The Mayo Clinic Guide to Stress-Free Living

In this book, Amit Sood, M.D., M.Sc., a Mayo Clinic specialist in stress and resiliency, reveals how the mind's instinctive restlessness and shortsightedness generate stress and anxiety and presents strategies for living a more peaceful life.




Have you ever driven several miles without noticing anything on the road, or read a page in a book without registering any of it? Do the day's worries and disappointments crowd your mind as you're trying to fall asleep at night? Do you feel stressed much of the time and aren't sure how to find peace?




This book is based on the highly popular stress management program offered at Mayo Clinic that Dr. Sood developed after two decades of work with tens of thousands of people. Drawing on groundbreaking brain research, Dr. Sood helps you understand the brain's two modes and how an imbalance between them produces unwanted stress. From this basis, you learn skills that will help you:




Develop deep and sustained attention

Practice gratitude, compassion and acceptance

Live a meaningful life

Cultivate nurturing relationships

Achieve your highest potential




All of these concepts are weaved into a practical and fun journey that has been tested in numerous scientific studies, with consistently positive results. Take the first step to discover greater peace and joy for you and your loved ones.




"Dr. Sood has put together a simple, secular and structured program that is anchored in science, is free of rituals and dogmas, and is accessible to everyone. This book can change your life." -- Dr. Andrew Weil




"An important innovative approach to well-being, one we all should know about." -- Dr. Daniel Goleman

This practical, can-do guide, written by a positive-energy medical doctor at the Mayo Clinic, offers clear steps to take to decrease the bad kind of stress. As Sood notes, “Good stress motivates you, preps you for a challenge and gives you extra pep.” Bad stress is caused by “excessive workload, lack of control, and lack of meaning.” To cope with negative pressure, Sood highlights the principles of stress-free living: gratitude, compassion, acceptance, higher meaning, and forgiveness. Each principle gets a chapter. So do “tribe” (family and friends) and “relaxation and reflection.” Sood also provides his “seven-point program for increasing energy”: eating healthy food, sleeping seven to eight hours a day, keeping company with good people, avoiding news overdoses, following an exercise routine, doing something meaningful each day, and thinking good thoughts for others. Just reading Sood’s lucid, commonsensical recommendations is a start to eliminating negative stress. --Karen Springen

"Dr. Sood has put together a simple, secular and structured program that is anchored in science, is free of rituals and dogmas, and is accessible to everyone. This book can change your life."--Dr. Andrew Weil

"An important innovative approach to well-being, one we all should know about."--Dr. Daniel Goleman

Booklist, 1/1/2014

“This practical, can-do guide, written by a positive-energy medical doctor at the Mayo Clinic, offers clear steps to take to decrease the bad kind of stress…Just reading Sood's lucid, commonsensical recommendations is a start to eliminating negative stress.”

Taste for Life, February 2014

“Offers an innovative approach to mindfulness and well-being.”

Chatelaine.com “10 Best Health Books of 2014,” 2/3/14

Spirituality & Practice, 3/1/2014

“Dr. Sood has come up with a rather amazing affirmation of a contented life.”

Taste for Life, May 2014
“Dr. Sood offers simple solutions to relieving stress in our day-to-day problems…This 10-part guide can help readers find peace and achieve their goals toward creating a healthier and happier life.”

Mayo Clinic is a nonprofit worldwide leader in medical care, research and education for people from all walks of life. For more information, visit MayoClinic.com.

Amit Sood, M.D. is Director of Research and Practice in the Mayo Clinic Complementary and Integrative Medicine Program and Associate Professor, Chair of the Mayo Mind-Body Initiative.