Notes on a Nervous Planet

As someone who suffers from depression and anxiety, Matt’s writings help in letting Me know that I’m okay. This book is exactly what I needed to read. We are living in a time that is hard to understand and sometimes letting go is necessary, but not to the point of recklessness. Matt seems to always find the right way to pinpoint the struggles of many and he has the ability to make us feel as if we are wrapped safe in a warm blanket. Sounds corny, I’m sure… but I honestly having a hard time writing this without crying as it truly brought a certain type of peace to my soul. Thank you Matt. xoxo

I just finished reading Notes on a Nervous Planet, and if I had to select one book to sit on tables in doctor’s offices, mental health facilities, dentist’s offices, salons, that weird spare room at the mechanic’s next to the vending machine, or anywhere else someone is left waiting… it would be this one.

As we swim in lifes oceans
for we should,
we should,
they are part of the beauty that heals us.

As we swim
we must accept the waves and let them be waves.
Out of our control and not meant
to be swallowed by osmosis.

Coughing them back up stings.

I love this book, thank you.

While this collection of short essays and random yet compelling commentaries on our culture is marketed towards “those who suffer from anxiety and depression” – that’s ALL of us to one degree or another.

Such “ailments” are at epidemic levels in our culture (no, not our country, or our society – but by our entire western world CULTURE.

Why? Because inherently we KNOW that we’re on an unsustainable path, and that science and technology will NOT save us from ourselves.

But Haig’s common sense essays remind us that WE’RE not crazy – that the world IS crazy – and our reaction to that (anxiety) is NORMAL – but that doesn’t mean we have to be sucked down into insanity with it. Just that very notion that WE are in charge of how we think about ourselves, and the world, provides the calming sanity in which one can recognize that anxiety happens when we reject what we inherently know to be true.

Just because we live in a crazy culture doesn’t mean we need to accept it – or medicate ourselves be it with anti depressants, anti-anxiety meds – or of course the numerous other drugs including alcohol we use to dull our senses enough to accept a crazy world. We can recognize that our culture is crazy and make the choice stand outside of it even as we are forced to live within it – and work to create a new culture that embraces simplicity and sustainability. We can minimize those things like cellphones constant intrusion into our lives – and recognize that we have NO idea what we’re doing to a generation of kids being brought up to view the world through their cellphone cameras at best.

Haig touches on SO many topics – and while his chapters might be 1 or 2 pages long in a book that can be read in a weekend, it SHOULD foster a lifetime of contemplation of recognizing that we’re not quite as evolved as we think we are as a species – but that we ARE experiencing an awakening that can restore sanity and sustainability into an anxiety cultivating culture.

Bravo Matt Haig & thank you!

This book was suggested by a professor and it opens your eyes to many things happening in our world that we are oblivious to. I connected with many of the concepts and topics Matt Haig discussed. It felt like I was reading about experiences I have had personally. Notes on a Nervous Planet was the first book I got the chance to read for pleasure in quite some time and it sparked my desire to read again. Thank you for your vulnerability and honesty! I am so excited to read Matt Haig’s other books!

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