Mind Fuel – simple ways to build mental resilience every day, by Bear Grylls and Will Van der Hart 

Mind Fuel covers almost 200 mental health topics, aimed at a particular target audience

Mind Fuel – simple ways to build mental resilience every day
By Bear Grylls and Will Van der Hart
Hodder and Stoughton
978-1-399-80509-4
Reviewed by Sue Clements-Jewery

I was drawn to read this book as someone whose professional life has for many years been focussed on helping those in ministry attend to their wellbeing and build resilience. Mind Fuel covers almost 200 mental health topics and contains 365 readings, one for each day of the year, each one occupying just one page of the book, aiming to provide a whole year’s worth of guidance to deal with life’s challenges. Reflective questions appear at the bottom of each page to enable the reader to apply the insights to their own experience.

Topics are categorised into eight broader themes that enable the reader to access the material s/he feels they need most – these are Wisdom, Battles, Motivation, Courage, Relationships, Self-care, Spirituality and Determination each one flagged up by a picture/symbol. Each double page focusses on one of the topics so it is possible to use the symbols to follow through a particular topic.

The authorship is interesting. Bear Grylls, described as ‘the ‘world’s most recognised adventurer,’  has his name in large letters on the cover, and the name of the co-author, Will Van der Hart, appears underneath in a much smaller font. Will Van der Hart has been an Anglican priest in London for 18 years and is a director of The Mind and Soul Foundation, surely a person worthy of having his contribution acknowledged.

At the end of the book there are a number of endorsements from consultant psychiatrists and psychologist Kate Middleton, author of the excellent book Refuel ('How to balance work, life, faith and church – without burning out’), published in 2015.  

However the text of the book sounds as if it all comes out of the mouth of Bear Grylls, as most of the examples he uses are from his survival and combat experiences. As I read there was a strong sense for me that the target readership is the followers of Bear Grylls, those who see him as a role model, (along with being the Chief Scout and committed Christian) and who perhaps who might not normally be exposed to information about emotional and mental resilience.

I found the presentation of the book unattractive, and it’s a hefty tome quite a weight. The layout of the pages is boring and repetitive(no pictures). I ended up disappointed.

Does it work? I have to confess that I didn’t read every daily entry. I was put off in part by the often militaristic nature of the examples quoted, but as stated, I'm not the target readership. Nevertheless, I think it is asking a lot for people to read this book on their own and also do the reflective exercises on a daily basis without dialogue with others.
 

Sue Clements-Jewery is a pastoral supervisor