{"product_id":"notes-on-a-nervous-planet-isbn-9780143133421","title":"Notes on a Nervous Planet","description":"\u003cb\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003cb\u003eFrom the #1 \u003ci\u003eNew York Times\u003c\/i\u003e bestselling author of \u003ci\u003eThe Midnight Library.\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eThe world is messing with our minds. What if there was something we could do about it?\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eDon’t miss Matt Haig’s new novel \u003ci\u003eThe Life Impossible\u003c\/i\u003e, coming September 2024\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/b\u003eLooking at sleep, news, social media, addiction, work and play, Matt Haig invites us to feel calmer, happier and to question the habits of the digital age. This book might even change the way you spend your precious time on earth.“A personal favourite and the best reminder during the summer season… or any season, as a matter of fact.” ―Meghan Markle, for \u003ci\u003eBritish Vogue \u003c\/i\u003eon \"A Note from the Beach\" from \u003ci\u003eNotes On A Nervous Planet \u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"A primer for how to live in the present moment, this book will find grateful readers everywhere.\" —Nigella Lawson, author of \u003ci\u003eHow to Be a Domestic Goddess\u003c\/i\u003e and \u003ci\u003eNigella Bites\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e\"Take \u003ci\u003eNotes on a Nervous Planet\u003c\/i\u003e twice daily, with or without food. Crammed with wisdom, insight, love and wit.\" —Stephen Fry\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Likable and thought-provoking . . . A wonderfully perceptive chronicle of life in the always-on social media age.” —\u003ci\u003eThe Guardian\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Witty, honest, and engaging. Haig shows great skill in describing the 'invisible cyclone' of depression. . . A worthy successor to \u003ci\u003eReasons to Stay Alive\u003c\/i\u003e.\" —\u003ci\u003eThe Sunday Times\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e“\u003ci\u003eNotes on a Nervous Planet \u003c\/i\u003econtains lists, imagined conversations, essays, and personal stories that critique the damage that worry—about the environment, politics, the news, and everything else that demands our attention on a daily basis—wreaks on our ability to live a full life. Haig artfully, powerfully counters these challenges with battle-tested advice from his own hard-won experience.” \u003ci\u003e—Booklist \u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003e  \u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Readers who have experienced anxiety without a tangible cause will find comfort in Haig’s words and vulnerability. Haig articulates much of what isn’t working for humans in today’s world while refraining from being too cynical.\" —\u003ci\u003eSalon \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\"If technology and social media make you anxious, you’re not alone. . . .Should you need a positive influence right now, Matt Haig has your back.\" —\u003ci\u003eHelloGiggles\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e “In this illuminating follow-up to his memoir, \u003ci\u003e\u003ci\u003eReasons to Stay Alive\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003c\/i\u003enovelist and children’s author Haig (\u003ci\u003e\u003ci\u003eHow to Stop Time\u003c\/i\u003e,\u003c\/i\u003e 2018, etc.) continues to explore how the rapid pace of our modern world can adversely affect our psyche… In bite-sized chapters, the author considers the various issues that plague us, including our increasing addiction to smartphones and social media, the emotional impact of absorbing 24-hour cycles of often grueling international news events, and our collective lack of sleep…. [An] often wise and inspiring self-help title strengthened by the author’s very personal experiences and acquired insight.” \u003ci\u003e—Kirkus\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\"[Haig] is a smart operator who knows his readership and genuinely wants to help them . . . I reached the last page admiring the author’s inventive energy and insight.\" —\u003ci\u003eThe Daily Mail\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e\"Warm and wise. If the modern world is making you anxious, this is the perfect book for you.\" —Claudia Hammond, author of\u003ci\u003e Time Warped\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e\"Beautiful, honest and wise.\" —Fearne Cotton, \u003ci\u003eBBC Radio\u003c\/i\u003e \u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e\"A convincing, wise, and reassuring book.\u003ci\u003e\" —The Irish Times\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Is the modern world doing our heads in? Matt Haig shares our fears and gives answers to the question from many different angles. An enthralling book.\" —Jo Brand, author of \u003ci\u003eThe More You Ignore Me\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e\"Warm and wise. If the modern world is making you anxious, this is the perfect book for you.\" —Claudia Hammond, author of\u003ci\u003e Time Warped\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cb\u003eMatt Haig\u003c\/b\u003e is the number one international bestselling author of \u003ci\u003eReasons to Stay Alive\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eNotes on a Nervous Planet\u003c\/i\u003e and \u003ci\u003eThe Comfort Book\u003c\/i\u003e, as well as several novels for adults, including #1 \u003ci\u003eNew York Times\u003c\/i\u003e bestseller \u003ci\u003eThe Midnight Library\u003c\/i\u003e, and \u003ci\u003eHow To Stop Time\u003c\/i\u003e. Haig also writes award-winning books for children, including \u003ci\u003eA Boy Called Christmas\u003c\/i\u003e, which has been made into a feature film with an all-star cast.  His work has been translated into over fifty languages.\u003cb\u003eA STRESSED-OUT MIND IN A STRESSED-OUT WORLD\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eA conversation, about a year ago\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eI was stressed out.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eI was walking around in circles, trying to win an argument on the internet. And Andrea was looking at me. Or I think Andrea was looking at me. It was hard to tell, as I was looking at my phone.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Matt? Matt?\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Uh. Yeah?\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"What's up?\" she asked, in the kind of despairing voice that develops with marriage. Or marriage to me.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Nothing.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"You haven't looked up from your phone in over an hour. You're just walking around, banging into furniture.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eMy heart was racing. There was a tightness in my chest. Fight or flight. I felt cornered and threatened by someone on the internet who lived over 8,000 miles away from me and who I would never meet, but who was still managing to ruin my weekend. \"I'm just getting back to something.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Matt, get off there.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"I just-\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe thing with mental turmoil is that so many things that make you feel better in the short term make you feel worse in the long term. You distract yourself, when what you really need is to know yourself.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Matt!\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAn hour later, in the car, Andrea glanced at me in the passenger seat. I wasn't on my phone, but I had a tight hold of it, for security, like a nun clutching her rosary.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Matt, are you okay?\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Yeah. Why?\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"You look lost. You look like you used to look, when . . .\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eShe stopped herself saying \"when you had depression\" but I knew what she meant. And besides, I could feel anxiety and depression around me. Not actually there but close. The memory of it something I could almost touch in the stifling air of the car.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"I'm fine,\" I lied. \"I'm fine, I'm fine . . .\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eWithin a week I was lying on my sofa, falling into my eleventh bout of anxiety.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eA life edit\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eI was scared. I couldn't not be. Being scared is what anxiety is all about.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe bouts were becoming closer and closer. I was worried where I was heading. It seemed there was no upper limit to despair.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eI tried to distract myself out of it. However, I knew from past experience alcohol was off limits. So I did the things that had helped before to climb out of a hole. The things I forget to do in day-to-day life. I was careful about what I ate. I did yoga. I tried to meditate. I lay on the floor and placed my hand on my stomach and inhaled deeply-in, out, in, out-and noticed the stuttery rhythm of my breath.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBut everything was difficult. Even choosing what to wear in the morning could make me cry. It didn't matter that I had felt like this before. A sore throat doesn't become less sore simply because you've felt it before.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eI tried to read, but found it hard to concentrate.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eI listened to podcasts.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eI watched new Netflix shows.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eI went on social media.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eI tried to get on top of my work by replying to all my emails.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eI woke up and clasped my phone, and prayed that whatever I could find there could take me out of myself.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBut-spoiler alert-it didn't work.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eI began to feel worse. And many of the \"distractions\" were doing nothing but driving me further to distraction. In T. S. Eliot's phrase from his Four Quartets, I was \"distracted from distraction by distraction.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eI would stare at an unanswered email, with a feeling of dread, and not be able to answer it. Then, on Twitter, my go-to digital distraction of choice, I noticed my anxiety intensify. Even just passively scrolling my timeline felt like an exposure of a wound.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eI read news websites-another distraction-and my mind couldn't take it. The knowledge of so much suffering in the world didn't help put my pain in perspective. It just made me feel powerless. And pathetic that my invisible woes were so paralyzing when there were so many visible woes in the world. My despair intensified.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSo I decided to do something.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eI disconnected.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eI chose not to look at social media for a few days. I put an auto-response on my emails, too. I stopped watching or reading the news. I didn't watch TV. I didn't watch any music videos. Even magazines I avoided. (During my initial breakdown, years before, the bright imagery of magazines always used to linger and clog my mind with feverish racing images as I tried to sleep.)\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eI left my phone downstairs when I went to bed. I tried to get outside more. My bedside table was cluttered with a chaos of wires and technology and books I wasn't really reading. So I tidied up and took them away, too.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIn the house, I tried to lie in darkness as much as possible, the way you might deal with a migraine. I had always, since I was first suicidally ill in my twenties, understood that getting better involved a kind of life edit.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eA taking away.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAs the minimalism advocate Fumio Sasaki puts it: \"there's a happiness in having less.\" In the early days of my first experience of panic the only things I had taken away were booze and cigarettes and strong coffees. Now, though, years later, I realized that a more general overload was the problem.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eA life overload.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAnd certainly a technology overload. The only real technology I interacted with during this present recovery-aside from the car and the cooker-were yoga videos on YouTube, which I watched with the brightness turned low.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe anxiety didn't miraculously disappear. Of course not.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eUnlike my smartphone, there is no \"slide to power off\" function for anxiety.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBut I stopped feeling worse. I plateaued. And after a few days, things began to calm.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe familiar path of recovery arrived sooner rather than later. And abstaining from stimulants-not just alcohol and caffeine, but these other things-was part of the process.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eI began, in short, to feel free again.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eHow this book came about\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eMost people know the modern world can have physical effects. That, despite advances, aspects of modern life are dangerous for our bodies. Car accidents, smoking, air pollution, a sofa-dwelling lifestyle, takeout pizza, radiation, that fourth glass of Merlot.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eEven being at a laptop can pose physical dangers. Sitting down all day, getting an RSI. Once I was even told by an optician that my eye infection and blocked tear ducts were caused by staring at a screen. We blink less, apparently, when working on a computer.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSo, as physical health and mental health are intertwined, couldn't the same be said about the modern world and our mental states? Couldn't aspects of how we live in the modern world be responsible for how we feel in the modern world?\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eNot just in terms of the stuff of modern life, but its values, too. The values that cause us to want more than we have. To worship work above play. To compare the worst bits of ourselves with the best bits of other people. To feel like we always lack something.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAnd as I grew better, by the day, I began to have an idea about a book-this book right here.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eI had already written about my mental health in Reasons to Stay Alive. But the question now was not: why should I stay alive? The question this time was a broader one: how can we live in a mad world without ourselves going mad?\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eNews from a nervous planet\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAs I began researching I quickly found some attention- grabbing headlines for an attention-grabbing age. Of course, news is almost designed to stress us out. If it was designed to keep us calm it wouldn't be news. It would be yoga. Or a puppy. So there is an irony about news companies reporting on anxiety while also making us anxious.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAnyway, here are some of those headlines:\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003estress and social media fuel mental health crisis among girls (The Guardian)\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003echronic loneliness is a modern-day epidemic (Forbes)\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003efacebook \"may make you miserable,\" says facebook (Sky News)\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"steep rise\" in self-harm among teenagers (BBC)\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eworkplace stress affects 73 percent of employees (The Australian)\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003estark rise in eating disorders blamed on overexposure to celebrities' bodies (The Guardian)\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003esuicide on campus and the pressure of perfection (The New York Times)\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eworkplace stress rising sharply (Radio New Zealand)\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003ewill robots take our children's jobs? (The New York Times)\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003estress, hostility rising in american high schools in trump era (The Washington Post)\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003echildren in hong kong are raised to excel, not to be happy (South China Morning Post)\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003ehigh anxiety: more and more people are today turning to drugs to deal with stress (El Pa’s)\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003earmy of therapists to be sent into schools to tackle anxiety epidemic (The Telegraph)\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eis the internet giving us all adhd? (The Washington Post)\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"our minds can be hijacked\": the tech insiders who fear a smartphone dystopia (The Guardian)\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eteenagers are growing more anxious and depressed (The Economist)\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003einstagram worst social media app for young people's mental health (CNN)\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003ewhy are rates of suicide soaring across the planet? (Alternet)\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAs I said, it is ironic that reading the news about how things are making us anxious and depressed actually can make us anxious, and that tells us as much as the headlines themselves.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe aim in this book isn't to say that everything is a disaster and we're all screwed, because we already have Twitter for that. No. The aim isn't even to say that the modern world has uniformly worse problems than before. In some specific ways it is getting measurably better. In figures from the World Bank, the number of people worldwide living in severe economic hardship is falling radically, with over one billion people moving out of extreme poverty in the last thirty years. And think of all the millions of children's lives around the globe saved by vaccinations. As Nicholas Kristof pointed out in a 2017 New York Times article, \"if just about the worst thing that can happen is for a parent to lose a child, that's about half as likely as it was in 1990.\" So for all the ongoing violence and intolerance and economic injustice prevalent in our species, there are-on the most global of scales-also reasons for pride and hope.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe problem is that each age poses a unique and complex set of challenges. And while many things have improved, not all things have. Inequalities still remain. And some new problems have arisen. People often live in fear, or feel inadequate, or even suicidal, when they have- materially-more than ever.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAnd I am keenly aware that the oft-used approach of pointing out a list of advantages of modern life, such as health and education and average income, does not help. It is like a wagging finger telling a depressed person to count her blessings because no one has died. This book seeks to recognize that what we feel is just as important as what we have. That mental well-being counts as much as physical well-being-indeed, that it is part of physical well-being. And that, on these terms, something is going wrong.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIf the modern world is making us feel bad, then it doesn't matter what else we have going for us, because feeling bad sucks. And feeling bad when we are told there is no reason to, well, that sucks even more.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eI want this book to put these stressed-out headlines in context, and to look at how to protect ourselves in a world of potential panic. Because, whatever else we have going for ourselves, our minds are still vulnerable. Many mental health problems are quantifiably rising, and-if we believe our mental well-being is important-we need, quite desperately, to look at what might be behind these changes.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eMental health problems are not:\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eA bandwagon.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eFashionable.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eA fad.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eA celebrity trend.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eA result of a growing awareness of mental health problems.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAlways easy to talk about.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe same as they always were.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eYin to the yang\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSo, it is a tale of two realities.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eMany of us, it is true, have a lot to be grateful for in the developed world. The rise in life expectancy, the decline in infant mortality, the availability of food and shelter, the absence of major all-encompassing world wars. We have addressed many of our basic physical needs. So many of us live in relative day-to-day safety, with roofs over our heads and food on the table. But after solving some problems, are we left with others? Have some social advances brought new problems? Of course.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIt sometimes feels as if we have temporarily solved the problem of scarcity and replaced it with the problem of excess.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eEverywhere we look, people are seeking ways to change their lifestyles, by taking things away. Diets are the obvious example of this passion for restriction, but think also of the trend for dedicating whole months in the calendar to veganism or sobriety, and the growing desire for \"digital detoxes.\" The growth in mindfulness, meditation and minimal living is a visible response to an overloaded culture. A yin to the frantic yang of 21st-century life.","brand":"Penguin Life","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":46303075664101,"sku":"NP9780143133421","price":19.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1842\/7735\/files\/9780143133421.jpg?v=1767733920","url":"https:\/\/k12savings.com\/products\/notes-on-a-nervous-planet-isbn-9780143133421","provider":"K12savings","version":"1.0","type":"link"}