditation. The book is written in an easy to follow style, with a very accepting and encouraging tone. It isn’t too deep or complicated and the tips start with things that take as little as 1 minute of your time.

I felt at times it was almost a bit too accessible,if that makes sense? I felt a bit too easy to jump into and not deep enough at times. And on the one hand I think this is great as I think everyone can find something they can take away from this book and it’s not too daunting for those new to meditation. I think the problem is more that I expected it to be all about meditation, going more in depth and offering various techniques and picking up new techniques I didn’t know yet. It also had a bunch of ideas or concepts I was already familiar with, so I felt like I didn’t get as much of the book as some others might.

This book contains 108 tips, tricks and ideas as the title states. Basically you have usually one page per one of these things, sometimes two at max and with a little bit of explanation. For most things this worked really well, but for others I would’ve liked a bit more in depth knowledge or a variety of ways to achieve that thing. It almost seems a bit too simple this way? But that’s also what makes it so accessible. I also found myself liking the longer ideas better as they seemed more effective somehow, but I realize that’s probably my own bias too, as at the same time I can definitely see how the short ideas will still be better than nothing when you only have a bit of time.

While there are a lot of ideas, tips and tricks in this book, there definitely are a bunch of them that I felt wouldn’t work for me or didn’t make me excited to try them, add to that a bunch of ones I already was aware of or even already do and it just felt like I didn’t get as much out of this book as I would’ve liked. I think this is mainly because I already have read a bit about this topic and those who are pretty new to this won’t have the same issues.

This is one of those books that would be even better in physical format I think. It’s one of those books you can place in an easy accessible place and pick it up and pick one of the tips to try when you have a moment. Although it’s definitely great to read it from start to finish as well to get a feel for all that’s in the book. It’s also beautiful formatted, each page is pleasant to look at and is nicely decorated. The formatting really adds to the book.

To summarize: Eff This Meditation is a very accessible book for those new to mediation or who want to work more on relaxing or self care. This book uses a very broad definition of meditation or in my opinion goes a bit beyond that and covers everything from self care, acceptance and relaxing. For me I felt like it didn’t add as much new ideas as I had hoped for, I also thought the book seemed almost a bit too simple at times and I would’ve liked a bit more in depth information. I went into this book expecting something different than what I got and that made it harder for me to fully connect with this. From all the tips, tricks and ideas in this book there were a bunch I already knew, some I already incorporate in my life and some I don’t feel like are for me and I feel that there wasn’t as many new ideas left that I was excited to try. Having said that I do think it’s a good book, just not exactly the type of book I was looking for. It is a book that works even better in physical format I think and the formatting is very beautiful and adds to the relax atmosphere of the book. I liked the accepting encouraging tone of the book and how the author makes clear not every tip is for everyone and to only do what feels right. I liked the focus on acceptance and not judging yourself and others. If you’re feeling stressed or overwhelmed and are new to the meditation and mindfulness it’s definitely a good book to check out. It’s very accessible and has a lot of tips.

3 Stars

Links:
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You can also read my review on Goodreads, Bookbub and Amazon.

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8 responses to “Review: Eff This! Meditation by Liza Kindred

  1. I can see how expectation made this problematic since you picked it up for a specific interest and got a slightly different book. I appreciate knowing that its for newbies and more general overview with the tips so its a good starter read.
    I don’t pick up self-helps as often as I should, but I can appreciate wanting to learn more about certain topics like meditation.
    Sophia Rose recently posted…Review: Twice in a Blue Moon by Christina LaurenMy Profile

    • It really was a case of going in with wrong expectations. I think it’s good to know beforehand it more aimed to be a good starter read.

      I enjoyed picking up more self help and non-fiction books in general this year. It’s really a great way to learn more about specific topics.

  2. I love the title 🙂 I can totally understand how expecting one thing and finding something else made the book disappointing. I’ve had that happen to me several times with self-help type books especially. It sounds like you wanted something more advanced because you have some knowledge already. Probably wouldn’t be the book for me either, since I do meditate every day already. Great review!
    Berls recently posted…Berls Reviews The Turn of the Key by Ruth WareMy Profile

    • I always dislike when this happens and I go in with wrong expectations as it can really change how you experience a book. I already have some basic knowledge and I just wanted a level up, not too advanced, but not beginner level either.

      That’s awesome to hear you meditate every day already too. I don’t think this would be the book for you either then. Any good books on meditation you would recommend?

    • I think it’s a bit of a trend lately to have edgy titles for non-fiction books. I’ve been trying to read some more non-fiction this year, some of them are great and others more in that just okay stage like this one.

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