Netgalley Partner; Breath as Prayer: Calm Your Anxiety, Focus Your Mind, Renew Your Soul by Jennifer Tucker

 

I am giving this book 5 stars.  Likely for some of the reasons that others gave it fewer stars.  I learned of this book because I follow this blogger for her strategies (and since she openly admits that she has mental health struggles) on anxiety and stress overwhelm.  I have printed her free resources, laminated them, and shared them with many people.  

I loved the intro chapters that talked simply and directly about all the brain-based research on mindset, deep breathing, etc.  Having been an avid reader of all things mental health, trauma-informed, neurodiversity, and the Bible for many years now, I found her short and informative chapters shared clearly and simply the reasons that these strategies work based on science.  She also shared why she prefers to use her breath to calm anxiety, focus her mind, AND renew her soul.  So to her, it made it natural to add scripture and shorten phrases from key verses, to help support the rhythm of her intentional calming breath.  So if you too seek the Word of God in your life, you know that only focusing on the truth will really set your mind free.   

Some criticize why she doesn't use the direct quote, her examples, etc.  But I think they are missing the point of the book, I believe it is a teaching tool to model how breathing for calming anxiety, focusing, and bringing calm and peace to your inner self, fits naturally as a form of prayer.  She refers to the fact that some who practice liturgical strategies have done some of this. But as someone who has not been directly exposed to those practices in my local church, I appreciate the modeling and examples she gives. 

As a teacher, I recognize that if you want to change the words, or rephrase, feel free.  She is doing her thinking aloud (metacognition) for the reader and sharing her story/experience with these phrases and offering that in a written beautiful book since she cannot come to sit next to each of her readers and show them how it works in her life.  Her breath prayer examples have been free online as a resource for a few years now, and I believe this work is a response to people wanting more explanation, modeling, and the reasons why this is a healthy restorative practice.  

I enjoy her examples, I am stalking my mailbox for the physical copy to arrive, and have a visual to keep out and remind me to use my breath and pray when needed, model it, and support my teens and young adult in adopting this practice for themselves as all of my children have very high anxiety naturally.  I look forward to giving away copies to those who want to try it and need this tool for support. It's great for visual and experiential learners in the book format!  

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher to review and online advanced copy and share my thoughts.