How to Relax, by Thich Nhat Hanh

Staff review by Chris Saliba

A quick guide to meditation and mindfulness, providing lessons that are not easily forgotten.

Thich Nhat Hanh is a Buddhist monk and peace activist. Exiled from his home country of Vietnam, he lives in Plum Village in the south of France.

How to Relax is a short, 120 page book that teaches the reader about the benefits of meditation and mindfulness, providing helpful tips on how to calm anxieties and find more peace and enjoyment in life. The central technique to achieving proper relaxation is through breathing exercises. Thich Nhat Hanh gives the reader little poems to recite to help achieve this goal.

This is a very attractively packaged little book, full of pleasant drawings to accompany the text. The book is broken up into little chapters, no more than a page long, each examining some aspect of meditation and mindfulness. A favourite chapter warned how the things we spend much time hoping will make us happy - money, a good reputation - often have the paradoxical effect of making us unhappy. The solution? Breathe in, breath out. Live in the present, wonderful moment.

Other books in this series by Thich Nhat Hanh:

How to Walk
How to Sit
How to Love

How to Relax, by Thich Nhat Hanh. Published by Rider. ISBN: 9781846045189 RRP: $12.99

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