I received an advance review copy through Netgalley; all opinions are my own and honest.

I do my best to go into so-called "self-help" books with an open mind, but I found this one so scattered and generic as to be at least a bit patronizing and not very helpful. (Caveat: if you're reading this with no prior knowledge on the subject, you might find it more informative — but I would also seek out other sources, because the "scientific evidence" cited isn't super credible, and some claims regarding mental health in particular are just inaccurate: anxiety and anxiousness/stress aren't the same thing, and just because they're unfortunately prevalent doesn't make them "part of the human condition.")

Speaking as a college student who already tries to be generally mindful of my life choices, I really didn't learn much from reading this. The mindfulness exercises are good starting points, but I was already aware of them (or similar practices) just from browsing the internet or trying out meditation apps. Some of the anecdotes seem like the author is trying very hard to be #relatable, but they tended to be either extremely generic or just the opposite: so specific and unique that I'm not sure what point they served.

Most importantly, I was annoyed by the fact that the book presents "mindfulness" and the "normal" state of being (i.e., overwhelmed, stress eating, socially anxious) as polar opposites, and the pervading implication is that just being mindful will cure you of stress and anxiety, give you the "perspective" to make difficult large-scope life decisions (like picking a major and career path), and generally magically fix your life. I don't disagree that mindfulness can dramatically improve one's quality of life, but since my baseline doesn't remotely resemble the standard state the author illustrates, this book clearly wasn't for me.