Legally High is a combination of self help and memoir, detailing the author’s experiences of incarceration and solitary confinement in Holloway prison facing a life sentence in Broadmoor hospital for the criminally insane. Alongside this rather eventful background, Nikki also shares a range of mindfulness techniques that she uses and claims could transform how you feel in 10 minutes.
This book begins by focusing on the author's personal experiences of being charged with arson, endangering life and intent to kill, the pronouncement of the psychologists that she was too far gone and should be sent to Broadmoor, her time in solitary confinement and the work done by doctors to correct a hormone imbalance that seemed to be at the root of the problems. I state this here not as a spoiler but as a warning that although this is a book on mindfulness, there are some intense subjects covered. The intention of this first section of the book is to explain that how we experience life and how we react to life events can shape us in a positive or negative way depending on our reaction and behaviour from then on.
The text flows very easily, with the ideas put across in a clear way, with imagery and description to keep the book interesting and entertaining. The mindfulness techniques themselves are all about slowing down, with claims in the book that you could “see a 200% increase in levels of calm and over a 100% decrease in anxiety levels.” in two weeks, with results after the first session. With claims like this I was intrigued. I read through the explanations of each element of the Breathing Space techniques, what they did and why they were important, however, there weren’t any specific practices included within the book. These day to day practices come when you download the author’s app and sign up to the free 10-Day challenge. As a result of this, I would recommend this book to anyone already familiar with Nikki and her work, or those researching mindfulness techniques to see which is the best for them, but not as a ‘one and done’ book for those wanting to find examples of meditations and practices to follow.
| Primary Genre | Indie Author Books |
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