The More or Less Definitive Guide to Self-Care: From A to Z

This was . . . fine, I guess? Making it clear that self-care doesn't necessarily mean BUYING THINGS is valuable. Some of the items on the list are quite useful actions to support one's happiness or mental health.

But there are several drawbacks.

Most importantly, the organization is so poorly thought out. It's literally an alphabetical list of wildly unrelated activities, which are themselves labeled in a haphazard way. The first item is a quotation. OK, finding quotations that speak to you can be supportive in times of trouble. But shouldn't this item be called “Quotations” and filed under Q? Nope. It's filed under the label “A.A. Milne.” But it's . . . not written by A.A. Milne. What? Borges specifically calls this out, and it's weird. How did this get past an editor?

Another example is several concepts from Dialectical Behavioral Therapy are listed, but not under “DBT.” Rather, they're called by their mnemonic acronyms.

Overall, it's hard to believe no one in the publication process suggested the ideas be grouped conceptually, so someone in search of a suitable activity could figure out where to look. Off the top of my head, sections called “Inspiration,” “Psychological Therapy,” and “Physical Pampering” would make far more sense than an abecedarian list!

This leads me to another drawback - in my humble opinion, too many of these suggestions could be grouped conceptually under “Psuedoscience.” Astrology? Tarot? No thanks, and mention of them robs credibility from the evidence-based suggestions. At least if there were a category like “Paranormal Pursuits” or “Religious Practice” I could have just skipped it. As it was, it was jarring and irritating to have thoroughly debunked silliness side by side with practical interventions.

Finally, the little blurbs by individuals meant to underline some concepts didn't really contribute anything. And in audio book format, they were downright confusing, since it wasn't super clear we weren't reading the author's first-person accounts.

All in all, I'd suggest a therapist or at least a solid book on CBT/DBT if anyone is interested in the suggestions that have the most heft here. Combing through a lot of poorly organized randomness in search of occasional wisdom isn't worth the investment when that wisdom is available in other places.

I think I have read too many things in this genre and been a yoga teacher for too long to have derived too much value from this encyclopedia-style guide to self -care.

The one this I did enjoy was the horror movies were listed, and the author broke down the psychology and chemistry behind why that may be true for some people. That was a perspective that I hadn't heard before, and I think the only thing that differentiates this from other books of this kind.