She Treads Softly: How to Be Okay When Nothing Is Okay

Tuesday, March 10, 2026

How to Be Okay When Nothing Is Okay

How to Be Okay When Nothing Is Okay by Jenny Lawson
3/31/26; 288 pages
Viking/Penguin

How to Be Okay When Nothing Is Okay by Jenny Lawson is a highly recommended self-help guide filled with genuine and humorous heartfelt advice for anyone suffering from self-doubt, depression, anxiety, ADHD, creative blocks, distraction, overthinking, and paralysis. That's quite the list and yet Lawson offers her collection of more than one hundred coping strategies for it all.

The book is organized into twelve parts with very short chapters. You can read it straight through or pick and chose sections you may need for a quick boost or reset of your mind. The opening sections will tell you what the short chapters in that section will help you with and the chapter titles will also assist in that endeavor. There are photos, illustrations, and quotes throughout the text.

There were several quotes which I immediately highlighted as they spoke to me right now, which accentuates the intended purpose of the guide. One was the fact that terrible moments make amazing stories which you can share and laugh about. A mantra I have fully embraced for years. Another reminder was something I'm currently struggling with doing, the observation that being kind also means being kind to yourself and removing yourself from bad situations, something that can be easier said than done. An additional tip was that the greatest gift you can give is to share the hard times, the traumatic and terrible things. Even though it may traumatize you, it can also serve to heal those wounds.

Now there were also sections that didn't speak to me right now, but that is the whole purpose of this guide - it will assist you in areas where you need help when you need it. If you are not familiar with Lawson, take note that she is shares deeply personal anecdotes, her humor can be dark, and she can use profanity.

How to Be Okay When Nothing Is Okay is a mental health guide that offers entertainment and understanding. Thanks to Viking/Penguin for providing me with an advance reader's copy via NetGalley. My review is voluntary and expresses my honest opinion.

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John Updike's six rules for reviewing:

1. Try to understand what the author wished to do, and do not blame him for not achieving what he did not attempt.

2. Give him enough direct quotation--at least one extended passage--of the book's prose so the review's reader can form his own impression, can get his own taste.

3. Confirm your description of the book with quotation from the book, if only phrase-long, rather than proceeding by fuzzy precis.

4. Go easy on plot summary, and do not give away the ending.

5. If the book is judged deficient, cite a successful example along the same lines, from the author's oeuvre or elsewhere. Try to understand the failure. Sure it's his and not yours?

To these concrete five might be added a vaguer sixth, having to do with maintaining a chemical purity in the reaction between product and appraiser.....Review the book, not the reputation.... Better to praise and share than blame and ban. The communion between reviewer and his public is based upon the presumption of certain possible joys in reading, and all our discriminations should curve toward that end.