Take Charge of Your Own Life Again with Alice Boyes, PhD’s ‘The Healthy Mind Toolkit’ [REVIEW]

As women, we wear a lot of hats, and that can challenge even the best multitaskers. Sometimes, we start going on gut instinct just to get through the day. Afterward, we have to live with the decisions we make, even if they weren’t always for the best. Those are the times we feel like hitting our heads against the wall, asking ourselves, “What was I thinking? How can I keep from making the same mistake again?” That’s where Alice Boyes’ The Healthy Mind Toolkit comes in handy.

If you have learned anything about me over the years (aside from the facts that I love to read and cook), it may be that I thrive on change. More importantly, like most women I think, I want to be the best possible version of myself. So, when I started to notice I was allowing circumstances in my life to steal my joy—especially at work—I threw up my hands and said, “Enough!”

That’s why I am particularly excited to share Alice Boyes’ The Healthy Mind Toolkit with you. When I first picked it up, I began perusing the table of contents and was delighted to find a section called “Self Sabotage at Work.” As I read, I felt like Boyes was talking directly to me.

The author goes through several different scenarios to which I could relate. For example, I’d had a meeting with management after being bullied by a coworker. To say that the meeting didn’t go well would be an understatement. But Boyes taught me strategies to better equip me to deal with other workplace conflicts in the future.

Since reading The Healthy Mind Toolkit, it’s helped me change my mindset. Now I think of having difficult conversations as a skill I can hone rather than it simply being a personality strength I either have intrinsically or don’t. That was a total “Aha! moment” for me, as Oprah would say.

But this is simply one example. Boyes shows us how we oftentimes impede our own success and how we can stop doing that. We learn to see the positive aspects of our personality rather than dwell on our deficiencies. And she shows us why self-care is an important element of our problem-solving strategy.

If you’ve been struggling with similar problems in your own life, I urge you to pick up The Healthy Mind Toolkit. I encourage you to open your mind and heart to Boyes’ keen insights and helpful suggestions. If you do, I’m sure you’ll be able to curb your emotional responses to difficult situations and find your own way to success too in all aspects of your life.

THE HEALTHY MIND TOOLKIT
By Alice Boyes, PhD.
304 pp. TarcherPerigee. $16.

Purchase The Healthy Mind Toolkit direct from Jathan & Heather Books or from one of these other fine online retailers: Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Books-A-Million, Half Price Books, IndieBound, or Powell’s.