It’s that time of year again, when people start taking stock of the year that was and think ahead wondering how they can improve their lives. Countless New Year's resolutions are being planned at this very moment. For a fair few people, their resolutions will involve focusing on improving their mental health. It’s a worthy goal no matter what your mental landscape is like. With that in mind, ‘Your Head Is A Houseboat: A Chaotic Guide to Mental Clarity’ by Campbell Walker is a great book, one that anyone on a (mental) self-improvement journey should read.
About The Author
Campbell Walker, also known as Struthless, is a content creator on
YouTube (and various other platforms) that I’ve been following for a few years now.
He makes great videos about so many interesting topics, with the overall theme of the videos covering self-reflective journaling, art, and introspection. In general (and based entirely on the content he produces), he seems like a decent guy who’s just trying to make everyone’s head a nicer place to live in.
What The Book Is About
Achieving mental clarity by taking complex concepts and the latest advances in psychology, and making them more accessible to the average person through a fully illustrated houseboat tour metaphor. To the surprise of absolutely no one familiar with Cam’s content, the book is filled with anthropomorphic metacognitions in the form of mean bosses and sock puppets and animals, as well as journaling exercises at the end of each chapter to ensure that the reader fully understands the concepts presented before moving on to the next section.
My Thoughts
I have to hand it to him, ‘mental clarity’ was a great description of exactly what this book provides. Several times when I was following along with the activities at the end of the chapters I’d have an epiphany, followed by moments of genuine relief from the constant never ending thought process that is my brain. I actually felt moments of clarity. While I enjoy his videos, I truly did not expect to be as impacted by the book as I was. The concepts covered in the book were not new to me, but the way in which they were covered brought everything into a new light. The analogies resonated with me, and the full-colour illustrations were such a lovely bonus too. I think that this would be a great book to read regardless of whether it’s your first or fifty-first time reading about mental health and self-development.