Crystal Mullen-Johnson's 21 Day Journey To Strive For A Healthier You is a non-fiction devotional style journal for those who want to harness the well-documented benefits of daily journaling as a transformative way to promote positive mental health. As the title suggests, this is a three-week program but one that I would suspect readers will return to as needed. The majority of the book is blank-lined pages for readers to complete the daily theme, but each of the 21 days has an independent theme that includes topics such as Focus on day four, Grief on day fourteen, and Forgiveness on day eighteen. Mullen-Johnson imparts a brief paragraph or two on the topic, a question prompt to facilitate reflection and journaling, a quote, and a breathing challenge. The full journey is capped off with an assessment and breathing techniques as part of the backmatter.

As I perused through the first run of 21 Day Journey To Strive For A Healthier You, the voice of my grandmother rang in the back of my mind with one of her little nuggets of wisdom: “Why use nine words when it only takes two?” Crystal Mullen-Johnson gives us a streamlined and extremely straightforward route to jumpstart our forward movement to living in a healthier mental state. What I appreciated most is that she doesn't muck about with fillers just to pad the journal out, which allowed me to really focus on the material. I hate to admit that I sometimes have the attention span of a ferret, and so the most immediately helpful day for me was day eight; Get It Right. Mullen-Johnson writes, “Avoid procrastination, schedule alerts as reminders, and give yourself grace,” and I have been working to address this particular hurdle. Overall, this is a great little book that may be small in size but has the potential for a big impact.

Crystal Mullen-Johnson's 21 Day Journey To Strive For A Healthier You is a self-help guide and a challenge to be taken up by anyone who wants to lead a healthier life in 21 days. It is comprehensive, includes breathing exercises, tips, advice, 21 chapters to reflect on and adopt a better lifestyle one baby step at a time. The aim is to feel better, not to be stressed out or anxious. Therefore, the author always strives to help us in a challenging but easy-going way. She is particularly open, empathetic, kind-hearted and that is appealing.

Crystal Mullen-Johnson's 21 Day Journey To Strive For A Healthier You is an amazing and beautifully-designed self-help guide/challenge for busy (or not) people who need a small push toward a better, thriving, healthier life. I loved everything about this book. It is short and to the point. It is also interactive. The author stresses the importance of being engaged in the process and allows the reader space to reflect, connect, and of course change. You can jot down notes when you have read and completed the actions/reflections of each of the twenty-one chapters. You also have a pre-challenge and a post-challenge assessment to fill in, and an inspirational “letter from the author”, references, and a blank spot for introspection. Everything in this opus allows you to grow as a person and to feel better on your journey of self-awareness and self-discovery. My favorite chapters are those about forgiveness, emotional regulation, habits, self-resilience, and self-care, which is hard to focus on when you are a mum and a teacher. Thank you so much for a delightful and useful challenge!