The Effortless Mind: Meditation for the Modern World

by Will Williams (contributor)

A GUIDE TO THE UNIQUE POWER OF VEDIC MEDITATION TO OVERCOME STRESS AND ANXIETY, HELPING US TO THRIVE. ‘Will’s meditation is a game changer. If you want to understand meditation more deeply and how you can harness the benefits in the most profound ways possible, The Effortless Mind is where it’s at. I will be giving this important book to everyone I know.’Jasmine Hemsley, author of The Art of Eating Well ‘Will makes meditation cool. Say hello to a clearer mind thanks to your new bulletproof technique to help you relax and unleash your best self.’Madeleine Shaw, author of Get The GlowDaily life can feel like a fast-paced treadmill, leaving little time to unwind, re-charge and do what brings us joy. Meditation is a powerful way to hit the pause button, increase your energy and start to enjoy life more. The Effortless Mind is renowned meditation teacher Will Williams’s must-have guide for modern-day meditators. Suffering from chronic stress and insomnia, Will undertook years of research and training with leading experts from around the world, which led him to find the cure he was looking for in Vedic meditation. In The Effortless Mind, Will explains how his Vedic-inspired method of meditation has transformed the lives of his students – all of whom are busy people of all ages and all backgrounds. Their inspiring stories and the scientific research into meditation show the profound physical, mental and emotional benefits you can gain from such a simple daily practice, including more energy, better sleep, greater clarity, less anxiety and a happier outlook on life. More praise for The Effortless ‘I learnt how to meditate with Will Williams two years ago and since then so many things have changed. I have a life-long tool that has brought me calm, clarity and increased creativity and allowed me to far more effectively weather the storms of everyday life. Will is the most generous, warm and gracious teacher.’ Eminé Rushton, Wellbeing Director, Psychologies ‘Within a few months of learning to meditate with Will, I realised I was starting to have so many ideas for songs and books, as well as helping me with a busy schedule of touring and being a dad.’ Howard Donald, Take That ‘Vedic meditation is now part of my daily routine. It has been hugely beneficial in so many ways. Will is very supportive and nurturing and makes learning seem easy and fun. I feel extremely grateful this has come into my life.’ Cressida Bonas, actress ‘Will’s practical, non-woo-woo approach to meditation has enabled thousands of busy people to find a way to fit a regular practice into their lives.’Lesley Thomas, The Times

Genres: Nonfiction, Personal Development

336 pages, Hardcover

First published May 1, 2018

Reviews

[Tom Bradley · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book is great at describing, with scientific backing, the benefits of meditation.

Where it fails is when it comes to technique. It hardly talks about it!!! It states that the reader should be repeating a mantra, that should be given to them by the author - at cost.This book felt like one big advert for the author's workshops and other services. Very disappointing.

[Simona · Rating 3 out of 5]

*Book provided by the publisher in exchange for an honest review*

I usually don’t read a lot of non-fiction books, but when I got contacted about this one, I said yes. I have started yoga and meditation at the beginning of the year, so I thought it would be a good read for me.

Will Williams talks about meditation in the modern world. He explains how the meditation helps and what it can help for. Things like increased creativity, cured insomnia, reduced anxiety, depression and many more things are a topic in this book. It’s also showing how people got out of their difficult situations with the help of Williams and meditation.

The author covers a lot of topics and has examples of how he and the method helped different people in different situations. He explains, how he met these people, what they went through, how he helped and how it got better afterwards.

The book is an introduction to Beeja meditation (vedic meditation). However, it barely talks about the actual technique. From time to time there are mentions of things you can do and sometimes there are explanation parts. It doesn’t have a fluent thread throughout the book. It covers little steps and it always says that he can help you directly. It kind of felt like an advert.

The stories from other people were interesting at times, but some topics, I didn’t feel related too and I think the book was too focused on these experiences.

I expected something else and that’s why I had some difficulties with this book. The blurb mentions a guide for meditators, which is a bit misleading. The focus of this book is not ideal for me.

I believe that working with Will and his way of meditation can really help people. It really sounds interesting, but just talking about it in a book is not enough.

It’s very motivating to read about the positive outcome for people and reading about their feelings.

[Emma · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good but more of ad advert for the course via very interesting personal stories of those who now use Vedic meditation. I don’t know how to do the method because o need a ‘sound’ which requires the course (only London based.) The author seems very genuine and caring.

[Kate Henderson · Rating 2 out of 5]

**Listened via audible**

So I discovered Will through a podcast and this got me really interested in reading his book. However the book is pretty much just self promotion for his business and his ‘style’ of meditation. I have looked up his meditation and a beginners course is £98 (x3) for just a 7 hour course!!?! This book just explains about his meditation and how amazing and life changing it apparently is.
I don’t quite understand how his meditation is that special that will cost just short of £300 for a 7 hour course!!?! I feel quite angry that I’ve even listened to the book - just feels like a book length advert for his business - that also feels overly excessive! Not too impressed!

[Cory Sydee · Rating 2 out of 5]

A book explaining beeja meditation and the benefits of it as well as specific examples of how it can help with different areas of life. It was interesting and informative but at times felt like a sales pitch for the author’s services.

[Ian · Rating 1 out of 5]

Awful - basically advertising a paid course

This book isn’t at all as expected. The author talks about wanting to help as many people as possible, but not in the book, only by booking his courses.

I wish I hadn’t wasted the time, hoping for some actual instruction

[Elite Group · Rating 3 out of 5]

Why meditation should become part of your daily rituals.

Will Williams had to go through a hell of a time in his life before he came to meditation. Some people might have given up and carried on drinking, taking drugs and eventually succumbing to these bad habits, but fortunately for us, he had a eureka moment which took him to meet and study meditation with many different masters and also studied the ancient Vedic tradition which originates from the Himalayan region of Northern India.

Williams has taken meditation into new realms, combining it with science and how by studying people while using meditation, their body rhythms being used to alleviate so many problems like insomnia, stress, addictions to name just a few.

I found this book fascinating and very easy to read and relate to. I downloaded the app Will Williams has made available via both Apple and Google to help get into the habit of meditating twice a day for twenty minutes at a time. He also included some exercises. I tried one, and it gelled with my wavelength. I also like the idea (something I used to do) was to start writing a journal, writing in it first thing in the morning. As I have some bizarre dreams….., it might help me work out what they mean.



Dietes

Breakaway Reviewers received a copy of the book to review.

[D S Nicklin · Rating 5 out of 5]

A superb introduction to Vedic meditation

What I love about this book is it is just a really down to earth read with loads of different examples about how this method has helped people in lots of different ways. Many of the situations resonated with my own and it was really interesting to read how they got the same results from this practice as me.

Although I have been using this technique for nearly three years now and I have done a number of Will’s advanced courses, there were still a lot of “Ah-ha” moments where certain things became a bit clearer.

I often try and explain the benefits of Vedic meditation to people. Maybe I’m not that clear I don’t know but going forward, i will just recommend this book because it says it all in a nutshell.

My family are pretty resistant to mediation, seeing at Daddy’s thing and to my teenage daughters therefore probably deeply uncool! However, I bought a copy for my 15 year old because she is showing some early signs of anxiety at school and to my surprise, she was definitely up for reading it. I am confident this will persuade her to learn and feel the benefits early on in her life rather than struggling through until her 40’s when i finally found this.

[Olga Shevchenko · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the best book I've read about meditation. It contains stories of people who share their experiences on how meditation changed their lives. I've been meditating myself for 5 years now, and I agree that meditation is such a powerful tool to change your life, your mind, to see how your mind reacts in various circumstances. Still, it was so interesting to read about people in completely different situations and coming from different backgrounds. The language it's written in is so simple, and yet it explains how our brains function and what happens to our brains and bodies from the scientific perspective. I've read this book in a week and I'm thinking to buy several hard copies to share with people whom I think this book will help a lot. Thanks, Will!

[Niall Crosbee · Rating 4 out of 5]

Enjoyed the book and I’m glad I took a read of it before I saw the reviews. Some harsh comments down below largely relating to the book feeling like a “sales pitch”.

I can certainly understand this and there did appear to be a lack of detail regarding the specific techniques and methods of vedic mediation.

However, it was a really enjoyable read and actually quite inspiring to see some of the stories. For me, I will certainly be looking into meditation more and Vedic meditation will be my first reference point to understanding it in a greater sense.

[Lynn Saad · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's a good round up of the various reasons why meditation is good for you and I found it a good reminder of those points. Unfortunately because he really wants to sell his meditation product he doesn't explain how to use alternative forms of meditation or how they can also be used in a easy way. 40 minutes of meditation every day usually works which ever system you use.

[Debbi Barton · Rating 1 out of 5]

I'm scratching my head trying to remember who (if anyone) recommended this book to me, because I'm coming after you!! As most reviewers have said already, this is basically a book to sell the course/app that the author has created. Bare face advertising, nothing whatsoever about Vedic sound meditation.

[Joe · Rating 5 out of 5]

I’ve been on Will’s course and this is truly amazing.

A very well researched and well written book on the benefits of Beeja meditation. The benefits far outweigh the small time commitment.

Highly recommended to everyone.

[Rosy Kar · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a good book and worth a read. It does a good job of getting into the science and showing you areas where meditation can help and above all encouraging you to start. But I felt it was more of an advertisement based on stories. It says we can meditate "anywhere" which I feel we cannot.

[Trish Hills · Rating 4 out of 5]

So informative and interesting! Will is amazing and his methods will help a lot of people learn to live a happier life!

[Sam Williams · Rating 3 out of 5]

If you want to learn why meditation is good for you (and it definitely is), it's great. If you want to learn HOW to meditate, find another book.

[Elena · Rating 5 out of 5]

I must admit I was very intrigued and a bit skeptical when I picked up this book. After reading the first few pages I realized that I would become very frustrated if I keep reading this as a self help book, but without getting the main tool described: the custom mantra. So I've made an appointment for an introduction course with Will. Then I relaxed and continued reading the book.

It is structured as a set of stories from people that Will taught this technique and how they improved their lives tremendously, not only fixing the initial problem they had. It covers multiple areas of interest and current pain points from our modern society: anxiety, depression, anger, insomnia, addiction, digestive problems, past traumas, productivity, creativity and the list goes on. It's basically a book full of happy-ending stories and reading them it's really satisfying :)

I've been using this type of meditation for almost half an year and all I can say is that it is really working. I feel great both physically and emotionally. Even my most strained family relationships are improving bit by bit. I feel fearless and it's like I'm a child again: full of hope and curiosity for everything that surrounds me. I haven't changed radically, but lot of the noise and garbage I collected over the years is starting to dissipate. I know I still have a lot of 'work' to do, but it's a pleasant feeling that I'm on the right track.

So back to the book. The book offers information and that's all. It's up to you what you want to do with it. I think this is the case with most books :) For me it was the right book at the right time so I give it 5 stars.