A book review of The Modern Monk: Walking The Path to an Elevated Life, a Step-by-Step Journey to Long Term Health, Fitness and Well-Being by Hayden McComas
Stars: ****
1° Publishing (2025)
Health>Nutrition
254 pages
Disclosure: I received this book in exchange for an honest review. This post contains affiliate links.
Summary: What if becoming your best self only required a small, intentional shift each day? Modern life feels like it’s rigged against us. With low-quality food, constant distractions, and sleepless nights, staying healthy can seem impossible. Despite access to endless information, many of us still struggle with fatigue, brain fog, and a nagging dissatisfaction with life. But it doesn’t have to be that way.
In The Modern Monk, you’ll discover how simple daily choices can transform your health, clarity, and happiness.This isn’t about massive overhauls or overwhelming routines-it’s about small, sustainable steps that fit seamlessly into your life. Using five key pillars-sleep, meditation, nutrition, exercise, and neuroplasticity-you’ll learn how to design a lifestyle that works for you, not against you.
Inside, you’ll learn how to: Prioritize sleep so you wake up energized and focused; Integrate meditation into your day for a calmer, sharper mind; optimize nutrition to fuel your body and brain; move in ways that build resilience without burnout and harness neuroplasticity to rewire habits and unlock your potential.
Imagine a life where each day feels purposeful, energized, and aligned. The Modern Monk offers a practical, step-by-step roadmap to help you get there-starting right now. Don’t wait for “someday” to feel your best. Your Healthy Era has begun!
The Modern Monk
I’ve read a lot of self-help books about nutrition and health and this one is different in a good way. It goes over some of the same things I’ve heard elsewhere but then instead of just giving you a giant list of things to change about your life and expecting you to just jump in, the author gives you steps.
So after every chapter there are three “levels” to help you step into the healthy habits. Level 1 helps you start making the first steps toward that goal. Level 2 is more in-depth and Level 3 is all in. For example with the meditation chapter each level has you meditating for longer and setting up a routine (1), exploring different techniques (2) and joining a retreat (3).
I think this is a lot more likely to get readers started on making real changes. You could add tabs to the end of each chapter labelled with chapter title (e.g. nutrition or meditation) and then circle or add sticky notes to show which level you are on. As with any self-help book though, you can’t just read it and be magically better. That’s not how they work of course.
There is a lot of Buddhism mentioned and Japanese words explained since it’s The Modern Monk. I found the Japanese words interesting as I love languages.
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