Jennifer R. Wolking - Quick Calm Easy Meditations to Short-Circuit Stress Using Mindfulness and Neuroscience

Quick Calm is a practical, accessible guide to help us leave the well-worn paths of stress and anxiety and navigate toward greater peace. This book reads like a wise friend speaking to youand not just any friend, but one whos a brilliant neuropsychologist. Quick Calm is exactly the book we need right now. This very minute.

Maggie Smith , best-selling author of Good Bones and Keep Moving

Jennifer Wolkin is a comp3etent and kind guide who will accompany you on a journey to integrate mindfulness into your everyday life. She combines practicality and originality, offering both education and unique exercises designed to cultivate a consistent practice. Quick Calm is a resource you will return to again and again to help you live with less stress and more purpose.

Alexandra H. Solomon, PhD , clinical assistant professor at Northwestern University, licensed clinical psychologist, TEDx speaker, and author of Loving Bravely and Taking Sexy Back

Quick Calm is a wonderful book for your meditation tool kit. With meditation how-tos and thirty mindfulness exercises, it provides a dive into the present moment anywhere.

Sharon Salzberg , author of Real Change

This delightful book will help you infuse all parts of living with a wakeful, open heart.

Tara Brach , author of Radical Acceptance and Radical Compassion

Jennifer Wolkin has taken the guesswork and excuses out of getting in touch with your inner self and staying there. She has broken down the art of mindfulness in practical, easy-to-use ways that, if consistently incorporated, will enhance your everyday living for a lifetime. Everyone should have a marked-up, tattered copy of this book by their bedside. Its not a book; its a survival guide.

Spirit, PhD, LPC, NCC , national board-certified and licensed therapist, owner of T2S Enterprises, media personality, and mental health expert

I would say that this book is a must-have-by-your-bedside book anyway, but the fact that its arrived during a global pandemic feels all the more fitting. Buy it for you and buy a copy for friends. Full of wisdom and grace, its like an exhale when youve only been inhaling.

Jennifer Pastiloff , author of On Being Human

Quick Calm is an excellent resource that empowers us to approach our lives with more compassion and loving-kindness. The easy-to-follow steps are informative and nourishing. From seated meditation to mindfulness with everyday life tasks, this book enhances the journey to self-awareness and balance.

Thema Bryant-Davis, PhD , licensed psychologist, ordained minister, author, and host of The Homecoming Podcast with Dr. Thema

In Quick Calm by Jennifer Wolkin, the reader is gifted with practical tools to cultivate a mindfulness practice. She outlines the importance of meditation and gives you the power to cultivate a more peaceful, less stressful life. I highly recommend this to people who are seeking to have deeper awareness and more fulfillment.

Nicole LePera, PhD , holistic psychologist, and author of How to Do the Work

Publishers Note

This publication is designed to provide accurate and authoritative information in regard to the subject matter covered. It is sold with the understanding that the publisher is not engaged in rendering psychological, financial, legal, or other professional services. If expert assistance or counseling is needed, the services of a competent professional should be sought.

Distributed in Canada by Raincoast Books

Copyright 2021 by Jennifer Wolkin

New Harbinger Publications, Inc.

5674 Shattuck Avenue

Oakland, CA 94609

www.newharbinger.com

Afterword 2021 by Shelly Tygielski and published here by permission of Shelly Tygielski. All rights reserved.

Cover design by Sara Christian; Acquired by Ryan Buresh; Edited by Brady Kahn

All Rights Reserved

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Wolkin, Jennifer R., author.

Title: Quick calm : easy neuroscience-based mindfulness meditations to short-circuit stress / Jennifer R. Wolkin, PhD.

Description: Oakland, CA : New Harbinger Publications, [2021] | Includes bibliographical references.

Identifiers: LCCN 2020042656 (print) | LCCN 2020042657 (ebook) | ISBN 9781684036080 (trade paperback) | ISBN 9781684036097 (pdf) | ISBN 9781684036103 (epub)

Subjects: LCSH: Mindfulness (Psychology) | Stress (Psychology) | Stress management.

Classification: LCC BF637.M56 W656 2021 (print) | LCC BF637.M56 (ebook) | DDC 158.1/3--dc23

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020042656

LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020042657

To Jacob, Alex, and Joey: My hearts, I love you to the quasars and back.

Contents

Foreword

I remember nothing from any of the nights I won my Olympic Gold medals.

I only remember smoothing my Team USA uniform a bit before walking toward the spot where I would begin my run on the long jump runway. I remember taking a deep centering breath before rocking forward to take my first step.

My memories of each of those events have been crafted by YouTube videos, social media, and retellings from friends and family, fans and followers that witnessed them. This isnt unusual, theres a place that elite athletes have the ability to go toor I should saycan withdraw tothat puts them fully in the present moment. With nothing to look back on, or look forward toits a space where all there is, is to be and do. Its often referred to as the zone, and I navigate this space with ease; or at least I had.

But in the pursuit of my nine medals (so far), life happened to me, as it happens to us all, and I began to live in a new spaceone where I ruminated on the past and fretted over the future.

I became exhausted by the constant suffering that living everywhere but in the here and now created in me. So I did the only thing I could think of to do, I ran away to Italy!

I met Dr. Jen in 2019 in an aging Tuscan villa that sat alone in lavender-laced Italian countryside. We were gathered there for a yoga retreat led by a mutual friend. We did not know each other but because we were seated close to each other we were paired together on the first activity asked of our group. We were meant to turn to our partner and look into their eyes, without speaking, until the timer went off. Turning to face each other, we clasped hands and stared into each others eyes. I took in her face, open and trusting, warm and calm.

Maybe it was five minutes, maybe it was forever. But I remember wondering if she could see me. An interesting thought to have while staring at someone staring back at you. I saw in her beautiful eyes not just the myriad of colors it takes to make her particular shade of brown but a willingnessnoan invitationto be herenow. An open invitation to sit with her, to breathe deeply with her, to be here, together, now.

I nodded slightly as if to say, I accept, and, as if receiving that telepathic message, she squeezed my hand a little more tightly, a small smile flitting across her lips while her face became blurred by my eyes filling with tears. It was perhaps the first time since my marriage (and my inevitable divorce) that I had been truly present outside of a track and field competition, and yet the sensation was familiar. It was a zone of sorts. Only this time it was not a track coach that guided me to the finish line, but this woman, my new soul sister Jen, who was literally holding my hands and would be absolutely integral in my journey to find my way home.