Happy Not Perfect

Upgrade Your Mind, Challenge Your Thoughts, and Free Yourself from Anxiety

By: Poppy Jamie

Narrated by: Poppy Jamie

Length: 10 hrs and 26 mins

Publisher's summary

A clear path to overcoming uncertainty, perfectionism, and fears of rejection so you can finally find peace with the past and create a happier, healthier future

“Poppy’s powerful approach will help you take control of your thoughts so they don’t control you.” (Lori Gottlieb, New York Times best-selling author of Maybe You Should Talk to Someone) 

Even before the pandemic brought on a crushing wave of stress, anxiety, isolation, life change, and financial struggle, there was already a growing mental health crisis. Due to a culture that encourages perfection, hustle, and fictional life/work balance, many are burning out. Behind her Instagram-projected image of “happy wellness founder”, Poppy Jamie was also struggling mightily with perfectionism and life purpose.

She began working with mental health experts and researchers to find practical tools to overcome her inner critic and rewire her mind. She discovered that it is possible to create new neural pathways in your brain to break patterns of avoidance, challenge fears of not being good enough, and turn failure around by stretching the mind with new, healthier thought habits. The old wiring (and habits) that you’ve been stuck with can be written-over. You can actually upgrade your headspace to make curiosity, vulnerability, compassion, and emotional flexibility your default settings.

In the emphatic and trusted voice of Bridget Jones meets neuroscience, Poppy shares her Flexy Thoughts approach for changing how you react to emotional triggers and think of yourself while improving your mental and physical health, relationships, and vision of the future. Our emotional resilience may continue to be tested, but the new perspectives and strategies in Happy Not Perfect will help us bring confidence, adaptability, and acceptance to whatever comes next.

©2021 Poppy Jamie (P)2021 Random House Audio

Critic reviews

“After perhaps one of the most a­nxiety-ridden years in our recent history, this book by wellness founder Poppy Jamie is a welcome read.... [Jamie] details her work with mental health experts and researchers to uncover effective brain-rewiring strategies. Through her experience, you'll glean advice on how to be more adaptable and accepting of our very uncertain world.” (mindbodygreen)

“What Poppy does in Happy Not Perfect is marshal the evidence from a legion of world-renowned thinkers, living and dead, to demonstrate the reality that striving for perfection is counter-productive, that before we can be happy we must offer ourselves compassion and ultimately, that the solution to our own happiness is not external but internal. She offers innumerable examples and practical techniques that gives us the tools necessary to be the architects of our own happiness and recognize that to be happy, one doesn’t have to be perfect.” (James R. Doty, MD, New York Times best-selling author of Into the Magic Shop: A Neurosurgeon’s Quest to Discover the Mysteries of the Brain and the Secrets of the Heart and founder and director of the Center for Compassion and Altruism Research and Education at Stanford University)

“Happy Not Perfect is a must-read if perfectionism, comparing yourself to others, and thinking you’re inadequate is taking you down. The strategies here are well thought out, practical, easy to implement, effective, and life-changing. Using them, you’ll experience breakthroughs that lead to less anxiety, more emotional freedom, and genuine connection with others. Thank you, Poppy Jamie, for gifting us with your FLEX approach!” (Joan Rosenberg, PhD, author of 90 Seconds to a Life You Love)

I needed this book

As a similarly perfectionist, anxious individual with low self-esteem, I needed this book. I needed to hear that I could change the hate I've felt towards myself for years, and how to do so. Thank you, Poppy! I related to so many anecdotes and thoughts of feeling like an imposter. I've been working on "flexing" my thoughts for the past couple of weeks, and it's already making a world of difference.

loved

Amazing, this book is about accepting people for who they are. Including yourself, which is the hardest part. And not assuming and telling yourself stories about what others think and feel. But to turn inwards for answers. She gives you tools to learn how to flex your thinking in a more positive way. I've read front to back and this book will be my forever tool! She gives you examples but it's up to you to use them if you want. She is brave and shares her stories with a little humor which I'm into. A young woman of her time who works hard tries to do it all but craves balance. She's not for everyone I guess but I have shared it with so many of my friends and clients and they love it! I'm a busy hairdresser with a new baby and I deal with so many people. This book has brought me back to myself.