Seven essential lessons from The Odyssey; a timeless story of strength against adversity, resilience and never losing sight of your goals.

Who are you? How can you be who you want to be? How do you treat those around you? What really matters? The Odyssey Mindset translates the ancient wisdom of Homer’s classic epic into a reassuring and helpful toolkit for modern life. Each of the seven lessons are explained in parallel to our modern context, with practical takeaways and applications.

Dr Sam Akbar, an Oxford Classicist and Clinical Psychologist, guides you through Odysseus’s physical journey from Troy to Ithaca, but also the mental lessons of this ancient journey of self-knowledge.

Wherever you are on your journey, The Odyssey Mindset will help you navigate the obstacles that life presents.

Stress. It’s everywhere these days: a cry for help, the answer to why illnesses pop up (or won’t go away), an issue for students and workers, and a culprit when it comes to everything from car accidents to weight gain. Stress is one of those problems most of us are left to figure out and solve by ourselves (a warm bath with scented candle only goes so far).

Dr. Sam Akbar walks worried readers through how to calm themselves by:

• understanding how your brain is wired and why its natural genius at problem-solving doesn’t help when it comes to stress
• creating space between you and your thoughts
• repeating worrisome words to sap them of meaning
• defusing “thought bombs”
• learning to avoid the CAGE (Control, Avoid, Get rid of, Eliminate) when it comes to feelings and training yourself to stop trying to shut down real pain
• scanning and labelling feelings
• the power of urge surfing
• accessing your own wisdom

There are tried-and-true techniques here, but many more fresh ways to consider the problem of stress. And every one of them is real-world: this book acknowledges that we all have responsibilities, that our time likely isn’t our own, and that the goal is to reduce stress rather than eliminate it altogether.

'...short, sharp guide to managing your mind.' THE SUNDAY TIMES STYLE 'If I could inject it, I would.' REFINERY29 'Brilliant' THE TELEGRAPH Manage your mind. Handle your emotions. Concentrate on what matters in life. So many of us feel stressed in our daily lives but lack the ability to respond to life's hurdles effectively and overcome these challenges. We can build resilience to stress by taking action to live our lives in a more meaningful way. The answer is to become stressilient. Dr Sam Akbar will show you how. As a clinical psychologist with over ten years of experience, Dr Sam draws from her own professional expertise to provide sensitive and realistic guidance to feel calmer, less stressed, and more resilient to life's challenges. From understanding how your brain works, managing your emotions and challenging your thought-processes, to opening up your perspective and having more self-compassion, Stressilient offers an indispensable, easy and effective go-to guide to help you get from surviving to thriving.