The book begins with a quote: “After all, youth is the moment. Live boldly.” Youth is certainly the moment, and that’s exactly what all teens wish they could do - live boldly. This book certainly attempts to get teenagers, normal people like you and me, to do just that.

The book offers help for the biggest plight for most teens. Getting the nerve to just do it. Whatever ‘it’ may be. Get Out of Your Mind and Into Your Life For Teens is about working around the embarrassment, fear, and self-criticism that’s a part of being a teenager.

Obviously, this book isn’t for anybody looking for a quick fix. Reading it won’t make you feel better, besides showing you that you’re not alone. The important part of this book is learning to use the techniques they show you to encourage yourself, and work around the mind blocks that you’ve built into your brain. The book portrays the feelings suppressing you as the badsadmad monster, and you as a BOLD warrior. Breathing, Observing, Listening to your values, Deciding on actions and going through with them. While these methods are explained in a rather cheesy manner, targeted for younger teens, they fundamentally make sense, and help if you work with them.

This book has two parts that were helpful to me. The first was the concept of observing yourself, your emotions, and thoughts as a third party impartial observer. From there it becomes much easier to question what would otherwise be automatic write offs: I’m incapable. I’m unlovable. I’m a loser. Your brain works to find these imaginary problems, for reasons explained in the book. And if you take a step back, it’s easy to recognize these thoughts, acknowledge that you’re feeling them, and let them go.

A lot of this book is there to make you think about who you are, and what you want. Defining your goals, and figuring out your values are a key part of it. Finding yourself is part of the process, and you’re not alone: the book features two imaginary teens, Jess and Sam, that go through all the exercises with you. You learn and grow with them.

Get Out of Your Mind and Into Your Life for Teens is a book written to empower you. It’s a book written to help you dig yourself out of the rut. It’s a hand up, but it’s not going to pull you out. You have to do the climbing.

Anne Driscoll is a member of the Youth Travel Blogging Mentorship Program.

Note: We received a review copy from the publisher - thank you!