Mind Over Mother: Every mum's guide to worry and anxiety in the first years

Product Information

In Mind Over Mother, Anna Mathur, psychotherapist and mum of three, explains how to:* Understand anxiety, why it affects you and what to do about it* Make your mind a kinder, calmer, happier place to be* Transform your motherhood experience by addressing your thinkingThe most powerful tool Anna has to communicate this isn't the letters after her name, it is the fact that she is open about her own experience of maternal anxiety.

You seem to be in this endless pursuit of perfection and yet no matter how perfect you are for your baby, you never seem to see it.The book is marketed as a guide to worry and anxiety in the first year, but having read it, I can see this adding value at any stage of motherhood. Anna has an honest, reassuring and relatable way of speaking that comes through the pages and makes you instantly feel like there's a friend sat with you, giving you a big hug. Though he battled for years to marry her, Henry VIII has become disenchanted with the audacious Anne Boleyn. Habits are habits because they are so much easier to engage in, regardless of how unhelpful they are.

It's written in a conversational style, as though she's talking to you guiding you along her thoughts and musings. In spite of all of this, I've still come away from the book feeling refreshed and like I got something out of it. Those meaningless acts of self-harm I have indulged in since forever, like not drinking when I'm thirsty, mean something and I'm going to start changing that because of this book.We may have patches of time where we linger more towards one end than the other or bob around the centre. It’s real Anxiety 101 stuff so, unless this is your first time reading on the topic of anxiety (whether applied to motherhood or generally), you will probably find this book repetitive in terms of the advice it offers. I had every intention of passing this book onto a friend when I finished, then one friend turned into two, then three, then four. It seems to have become culturally acceptable to spend our lives teetering back and forth between worry and anxiety.

I appreciated the focus on anxiety in motherhood, and the different scenarios that you find yourself worrying about as a mum. With conversations on Maternal Mental Health on the rise, and more women speaking up about the way they feel, Anna Mathur's insight as a psychotherapist AND mother make her someone you feel you can trust. A mixture of personal experience, sharing of stories, hints and tips, in sharing Anna creates a safe space to explore your own mind in confidence whilst reassuring you every step of the way. I have bought it for three of my friends as a gift, who I know will find it just as resourceful and positively life-changing for their own experiences of motherhood.

The most powerful tool Anna has to communicate this isn't the letters after her name, it is the fact that she is open about her own experience of maternal anxiety. The last few chapters were especially helpful on my sleepless anxious nights of early postpartum days. Giovanna Fletcher, bestselling author of HAPPY MUM, HAPPY BABY'Anna is breath of fresh air - relatable, funny and wise' Sarah Turner, bestselling author of THE UNMUMSY MUM Baby-proof the house; panic-proof the mum.