What if You Had Diarrhea?
Finding calm in urgent moments
This isn't really a book about diarrhea. It's a book about stress, and how one cheeky question can help you tell real urgency from the pretend kind, so your nervous system can finally settle.
Funny title. Real relief.
Paperback, available on Amazon.ca
Samantha Timbers
Speaker · Trainer · Hypnotist · Coach · Author
Holiday sale, December 1 to 23
Funny, practical, and the perfect stocking stuffer or Secret Santa gift for the coworker who says "I don't have time" before nine in the morning.
Hear it from Samantha
A quick hello about the book
Press play to hear Samantha share what this book is all about, and how one funny question can help you find calm when everything in your day feels urgent.
The idea
Real urgency doesn't debate.
If diarrhea hit right now, you wouldn't finish the email, answer one more text or check your calendar first. You would stop, deal with it, and figure out the rest later. That is your nervous system doing exactly what it was built to do.
The trouble is that most of what feels urgent in an ordinary day isn't. When your body's alarm stays switched on for inboxes, to-do lists and unanswered messages, pressure builds and clear thinking gets harder. This book helps you notice the difference, sooner and more kindly.
Your alarm system
Your sympathetic nervous system speeds you up when something needs action, and your parasympathetic system helps you slow down and settle. The book helps you catch the moments when the first one has been running far longer than it needs to.
Open loops
Unfinished tasks, undecided choices and things you meant to come back to keep humming in the background. They feel urgent because they are unresolved, not because they are all important. Closing even one gives your mind room to breathe.
One small shift
Every spread pairs a familiar stressed-out thought with a simple, body-based reset you can try in a minute or two. There is nothing to master, just a way to pause, notice what is really happening and choose your next step.
Inside the book
Open to any page.
Each spread starts with something you have probably said this week, then offers a shift you can try right away. There are more than sixty of them, and you can read them in any order, whenever the day feels too loud.
"I literally don't have time for this right now."
Maybe you don't, yet. Notice if you're scrolling, overthinking and half-starting five things at once. Real urgency doesn't debate. If you felt it in your stomach, you would drop everything and move, with no guilt and no negotiation.
This might not be about time at all. It could be pretend urgency hijacking your system and making everything feel like an emergency when it isn't.
The shift
- Grab something cold, like an ice cube, or run cold water over your wrists.
- Hold it for 20 to 30 seconds and feel the sharpness cut through the noise.
- Ask yourself, "What actually needs to happen right now?"
- Pick one small step and do only that, letting everything else wait for now.
You may recognize a few of these
Who it's for
For anyone whose life feels too loud, too fast or too urgent.
Being busy doesn't mean you are failing. Usually it means you care, and you have been carrying too much for too long without enough space to reset.
Whether you are juggling a demanding job, running a household on your own, caring for other people all day or simply feeling stretched thin, this book meets you where you are. Keep it on your desk, in your bag or, yes, in the bathroom.
About the author
Samantha Timbers
Samantha is the founder of Simple Wellness in Newmarket, Ontario. As a hypnotist, coach, trainer and speaker, she helps people calm their nervous system and create lasting change through subconscious reprogramming, whether that means reducing stress, quitting smoking or stepping into a new identity.
With 25 years of management experience in employment services and her teaching in the Social Service Worker program at Seneca College, she brings neuroscience and humour into the room in equal measure.
"Captivating presenter!"
"My stress has been reduced!"
For organizations
Bring the book into your workplace.
The book pairs with Samantha's workshops on stress, overwhelm and empathic strain. It's a light-hearted way to keep the tools close long after the session ends, so people can focus on what matters and do their best work with a calmer mind.
Get books for all your participants when you schedule a seminar.
"If you don't have a minute to pause, then we need an hour session."
Start with the minute. Pick up the book, open to any page and give your nervous system a reason to settle.