Conscious Calm: Keys to Freedom from Stress and Worry

by Laura Maciuika

Stress Relief feeling just out of reach? Stress relief can be elusive. With stress and anxiety so common, many people worry too much and wish the stress relief tips they’ve tried would work better. But while there is plenty of real, external stress, there is also what we do on the inside with stress, often without noticing it. Conscious Keys to Freedom from Stress and Worry reveals the internal world of stress and lasting stress management. This practical book describes the internal stress traps you can fall into without even knowing it, and shows you how to get free from those traps for good. Combining psychology and wisdom from both East and West in clear, accessible language, psychologist Dr. Laura Maciuika describes 9 Stress Secrets that keep you stuck in stress and worry cycles, and reveals 9 Keys to Conscious Calm, with simple steps for lasting, natural stress relief. In Conscious Calm you will Stress and anxiety relief techniques that last Stress relief exercises that start from the inside Stress management strategies you can begin using right away to feel greater calm and control Quick stress relief ideas at the end of every chapter This book also includes a free, downloadable Action Steps guide to help you transform stress and worry into greater calm, inner peace and happiness. "Conscious Calm distills an amazing breadth of information into a readable, practical mini-manual. This is the must-read book if you want to bust stress and experience lasting calm and peace in your life."

Marci Shimoff, NY Times bestselling author of Happy for No Reason and Love for No Reason

"Conscious Calm is like the handbook to the brain, body and emotions no one gets when they 'grow up'. I wish I had this book when I turned 13. I am sure that I will continue to go back to it for years to come." Sheela Bringi, musician. www.shebrings.com

“Integrating Eastern wisdom with Western science, this book gives you step by step, clearly explained procedures to rid yourself of stress. Dr. Maciuika is brilliant in the way she created simple, brief routines to enrich and enhance everyone’s life. This book is a must read for everyone and essential to those in the helping professions such as therapists, physicians, nurses, teachers and coaches.” Cloé Madanes, author of Relationship Breakthrough and Strategic Family Therapy; President of the Robbins-Madanes Center and Robbins-Madanes Training.

“Combining the neuroscience of stress and emotions with leading edge energy psychology, Laura Maciuika presents simple step-by-step ways to reframe our minds to choose calmness. Conscious Calm is a gift to adrenaline junkies who create their own crises and anyone looking to reclaim their natural bliss---a wonderful book that can change your life.” Candace Pert, Ph.D., Chief Scientific Officer, RAPID Laboratories; author of Molecules of Emotion and Everything You Need to Know to Feel Go(o)d.

TABLE OF CONTENTS Chapter 1: Stress and Outside and Inside Stress, or How did we get so good at this? Chapter 2: Autopilot and Motor What you don’t know can run you Chapter 3: Hit the Pause Button on Motor Reclaiming inner choice Chapter 4: An Ally of Conscious Adding to your inner tool kit Chapter 5: Being From Doing

Genres: Self Help, Nonfiction, Ebooks

180 pages, Kindle Edition

First published October 26, 2011

Reviews

[Christine Rice · Rating 5 out of 5]

Conscious Calm by Laura Maciuika is a self-help book that explains how to reduce stress. Most people think stress is caused by outside circumstances. While that is partly true, how your mind reacts to those stressors is what causes the feeling of stress. Therefore, stress is mostly internal. This book teaches you how to internally manage stress so that it becomes less overpowering and so that you are better able to deal with life’s unavoidable stressors.

This book explains how to have more control of your thoughts and emotions so that you can reduce your stress level when it begins to rise. To gain power over your mind takes certain skills, and this book teaches them to you.

First, the book provides an explanation of exactly what stress is. Then each chapter explains methods for gaining an awareness of your stress and decreasing it. Each chapter builds upon the one before. There are exercises at the end of the chapters that will help you evaluate your life based on the chapter topics.

This book provides valuable techniques that anyone can learn and do well to lower the stress they feel. It is a well-written and organized book. It is practical and resourceful, because there are actual remedies for getting to the source of the stress and expelling it. The last chapter helps you to begin to implement the conscious calm techniques in your life.

This is a deep book that deals with the root problem of stress. If you are seeking a true solution to the anxiety and stress you feel, you will benefit from this book and will enjoy the reading.

[George Russell · Rating 5 out of 5]

I found this b0ok very useful in dealing with everyday anxiety that can plague me if I'm not consciously in touch with the tools that keep it at bay. Dare I say that the writing style is calm? But it really is. Most interesting is that the author describes what I understand as meditation without ever using the word. That choice took me past the fantasies I have about what meditation should be like and the frustrations I've had at not being able to engage it regularly and that made the essential activity of meditation - conscious reflection and making the mind a clear non-reactive mirror, let's say - simpler and less daunting.

[Amy Katherine Wolff · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very helpful

I’ve been so stressed and recently received a medical diagnosis whereby I was told that it was imperative that I reduce my stress. I have always struggled internally with stressors and my thoughts, so this book and the author’s teachings were very applicable to me.

[Allison · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed this book. A lot of the information and techniques I had learned in the past, but having gentle and basic language around them was helpful for remembering them and acquiring ways to teach to others. The book itself was calming, and i will be incorporating many of the techniques into my day. What I liked most was the author's way of connecting conscious calm with increased internal control and personal power. She explained how much energy is wasted when we choose not to practice conscious calm. It was empowering.

[Farrah · Rating 4 out of 5]

Over the years I’ve learned many coping mechanisms to relieving any stress and / or worry that might come my way both in the form of others and myself. Reading this book was a nice refresher and there were a couple new techniques for me to try. I was all over the breathing section. It’s something I try to remember every day and especially during those moments when things feel like they could unravel. Something I do need to work at is having that daily “Being Break” in which I not only turn off things around me externally but also shut down my mind and just be without any other thought. It’s when I feel we can truly feel a moment of peace. Maciuika also talks about our emotions, how to become more aware of them, and how to work with them comfortably. As I’ve gotten older, I’ve realized that if I LET things stress me out and LET the worry bother me, I WILL be stressed out, worried, and overwhelmed. BUT if I re-channel that negativeness into something more positive, life is much easier for me AND those around me. AND I’ve learned to just breathe…….

While the problems and challenges do exist out there, it’s what you tell yourself about those problems all day long, and the choices you make INSIDE your mind, that help drive the underlying engines of feeling stressed out and worried. – EXCELLENT POINT!

By not using our energy to fuel worried or scared thoughts of past or future, we have more energy available for the present. – ANOTHER EXCELLENT POINT!

Definitely a good book to read if you’re needing to free yourself from stress and constant worry. I’ll likely revisit the book at another time.

[Wendy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Overall I found that there was very little new that I haven't already heard or read elsewhere to this book and it is somewhat repetitive. I found myself skipping over large sections after the intial paragraph as I "already got it" and was ready to move on. The entire book could probably be summed up with a 5-10 point quick hits list. Nevertheless, it is a good reminder to slow down and breathe. Since reading I am trying harder to incorporate the breaks into my day, albeit mostly unsuccessfully. I may create my own post it reminder to put in places around the house. Maybe Dr. Maciuika can create this and post on her website?

[Erica Leigh · Rating 1 out of 5]

It’s rare for me to not finish books that I start, but this was one that I really struggled to see through to the end. I am not sure what I was expecting, but it wasn’t a narrative on Motor Mind, Autopilot, Being Breaks and Tapping (perhaps I’ve read too many legal contracts but the constant use of capitalization drove me a little crazy). I was sorry to be disappointed in the book, and it has received good reviews, but it just wasn’t for me.

[Jasmine · Rating 3 out of 5]

I got this book as a freebie and thought to give it a chance. The concept is good, and there are some good ideas in here. But the author continually builds up to the idea of reducing stress, but never really follows through to deliver much more than breathing. And there is a lot of repetition. A LOT. I get that a point needs to be made, but this is way overdone. The book would be cut in half if some repetition was removed.

[Maria Miaoulis · Rating 3 out of 5]

Stress is a part of life. However, the way you manage it can mean the difference between spiralling out of control and adapting to never-ending change. With this book, you'll learn many helpful tips to deal with the barrage of obstacles that come your way as well as past incidents that resurface. All want to drain you of energy. Read this to stay in the present, reclaim your power and start living the life you want!

[Betty · Rating 3 out of 5]

Helpful

[Milo Art · Rating 3 out of 5]

The beginning was nice but then it got too boring to finish.

[Barbara · Rating 4 out of 5]

I especially liked the info on "tapping," which is a new concept for me. Otherwise, lots of good reminders on how to lessen/eliminate stress on a daily basis.