Gift of Your Mind : How to stay mentally well

This book is written from one human being to another and aims to share tools to help the reader with their own well-being. The author writes from the heart and, touches on her own vulnerabilities, in the hope of showing empathy and understanding.

After a life changing event in 2017 Anne-Marie Lloyd was diagnosed with depression. This book reflects all she learned to help herself through this. She realised she had always had the tools she writes about having learnt them as a child. Her drunken father verbally and physically abused his family. Having a loving and nurturing mother helped shape her mindset, but so did the tenaciousness of her father. Had she not lived with him and known him as she did, she would not have written this book. For his gift to her was ‘as a teacher’ of how to be and how not to be. As a child, unbeknown to her, she had already taught herself how not to be victim of her own thoughts.

Ann-Marie writes that no-one chooses to feel low or depressed and she shares how readers can help themselves on a daily basis. Anchors give the reader hooks to hang things on such as knowing they are not alone in suffering mental pain and that their feelings are valid.

Ann-Marie describes how our lives are spent inside our heads. It is where we each live. No one else is there, just us. And in this way the reader will learn that through their thoughts they can control their feelings. With that, it is explained they alone hold the power for how they feel. No one else holds the power over them and ultimately it is about self-preservation.