Your Mental Health Workout focuses on giving your mind some attention, in the same way you might change your eating or exercise habits to get physically fitter. Think of it as the mental health equivalent of a five-week gym membership, focusing on your thoughts and feelings and how you respond to them. The book was very easy to navigate, with weekly checklists and planners at the beginning to keep me on track (printable copies are available from the author’s website). Everything in the book is very practical and explained in simple terms and a friendly tone. I loved the way Zoe Aston, a psychotherapist, approaches a mental health workout in the same way we would approach a physical one – setting goals, warming up, weekly workouts and daily workouts – with easy exercises to build ‘mental muscle’. There’s even an additional chapter on ‘Physio for your feelings’. A fun and informative way to look after my mental health and keep stress and anxiety at bay.

The goal of the book is to improve your mental health through various reflective exercises. It is effective.

This is not a very long book but there are some good tips in here to keep your mental health in a good condition - they are easy to follow and not full of science

The information in this book was OK.
The description led me to believe that there would be more to it being a 5 week course.

Even though the mind as a muscle analogy was a good one I felt it was a bit forced in the suggested ‘exercises’

Overall this felt like a quick dip rather than the deep dive I was expecting

Thanks to Netgalley & the publisher for an advanced copy of this book in return for an honest review.

Your Mental Health Workout is a 5 week plan aimed at addressing and taking care of your mental health as much as you would your physical health.

The workout itself is laid out clearly and with various options so you can tailor the plan to suit your needs.

Essentially Zoë suggests four weekly workouts: therapy, social events, exercise and self-care. She also suggests 4 daily workouts: mindfulness, connection (e.g journaling), appreciation (e.g a gratitude diary or practice) and movement. I love the addition of the worksheets with more available to download from her website.

Whilst the ideas Zoë suggests are not new to me, I like the idea of having a plan I can try to stick to and perhaps I can re-introduce some of the practices I have used in the past to benefit my mental health such as a gratitude journal.

I much preferred this book to Zoe’s previous book - Your Mental Health First Aid Kit which I couldn’t quite get into. I found parts of the introduction to this new book a little wordy but once I got into the plan itself, I really enjoyed reading and feel excited to get started.

This book comes at the right time as I am sure managing mental health has been a challenge during lockdown. For some, this 5 week plan might be just what is needed.

Aston creates a personalised therapy plan in one book. Using accessible language, often through analogies to physical health and exercise, she teaches her reader the key tenets of CBT (Cognitive Behavioural Therapy). By helping us to notice our thoughts, feelings and their cumulative impact on our daily behaviour, Aston's weekly programme offers not a one-time fix but a set of new skills to keep strengthening for the rest of our lives. Great worksheets to keep you on track, and fantastic appendices that signpost additional resources.

Actually a very handy guide. Really enjoyed going through this work book.
Would recommend this to anyone in 2020 that has had their mental health wobbled.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for an advance copy of this book in return for an honest review.

Great book. I loved reading it. Very interesting and covers alot of information

A 5-week programme for taking care our mental health especially during these challenging times. This is a small book with specific exercises to strengthen our health that works as an introduction to the more challenging work that will follow in the second book.

I loved the way this book treats your mental health workout in the same way as a physical workout. With family members suffering from mental health issues I found this book incredibly helpful and will be recommending it.

This mental health workout helps you looks at your mental health, particularly in the light of the covid-19 pressures of 2020.

I really liked the way the author links mental health work with a physical work out - this year has confirmed (as if it was needed!) that mental health needs to be prioritised at least as much as physical.

the book outlines various workouts to help with different issues: stress, anxiety, boundaries etc. There are questions, enough but not too many, to prompt your thoughts. Also included are quick review sections about guilt and anger which I found useful.

It's not a big or all encompassing book, but I found it a manageable and realistic place to start looking at exercises to boost my mental health.

Your Mental Health Workout is for you to use. It provides exercises, tools, affirmations and guidance to look after your mental health. It is a 5-week schedule that you take time and responsibility to work through. The book provides a plan, is split into weekly and daily sets. . There is a planner so you can easily track your progress.

The aim is that I can follow the plan and will become stronger and happier. I have a mental health workout in this book and can make time to look after my mind and mental wellness. Give it a try. If your at well and walk to look after your body, why wouldn’t you look after your mental health?

I thought the concept of this book, a guided work-out for your mental health with stages similar to a physical work-out, was a good idea however it didn’t quite deliver for me. I think it is due to be published in 2021 and it’s quite based in looking back at 2020; I found it a bit repetitive and unhelpful to keep thinking about Covid. I’m also not sure for that reason it will “last” as hopefully the Covid situation will end at some point in the next 12-24 months! The book does give simple advice but maybe because I’ve read quite a few mental health books I just didn’t find it particularly ground breaking. That said, some people might find it helpful and it would probably be a good introductory book for someone.

This mental health first aid kit is designed to help get your mental health in good shape, particularly with the effects of 2020 in mind.

Through a series of mental health workouts, this book allows you to examine how you deal with stress and anxiety and to act as 'an emergency support system' to help the reader help themselves.

I found this really helpful. There were lots of really practical ways to deal with self-sabotage, anger and guilt all delivered in easy to read bite size chapters. Previous workouts that we're beneficial were references throughout and we're easy to jump to and from in the ebook.

There were also lots of further reading signposted in the back of the book and lots of place for further support.

I would recommend this book to anyone who is having a tough time in 2020.

I’m a huge fan of a ‘self help’ book simply because they give you a big kick up the bum to reflect and prioritise your mental health.

I had seen that Zoë Aston had published an e-book focused on easing us out of lockdown called ‘Your Mental Health First Aid Kit’, released in September and only 99p to buy on Amazon.

I really like guide books which have tasks to complete as you go along. It feels like I’m working towards something and being presented with questions to answer pushes me to be honest and address any issues in a positive and manageable way.

Your Mental Health First Aid Kit covers topics such as getting in touch with your feelings, creating boundaries, challenging negative ideas about yourself and practising gratitude. The e-book gives you lists of questions on each section to answer honestly and work through, and made me realise I had slipped into old habits of being rubbish at boundaries and needed to do somet work in this area.

The e-book is 84 pages long so only took a couple of hours to work through. I think it would have been really helpful to have more comprehensive challenges / tasks along the way and real like examples, but I still felt like this kick started my journey to self care.

The e-book feels like a great ‘taster’ for Zoë’s paperback release ‘Your Mental Health Workout: 5 Weeks to a Healthier, Happier Mind’ which is out next May. I love the idea of weekly challenges and can’t wait to check this out once it’s available!