Dial Down: Holistic Strategies to Move from Chaos to Calm

by Raquel Durden, Tracey Koach (Editor), Tara Huck (Editor)

Dial Holistic Strategies to Move from Chaos to Calm is a practical guide focused on holistic wellness techniques to help individuals manage stress and find calmness in their lives. The book integrates evidence-based wellness practices with personal stories and poems aimed at offering readers actionable tools for transformation. Drawing from her work with women veterans and first responders, Raquel demonstrates how holistic strategies can be powerful tools for finding peace and balance. Raquel emphasizes connection—both to oneself and to others. With its blend of holistic practices, real-life stories, and creative exercises, Dial Down is a comprehensive roadmap to personal well-being. The book is full of nurturing both body, mind, and spirit.

176 pages, Kindle Edition

Published September 2, 2025

Reviews

[Raquel Durden]

Dear Readers,
This isn't just another self-help book, it's a transformational guide for real life when chaos knocks at your door (...and it always does). In Dial Down: Holistic Strategies to Move from Chaos to Calm, I share evidence-based strategies, personal stories, and practical tools to show that chaos isn't something to fix. Chaos is something to navigate.

Writing this book felt like sitting down with a friend, offering easy to apply tools and gentle nudges to breathe, reset, and try again. Whether you're a veteran, a first responder, a caregiver, a leader, or simply someone who craves balance in the middle of everyday busyness, I believe you'll find strategies here that actually work.

If you enjoy books that explore:
~Practical wellness tools you can use right away
~Stories from real heroes in the military, healthcare, and public safety who face chaos regularly
~Mindful movement and breathwork made simple
~How nature, food, journaling, and prayer restore balance
...then Dial Down may be exactly what you're looking for to find inner calmness.

I invite you to weave wellness and connection into your life!

[Char Pachniak · Rating 5 out of 5]

Dial Down by Raqel Durden. Raquel shares techniques I have used as I work with students that have suffered trauma. This reinforced the work we do mentoring teens at Horizons4Girls as well as giving me some additional techniques and tools to use with at risk teen students. The steps to make this work a doable exercise are extremely beneficial. Time spent with students equals successes.

[Tara Huck · Rating 5 out of 5]

Raquel’s book is an accessible resource that delivers on its promise to provide tools that can easily help you to weave wellness into your existing schedule. Regardless of the circumstances of your stress, in Dial Down: Holistic Strategies to Move from Chaos to Calm we learn to turn our chaos into calm as Raquel skillfully navigates the reader through a menu of evidence-based offerings to choose from.

As a retired combat veteran, Raquel has been sharing healing strategies within the military community by founding the nonprofit, Humble Warriors Wellness & Yoga. As a practitioner and promoter of wellness, she met with and helped to lead veterans and other first responders and health care professionals to experience calm.

However, this book is much more than a researched guide to improve your health—mental and physical. It is also a beautiful statement on the resilience of the human spirit to be able to journey toward improved health regardless of present chaos.

The stories of resilience are shared from real individuals who have had the opportunity to work with Raquel. These are not just testimonials; they are beautifully told human stories from people who have experienced horrendous chaos. For those of us who are not in dangerous careers it provides a glimpse into the frightening and harrowing situations our military, first responders, and health care professionals live through regularly.

This book is a great resource for anyone who is looking for insight to help manage stressors from work and military service, family and social life, health of self or health of loved ones or any other source of chaos.

I keep coming back to the summary statement Raquel makes: “. . . chaos is not something to fix, avoid, or fear, it’s something to navigate.” Raquel’s work fills a void with hope that each of us can journey towards a calmer way of life.

Note: I was one of the editors on this project.