British journalist and columnist, Oliver Burkeman in Meditations for Mortals takes us on a liberating journey towards a more meaningful life – one that begins not with fantasies of the ideal existence, but with the reality in which we actually find ourselves. Ask yourself why you should spend huge amount of money in the pursuit of wellbeing, but when you sign up for a meditation class you’ll no doubt be bombarded with online adverts for crystal water bottles, nutritional powders, branded workouts and self-help books. Addressing the fundamental questions about how to live, it offers a powerful new way to take action on what counts: a guiding philosophy of life. How can we embrace our non-negotiable limitations? Make good decisions when there’s always too much to do? What if purposeful productivity were often about letting things happen, not making them happen? Reflecting on ideas from philosophy, religion, literature, psychology, and self-help Burkeman explores practical tools and shifts in perspective resulting in a bracing challenge to much familiar advice and a profound yet entertaining crash course in living more fully. Meditation for Mortals will be a source of solace and inspiration and an aid to a saner, freer, and more enchantment-filled life. In anxiety-inducing times, it is rich in truths we have never needed more.Our need for reassurance is insatiable. Researchers at Coventry University studied mediation and found not only did it fail to improve the mental health for many suffering from depression, but also for some it made things significantly worse. In Meditation for Mortals, Burkeman ties to unshackle us from the dream of life improvement and asks  us to consider the benefits of imperfectionism. There is some unwelcome exaggeration about what life is like if we do not heed the advice to accept imperfectionism.  Burkeman writes “ We are constantly trying to take charge in our own lives means the world feels dead and life edges ever close to being a dull solitary and often infuriating chore.

• Meditations of Mortals: Four Weeks to Embrace your Limitations  by Oliver Burkeman, Bodley Head £18.99, 208 pages.