Liza Kindred - Eff This! Meditation: 108 Tips, Tricks, and Ideas for When Youre Stressed Out, Anxious, or Overwhelmed

108 TIPS, TRICKS & IDEAS FOR WHEN YOURE FEELING ANXIOUS, STRESSED OUT, OR OVERWHELMED

Liza Kindred

First and foremost:

The practices in this book are designed to help you feel good. If something doesnt feel good to you, drop it without judgement and try something else.

If something doesnt jive, it doesnt mean that the book doesnt work, that you did it wrong, or that there is something wrong with you. It means that one technique didnt work for you, so you can move along. Totally cool.

That being said, there are a number of ways you can dive into this book. Do what works for you.

Options for how to use this 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 to do it; its your book now!

Any page with this cool icon means there is more bonus material online. All book extras can be found at effthismeditation.com/bookextras.

I wrote this book for you. I wrote it because something has happened out there in the world where even when we are trying to find wellness, we are being told we need to constantly fix or heal or improve ourselvesas if something inside of us is inherently broken; as if the problems live inside of us, and not out there in a world that has nearly lost its collective mind.

Jiddu Krishnamurti, the twentieth-century Indian mystic, philosopher, and poet once said,

It is no measure of health to be well adjusted to a profoundly sick society.

Hes so right on. If you feel crazy, or anxious, or sad, or depressed, or overwhelmed, that makes sense. And it is not because you are broken or cant copeits because the world is in a state right now.

But that state is not us. And just because we are stressed to the max and freaked the eff out doesnt mean that we have to live like that. Here in this book are 108 practicessimple, private, often freethat you can do in order to find that place of beauty, calm, and equanimity that already exists inside of you. Were not fixing, and were not creating something new. Were just taking the time to get in touch with the 7parts of us that already exist simultaneously with the anxiety and sadness and stress. Were letting the parts of us that are loving and calm and compassionate and kind come to the surface sometimes, too.

This book will not try to fix you, because you are not broken, but it will give you many tools and practices to feel more grounded, to disconnect from technology and reconnect to your own heart and body, and to live your life with a little more intention.

You dont have to listen to the voices telling you to hustle harder, work smarter, recover faster, deal better, or whatever other admonishment is swirling around (whether those voices are coming from other people or from inside your own head). And hey, listen: the stressors will always be there. The only way to have time to do these practices is to take the time. You deserve it.

Eff This! Meditation might seem like an unlikely name, but I created this style of meditation two years ago in an effort to be as authentic as possible; after a decade of practicing meditation and studying Buddhism with highly respected teachers, I found that I still, well, get fed up sometimes! We frequently see a version of meditation that is whitewashed (it started in the Eastern world, after all) and is all visions of bliss and enlightenment and very flexible people with perfect skin. That just doesnt jive with my personal experience.

As I teach it, meditation and true self-care are gritty, raw, and real. My offering to the world is a style of meditation that is deeply rooted in the foundational teachings of Buddhism, but presented through the language and experiences of most of our everyday lives. Think of this as meditation with a strong grasp but a light touch.

In a meditation or self-care practice, there are moments of pure peacethats what were going for! But mixed into that there are messy emotions and second-guessing and pets climbing on you. This is all fine, because its real life. When we add the rough edges of the path toward enlightenment to the chaos of the world were living in, its enough to make anyone want to scream, Eff this!

Were often holed up inside, hunched over our devices, over-scheduled and undernourished. We hold our breath while we send emails and we zone out while we scroll through social media. We exercise because we feel bad about our bodies, or we dont work out and feel bad for that. What we try to get done in a day is literally impossible, yet somehow we beat ourselves up for not getting through it all. If you can relate to any of this, let me assure you: these are not personal character flaws, or things for you to beat into submission. This is the fabric of modern life! Technology is designed to be addictive, our modern food system has scientists in labs trying to make junk food more addictive, and entire industries are centered around making us feel too fat or short or poor. Darling, its not you!

And because we are all living in that craziness every day, you will find some key threads woven through these exercises. These are specific paths toward true wellness that work because they directly address whats driving us all mad.

These are:

Meditation

Nature

Movement

Breathing

Balancing creation with consumption

Creating space

More mindful use of technology

Try some of each category. It will pay off!