Book Nook: Trust Your Intuition - 100 Ways to Transform Anxiety and Depression for Stronger Mental Health

Do you ever wish that when feelings of anxiety or depression start creeping in, a caring, supportive therapist was right there, helping you break past the dark thoughts and emotions?

Licensed mental health counselor and wellness coach, Jill Sylvester has a new book: Trust Your Intuition: 100 Ways to Transform Anxiety and Depression for Stronger Mental Health. With this book, Jill is there beside you, coaching you through the techniques she uses with the adults, adolescents, children and parents she counsels in her private practice. Jill’s first book, Land of the Blue, won a Mom’s Choice Award in 2018.

Couched in personal anecdotes about Jill’s own struggle with anxiety and depression and her path to overcoming them, Trust Your Intuition provides that reassuring voice we all crave when feeling uncertain, dark or down.

Its five sections focus on how to: Hold On through some of the most grueling feelings of anxiety and depression; Take Good Self-Care; Believe; Trust Your Intuition; and Feel Better. Written in a warm, conversational tone accessible to all, it is easy to read, re-read, or flip through when you need to find just the right tool for a particular challenge.

For example:

• Is anxiety creeping up on you? Play the “And Then What?” game, running the anxiety all the way through to a place where you emerge unscathed—or laughing!  (I've actually done this with my kids, it totally helps)
• Feeling overwhelmed or on the verge of panic? Take a moment to distance yourself from the source.
• Want to set yourself up for a peaceful, anxiety-free day? List three to five things you are grateful for when you first wake up. Check in with yourself through exercise or meditation before checking your phone.
• Are your children feeling anxious? Show them how to use the ‘tighten and release’ technique to help tension leave their body. Bonus: you can do this too!
• Are you unnerved by your inner gremlins’ negative voices? Learn to outsmart them by talking back.
• Worried that your next bad day is right around the corner? Don’t wait for it to happen. Prevent it by scheduling regular mental health days off.

Above all, Trust Your Intuition delivers this powerful reminder: your intuition never lies. Through practice, you can learn to tune into its voice and follow it like an inner navigation system. You can strengthen intuition too, like a muscle, and come to trust your own inner voice.

Doing so—and following the tips in Trust Your Intuition—will reinforce your power to raise the bar for your life and overcome the feelings weighing you down. It’s simply a matter of deciding you truly want something different, Jill says: not just in theory, but in action.

I had a chance to interview Jill to learn more.

Why did you decide to write this book?

I decided to write this book because I have noticed in my 10 years of practice that when people learn to trust themselves, they personally develop at a faster rate. In addition, when I have share techniques that have helped me, these same techniques help clients as well. 

Why is it so important to trust one's intuition?

It is important to trust one’s intuition because the most important answers lie within a person, not outside of themselves. 

What is the relationship between self-care and intuition?

The relationship between self-care and intuition is complimentary. A person who puts greater stock into their self-care naturally develops their intuition as a result. 

About the Author

Jill Sylvester is a licensed mental health counselor who has worked with adults and children in private practice for nearly ten years. She has been quoted in Oprah Magazine and She Knows. Her first book, the novel The Land of Blue, is the recipient of a Mom’s Choice Award.