Book Reviews

Before I ever opened the book, I sat staring at the cover for probably a good 2 minutes. The only image is that of a lit match but, somehow, it’s more than enough.  The effect stops you in your mental tracks and you find yourself gathering your thoughts around the fire.  Nice, warm, inviting.

So we went inside. I never go anywhere without my thoughts, but they’ve been known to leave me behind more than once.  An hour.

Spot of Grace: Remarkable Stories of How You DO Make a Difference by Dawna Markova, PHD is a dangerously inspirational book. One never knows where that much inspiration might take them!  It’s filled with stories from men and women as they describe a special person who made them feel that they mattered.  That they had made a difference in the world.

That’s a very important feeling to have, after all!  We all have times in our lives when we wonder if we’ve ever really touched anyone deeply enough to have an impact, let alone make a difference.  The stories, as well as the beautiful words by the author, stir something inside of the reader until she/he realizes that they have indeed touched others.

The best part?  You’re left with only one thing on your mind and in your heart:   To get out there and touch as many more as you possibly can!

When I sat down with the book, we had an understanding.  I had laundry to put away, dishes in the sink to wash, three posts to write, and a bath to fall into.  I would devote 30 minutes to reading, then I’d be on my way.  That would, at the very least, give me a chance to read quite a few of stories.

Ah, the best laid plans.

I couldn’t put the book down, so I couldn’t pick the laundry or dishes up. They were okay with that, as they were perfectly comfortable where they were.

Spot of Grace: Remarkable Stories of How You DO Make a Difference inspires your heart as it uplifts your soul.  It’s a journey you’ll enjoy very much. 

A week ago, I had the supreme pleasure of reading an e-book, When Money Talks, Listen! by Rich Ezzo. It took only about an hour to read, and that included one trip to the coffee maker and about 10 distractions from Alexa (our cat) who knows she’s the center of the universe.  Just try telling her differently.

I’m not a person who sits still well, so I actually began reading with every intention of bookmarking the pdf and finishing later in the day.  However, I didn’t realize just how pulled into the delightful fiction I would become.  I finished it in one sitting and loved every minute

When I first received a copy, I thought it was a Get Rich Quick-type of publication.  Nothing wrong with Getting Rich Quick or any other way, mind you - but my mind just doesn’t chase after dreams of wealth.  It has grand plans, mind you, which include saving the world, but I’m not a wealth chaser.  I figure that if God ever wants me to be rich, He knows where to find my purse. 

Needless to say, when I began reading When Money Talks, Listen!, I was overjoyed to find that Rich Ezzo isn’t money hungry either.  He, too, is hungry for things far more important than money.

I absolutely love this e-book.  Why wait a week to write the review?  Simple.  I wanted to see if the impact it had on me was a keeper.  After reading the last word of the e-book, I totally agreed with the subtitle which promised to forever change the way we thought about money.  I had so many thoughts running around my mind that I had to install a stop light to stop some while others made their way into the picture - then you yield them as a few new ones arrived in town.  I had a mental traffic jam, which only goes to show how slow the traffic usually is.

It has been a week and the impact is the same.  I truly do look at money differently and have even done a few things differently this week.  This is an e-book you’ll want to read, I guarantee it.  I often recommend books to my daughters, and this is one that I didn’t just “suggest” - I left it open at the bottom of the computer and told each one, “Read it, you’ll love it.”  Like a lot of the meals I fix for them, I didn’t tell them how good it would be for them, just how good it was!

I honestly don’t want to give anything, whatsoever, away about this story, simply because I want you to have the same experience I did.  The e-book is less than $10 and will take only about an hour to read.  As I’ve said many times on this blog as well as other blogs I publish, I would never recommend anything I didn’t wholeheartedly stand behind.  Whether it’s a movie (Sweeney Todd), an author (Dean Koontz), a drink (Panera Bread’s Iced Green Tea), a cause (World Vision), or a way of life (Starbucks) - I would never point someone in a direction I wouldn’t go myself.  More telling than that, I’d never recommend something to my readers that I wouldn’t recommend to my daughters. 

I urge you to visit the author’s web site, Myster Money, and to download the e-book.  You won’t regret it.  When you finish the story, keep scrolling (or, better yet, print it out), there are several cool things you’ll want to check out, including lessons that pertain to the story.

We all need more unexpected, life-challenging surprises in our life - they keep us on our toes and keep life interesting.  This is one of those special little treats that’ll honestly help you start your year off right.  You may even get a head buzzing traffic jam in the process. 

One last word, get the e-book. 

We suffer one of two things. Either the pain of discipline or the pain of regret. You’ve got to choose discipline, versus regret, because discipline weighs ounces and regret weighs tons. - Jim Rohn, Conversations with Millionaires: What Millionaires Do to Get Rich, That You Never Learned About in School!

Isn’t that a amazing quote?  I spent a little time alone with it this morning, really letting it sink in and the deeper it sank, the more amazing it was. Discipline: The conquerer of great things vs. Regret: The coward who was conquered by all things.

Okay, maybe that was a little dramatic - I was caught up in the moment.

The father of the quote, Jim Rohn, went on to say, The reason is because the regret is an accumulated affect a year from now.  When you didn’ do the easy discipline.  He then gives a perfect example of what he’s talking about - one of my own personal phobias, dentists!  We’ve just about all been there.  The dentist tells us we need a procedure done that’ll cost around $300, but we really aren’t having much pain, so we say, “Thanks, but I think I’ll just see how it goes.”  How it goes is this:  We’re back in his office a couple of weeks, possibly months, later in a great deal of pain facing a fresh form of hell that’ll cost closer to $3,000.

I’ve also had a lesson in this philosophy courtesy of my Dodge Caravan.  It’s a very pretty van and I love it madly, but it taught me a hard, costly lesson a few years ago.  First of all, I play the radio and cds loudly, so if the vehicle’s who’s its and what’s its are in distress, I’m not very apt to hear their s-o-s calls, unless it’s between songs or I’m on the cell phone.  But I did, I have to admit, hear her tipping and tapping - kind of lie tiny morocas under the front end of the vehicle.

My response?  I believe I turned up the music.  I figured it was too little a noise to worry about - if there was trouble, it’d be a bigger, more hideous sound.  Surely if there was trouble, she wouldn’t go…..right?  The hideous noise came,  my buddy stopped moving, and I stopped grooving.

Costly?  Yes, Lord.

Another area where Discipline’s ounces and Regret’s tons comes into play is, ironically enough, the area of fitness.  We wonder, “How did these (5, 10, or 20) pounds sneak up on me?!”  Ounce by ounce, of course.

When we don’t discipline ourselves at every single meal and with every single “hankering,” we pave a fat-laden road to regret.  If we don’t have the discipline to exercise every single day, the pounds will make themselves at home and invite friends over.  Man! I hate it when they invite friends over!!

Before you know it, we’ve put ourselves in the position of being self-concious and unhappy with ourselves, at best, and in danger of a host of health problems, at worst.  Suddenly, heart problems, Diabetes, and a plethora of cancers all know our address - information we had hoped to keep from them.

Costly?  Yes, Lord.

“We suffer one of two things. Either the pain of discipline or the pain of regret. You’ve got to choose discipline, versus regret, because discipline weighs ounces and regret weighs tons.”

Incidentally (By the Way’s on vacation…), the book this quote appeared in - Conversations with Millionaires - is an excellent book.  It’s, literally, a conversation with nine self-made millionaires.  When self-made millionaires talk, I not only listen, I take notes!

The nine individuals interviewed are:

• Jim Rohn - Very successful success mentor
• Mark Victor Hansen - Co-Auhor of the Chicken Soup for the Soul book series
• Wally “Famous” Amos - Chocolate Chip Cookie King!
• Jack Canfield - Self-Esteem expert and Co-Auhor of the Chicken Soup for the Soul book series
• Robert Allen - Best Selling Author
• Sharon Lechter - Co-Author of the Rich Dad, Poor Dad book series
• Michael Gerber - Small Business expert and author of E-myth
• Jim McCann - CEO of 1-800-Flowers.com
• Jay Conrad Levinson - Author of the Guerilla Marketing book series

If you use the link at the top of the post, you can find a wicked deal on Amazon.com - as you know, they offer used books as well as new copies. Buying two or three used books for the price of one new one is always as cool as Coke on ice.

As you know, one of my favorite things to be able to do on Self Help Daily is to recommend a great book.  Since my last book review, I’ve actually read three books. The first two were as bland as unseasoned cafeteria food.  In fact, I forgot about them before I even finished them.

But the third boook - wow! If, by some whacked out laws of literature, I had to re-read the two bores just to get to the third book again - I’d do it. 

The third book is titled Five Wishes: How Answering One Simple Question Can Make Your Dreams Come True and was authored by Gay Hendricks.  Mr. Hendricks has written a perfectly delicious little book and I’m highly pleased to recommend it to anyone who:

• Appreciates a great author doing what he or she was born to do.
• Loves great Non-Fiction that reads like Fiction.
• Is always looking for ways to grow.

If any of the above describe you, this book will fit you like a glove.

Five Wishes is composed of an Introduction and six chapters.  For the first time in my reading life (from Grimms to Grisham), I was profoundly inspired and motivated before I ever hit Chapter 1. How’s that for a powerful introduction?

There are so many life-changing lessons to be carried away from this book!  With the most provocative and challenging Introduction imaginable, you hit the ground not just running, but running for your life…more to the point, running for the life you want.  Momentum builds with each inspiring chapter as the reader lives through the author’s Five Wishes.

From the back cover of the book:

In my thirties I received the gift of a question that changed the course of my life.  My decision to answer that question gave me a life in which all my dreams came true.  Now I want to offer you this gift, so you can use its gentle power to create your own fulfilled life. - Gay Hendricks

From a “Self Help” standpoint, the thing I loved most about this great book was the bridge the author built from his past to his future.  In order to attain his own personal five wishes, Gay Hendricks didn’t stare starry-eyed into the future hoping that the wishes would come true. He first looked at his present - to find out exactly where he came up short.  If things were perfect, the wishes wouldn’t be wishes, they’d be bragging rights!  He had to take a good, honest look inward to learn why the outward wasn’t what he’d hoped or wished for.

After determining that renovations needed to be done, he wisely took a good, long look at the foundation - also known as the past. By looking back, he found the information he needed to bring change and improvement into the here and now. He beautifully tells how each change came about and how, as a result, each of his five wishes came true.  If that doesn’t motivate you, nothing will!

I really hope you’ll grab a copy of this book.  If you use the links in this post, you can order from Amazon without ever leaving the house.  If you don’t want to wait a few days, grab a copy at your favorite store.  Whichever way, you go about it - be sure to get your hands on, eyes in, and mind around this book.  If you’re one of the technological whiz bangs that has an Amazon Kindle (A Wireless Reading Device - the ultimate in cool.), you can be reading it within 5 minutes. Show off! 

It would also make a perfect Christmas gift - it’s a beautiful little book in addition to being a motivational masterpiece. Stuck inside a stocking or gift bag, it’d be the ultimate Christmas gift.  Who wouldn’t want to receive Five Wishes?  Even genies just give three.

 Five Wishes: How Answering One Simple Question Can Make Your Dreams Come True by Gay Hendricks.

“Better a false belief than no belief at all.” - George Eliot

As I’ve said numerous times before, I have a grandiose love affair with words.  So much so that I collect them - in the form of quotes, that is.  I write down anything I read or hear that makes my brain perk up - not only does it help me to remember what caused the perking in the first place, I know that’ll I’ll re-read it countless times.  This, of course, will prompt countless more perks.  That’s pretty much an amazing thing.

Quotes can also be very motivational and inspirational.  Also, amazing.

The quote above however, perplexes me.  With most of the quotes, I know where I stand. But with this one, I’m not sure if I stand behind it in unison or if I’m just biding my time, waiting to push it into a lake.

I do know what the speaker was up to, though:  He was using his words as a lasso for fence riders.  He just wanted them off the darned fence!  We can all appreciate that, I guess.  I’m just not ready to say that a false belief is better than no belief.  False beliefs have destroyed civilizations at worst, individuals, at best.

Now that I’ve over-analyzed the point to death, let’s head over to the fence…there’s quite a crowd waiting for us. 

You know the worst kind of fence-rider?  The one who changes their position every time the wind blows.  Listening to them just wears you out.  Granted, a person will change their opinions and even their views - I know I certainly have.  I can’t imagine viewing the world (or anything in it) the same all of your life.  The Bible is one of the few things that would be an exception, of course.  From Genesis to Revelations, the truths are the same today as they were when Joseph wore his colorful coat.  But when someone changes their opinions every other time they open their mouth indicates that they really haven’t thought things through.  Either that, or they’re too worried what others will think about them.  Never a comfortable chair to sit in.

It’s good, every now and again, to establish (in your own mind at least) where you stand on certain issues - or if you stand. In a chapter about daring to take sides in ”The Daring Female’s Guide to Ecstatic Living,” author Natasha Kogan gives the following guidelines:

Give your brain cells a workout and take some sides: Check out the issues below and think about where you stand on each.  Some might intrigue you, some might bore you to tears, but all shouldbe like a springboard that gets you thinking about ideas and issues you care about.

The author then went on to give 9 examples.  Below are a few to get your juices flowing.

• Politics.  Do you align with the Democratic, Republican, or Independent Party?  Was there a particular politician that won you over, a stance they took or did you simply pick up where your parents left off?  Do you consider yourself a liberal, a conservative or somewhere in between?
• Environment.  In the book, the author asked the following question, “Would you stop going to your favorite restaurant if you discovered that it didn’t recycle?”
• Family/Work.  What comes first, family or work. Would you take a day off (and sacrifice the pay) to take your sick child to the doctor yourself or would you have someone else take her for you?
• People.  Do you think that most people are good or bad?  Do you consider yourself a “People Person?”
• Death Penalty.  For it?  Against it?  What are your reasons?

It’s commendable to have your own opinions and beliefs, but it’s even more commendable, to allow others to have theirs.  And, of course, allowing them to have their own opinions means just that - not trying to impose your opinions on them.  AT ALL.  The only time we should try to pour our opinions into another person’s head is….oh, that’s right - never.

“The Daring Females Guide to Ecstatic Living”, by the way, is refreshingly provocative and provocatively refreshing book.  It’s very well written and interactive, both of which make it a lot of fun.  You can learn more about the book, the author, and what they’re both up to by visiting http://daringfemale.com/. 

It’s a regrettable thing to have to begin a post with an apology, but that fate falls upon my keyboard this morning.  A while back - okay, several months, I admit it - I was sent a great book by its publishers (Thank you, thank you, thank you again!).  Whenever I’m sent a book or products to review for one of my blogs or sites, I pride myself on getting it done right away.  9 times out of 10, we’re talking a day or two.  However, books can take a little longer.  Especially if there’s a lot of great information to process, which was the case with “The Not So Big Life,” by Sarah Susanka.

I’m truly sorry that this review wasn’t posted sooner - but that’s what you get for publishing such a thought-provoking, life-affecting book like this one!  What’d you expect?  This isn’t just a book, after all, it’s an education.  And no education that I know of can be completed in mere months.  None worth having anyway!

Actually, it’s a two-part education.  The MAJOR is in an area I already knew I loved with a consuming passion:  Self Help.  The MINOR is in an area that I never really thought much about - the fascinating world of architecture. 

A Little Background

The author, Sarah Susanka, is an architect as well as a writer.  She’s the author of the bestselling book, “The Not So Big House.”  In TNSBH, she gives her expert advice on making homes BETTER, not BIGGER.  Guess what philosophy she brings to “The Not So Big LIFE” - right, how to make our lives BETTER, not BIGGER.  Brilliant?  Brilliant.

From the inside cover:

Most of us have lives that are as cluttered with unwanted obligations as our attics are cluttered with things.  The bigger-is-better idea that triggered the explosion of McMansions has spilled over to give us McLives.  For many of us, our ability to find the time to do what we want to do has come to a grinding halt.  Now we barely have time to take a breath before making the next call on our cell phone, while at the same time messaging someone else on our blackberry.  Our schedules are chaotic and overcommited, leaving us so stressed that we are numb, yet we wonder why we cannot fall asleep at night.

Wow, does that sound familiar or what?  We’ve become somewhat like hamsters running around in a wheel….gotta get there, gotta get there, gotta get there.  Problem is that there keeps moving.

In a very, very entertaining manner and with an extremely well-written style, Sarah Susanka details the similarities of designing a home and designing a life. Thought provoking?  Try thought propelling, thought arousing, and thought awakening.

From Chapter 1, “Blueprint For a New Way of Living” to Chapter 12, “Being at Home in Your Life,” I was challenged to look at every nook and cranny of my life - upstairs and downstairs, inside and out.  Exhausting and invigorating at the same time!  The reader is led on a tour of their own life, to examine everything from their foundation to their present structure.  You’re shown how to find cracks in your foundation and how to mend them.  Your structure (or life) will only be as firm as your foundation.

Another problem with writing a book review for such an amazing book is that if I told you everything I wanted to tell you, two things would happen:

1. The post would be so long, I’m not sure anyone would even attempt to read it.
2. I’d give away everything and you wouldn’t have any need to buy the book!

I don’t want 1 or 2 to happen, so I’m trying to keep from giving away too much.  Personally, I’d do just about anything to make sure each and every one of you bought this book  journey.  It’s that important.

One of the things that makes “The Not So Big Life” so special - and the main reason this particular Self Help Enthusiast is telling you, “If you buy two books this year, make one of them The Not So Big Life and the other one Dean Koontz (pick one)” - is this:  There isn’t an author or so-called “expert” telling you what your weaknesses or strengths are.  YOU determine them.   A so-called “expert” isn’t giving you a ridiculous one-size-fits-all solution or advice - YOU come up with what’s best for you.  With clear guidance and tons of real-life examples, your given the map…but the journey?  It’s yours.

If you ask me, that’s the whole key to self help anyway.  That’s why it’s Self Help rather than Somebody Help.  It’s also the only way we’ll ever grow.

The chapters of “The Not So Big Life” deal (in beautiful depth) with the following components of Self Growth and, in turn, a “better” life:

1. Developing a Blueprint for a Better Way of Living
2. Noticing What Inspires You
3. Identifying What Isn’t Working
4. Removing the Clutter
5. Listening to Your Dreams
6. Learning to See Through the Obstacles
7. Improving the Quality of What You Have
8. Creating a Place and a Time of Your Own
9. Proceeding Through the Construction Process
10. Moving Into Your Not So Big Life
11. Maintaining Your Newly Remodeled Live

The Not So Big Life Notebook

Readers are encouraged to create a notebook and use it as they read the book.  I bought a nifty purple on and did just that.  While it slowed down the review, it proved to be unbelievably rewarding.  It wasn’t long before I realized that I was doing more than just interacting with a book.  My purple notebook wasn’t just a compilation of reflections and notes - it was a blueprint for an even more rewarding life.

It never ceases to amaze me how insidious our conditioning is.  I’m conditioned to be always too busy.  For you it might be something else, something that seems equally real and equally frustrating.  Just like the fish that doesn’t realize it’s surrounded by water because it’s in it constantly, our conditioning is so much a part of our experience that we forget it’s there and fall into the idea that the outer world is conspiring to keep us from doing what we want to do, when in fact our obstacles are self-generated.

Great stuff!  This is the most timely book one could hope for.  It gets us right where we live and shines the spotlight on all the right places.  Use the link to the right or scour your local bookstore….just be sure you read this book.

When I was thinking of a closing sentence to sum everything up - a closing sentence to compel you to buy this book - I kept coming back to the same thing.  I’d toy with things like: “Instead of going to Applebee’s this weekend, do something that’ll impact your life even more than their garlic potatoes…” - but then I realized how much I love Applebees, and how much I want some of those very potatoes.  Then I thought…beg! Yeah, that’ll work.  But I always came back to the same phrase - so that’s what I’ll go with.

This is the book you were meant to read. 

 Have I got a colorful person for you to meet today!  You may already be somewhat familiar with her, or at least with her work…or maybe I should say play. How about work-play? Ding ding ding, that’s it.

I’m talking about SARK, the author and writer who encourages us to all be more succulent, juicy people.  Not only is she a wonderful writer and not only is she brilliantly artistic, she’s a cat lover.  That pretty much makes her “my kind of people.”

I first became familiar with her work after I lost my mother in 2006.  My mom had an unusual love of books and, like SARK, read one each day.  When Steph (daughter #3 a.k.a. “the baby”) and I were sorting through mom’s hundreds of books, I brought a lot of them home with us and took the rest to the Salvation Army.  One of the ones I adopted was a small book which was so colorful and…. well, happy….that I knew I had to have it.  You know when you go to pick out a puppy, you want the one that runs to you, wagging its tail, wanting to play?  That’s the attitude this little book had, and at that (lowest) point in my life - that’s just what I needed.  Living Juicy came home with me, already named and housebroken.

I sat it on my desk, instead of filing it away on bookshelves like I did the other books.  “The one with the wagging tail” would be the first one I’d read, as soon as the mood to read returned.  After a few weeks, I took the little book to the bathtub with me and I soaked in both the bubbles and the SARKisms.

I found the inside of the book to be so much fun, I didn’t want to step outside of it again.  So, I never did entirely.

Some may think of SARK as over the top - something I’m sure she’d take as a compliment.  To me, she’ll always be the first author I read after losing my mom.  It struck me, then and now, as a sign that it’s okay for life to go on - and it’s more than okay to smile again.

Millions of fans have their own personal reasons for loving SARK’s work - whether it’s a personal story or simply a matter of, “She slaps a smile on my day.”  If you’ve never read her work, do yourself a favor and have at it!  I’m fairly certain you’ll find your own reason to love her….and maybe even join her over the top.  The view?  Amazing.

Below is a link to a great profile on SARK by a writer, Chris Colin, who’s also a fan of her Juicy living.  

On the Job:  Go Ahead and Try to Hate SARK

Within the article is a link to SARK’s website - you’ll pretty much want to check that out, too.

Have you ever read Shakespeare….without, that is, a teacher standing over you?  If you were to go out and buy a play - one of those with a translation, of sorts, accompanying it is especially nice - you might just fall in love.

After a few plays, you won’t even need the translation.  You’ll catch on quickly to the language of the time - and be blown away by its beauty.

If I were to recommend a play to start with, I think I’d suggest A Midsummer Night’s Dream (adorably fun), Othello (my first) or Julius Caesar (one of the easier ones to follow).  Taming of the Shrew is another fave, but it might be nice to have a few under your mental belt first - it’s kind of all over the place!  The first time I tried to read it, I threw it in the closet to punish it.  Then I HAD to prove to myself that I could read it, so I dug it out from under my shoes and stuffed bears and tried again.

I ended up becomming a lifelong fan of his writings and have even considered a Shakespeare blog - as a resource to help others who are reading his work(s), either for school or pleasure.  Yes, pleasure! - I promise!

Shakespeare was one of the wisest men to ever live.  When you read his writings, you can’t help but realize that you’re in the presence of brilliance.  Below are a few of my favorite Shakespeare-isms to give you an idea of what I’m talking about.

“The web of our life is of a mingled yarn, good and evil together.” (All’s Well that Ends Well)

“Brevity is the soul of wit.”  (Hamlet)

“There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so.”  (Hamlet)

“Society is no comfort to one not sociable.” (Cymbeline)

“When sorrows come, they come not single spies, but in battalions!”  (Hamlet)

“Cowards die many times before their deaths; the valiant never taste of death but once.”  (Julius Caesar)

“He thinks too much.  Such men are dangerous.”  (Julius Caesar)

“Though patience be a tired mare, yet she will plod.”  (Henry V)

“Men of few words are the best men.”  (Henry V)

“I think the king is but a man as I am, the violet smells to him as it doth to me.”  (Henry V)

“Come what come may, time and the hour run through the roughest day.”  (Macbeth)

“The miserable have no other medicine but only hope.”  (Measure for Measure)

“The devil can cite Scripture for his purpose.”  (The Merchant of Venice)

“I am a kind of burr, I shall stick.”  (Measure for Measure)

“Tis an ill cook that cannot lick his own fingers.”  (Romeo and Juliet)

“Lord, what fools these mortals be!” (A Midsummer Night’s Dream)

Btw, did you know that the saying “eating me out of house and home” comes from Shakespeare?  It was a line in Henry IV - “He hath eaten me out of house and home.”

Give Shakespeare a chance - you’ll wonder where he’d been all your life.  The answer is, in a lot of closets under a lot of shoes and stuffed bears!

Have you ever stopped to think about the role your emotional state plays in your life?  It affects everything from your moods to how you relate to and get along with others.  Your emotional state affects how you deal with stress, so it directly affects your health, as well.  I think we all pretty much realize the above effects, but one that’s just as obvious, but less realized, is the role our emotional state plays in getting what we want from life.  If we’re emotionally together, we have a much better chance of calling the shots and making things happen.  However, if we have emotional weaknesses, life is likely to just give it what it wants us to have.  That’s not always a picnic in the park.

You can have all the brain power, the ambition, the motives, and the means, but if you’re carrying around emotional baggage - you aren’t going to get far.  You’ll be like one of those little hamsters running in a wheel.  Spending a great deal of energy to get somewhere, but only going in circles and, literally, getting nowhere fast.

Julie Roberts, Ph.D has written a fascinating book, Change Works with CLEAR:  Clearing Limits Energetically with Acupressure Release.  In it, she beautifully details (among other things) how we can unpack this baggage and get off the wheel.

Energy psychology evolved from the observations that specific acupuncture points are related to particular emotions.  Practitioners noted that stimulating a point releases chemicals in the brain, which relieves negative feelings.  Thus CLEAR evolved from a number of the acupressure methods and a few other energy therapies.  (Page 3) 

Acupressure points, when stimulated by touch, send signals directly to the areas of the brain that control these emotions.  Change Works with CLEAR gives crystal clear illustrations, exercises, and charts detailing these areas and emotions.  There are 4 chapters in the How To Section, spanning over 30 pages, that include a flow chart, diagrams, a sample session, the Steps of the CLEAR process, Learning the Acupressure Points, and using and utilizing muscle testing.

Research has found that the stimulation of the point inhibits the “alarm response” by sending appropriate signals directly to the amygdala (Feinstein, Eden, & Craig, 2005).  Ronald Ruden, M.D., Ph.D., states that stimulation of acupressure points increases serotonin in the cortex and the amygdala, thus removing fear and shifting negative responses to positive ones (Ruden, 2005).  Studies using brain scans also indicate a significant decrease in intensity and frequency of Generalized Anxiety Disorder after acupressure treatment (Anrade, & Feinstein 2003).  (Page 13) 

Chapter 3 “Understanding Trauma” had a huge impact on me.  It taught lessons and gave illustrations that’ll stay with me all of my life.  As a matter of fact, it was so great that I read it twice.  For one thing, I wanted to make sure I didn’t miss anything.  For another, I wanted to let what I knew I caught sink in a little deeper.  Nothing quite like a double dip in the deep end.

If you’re like me, when you see the word Trauma, you think “Oh, that word’s reserved for other people - those who have been held at gunpoint, who lived through a 4 day hostage situation while tied to a grenade…” Those sort of lovely things.  But we miss it by a mile when we think trauma has never introduced itself to us. 

Any of us who have….

• Tried and failed
• Lost a loved one
• Argued with someone close to us
• Lived through a break-up
• Faced an illness
• Been involved in a career change
• Had a wreck
• Moved away from family or a favorite “home”
• Been homesick
• Lost a dream house
• Lost a dream
• Had a child go away to college
• Had a child move out

……have faced trauma.  That’s pretty much all of us, right?  We’ve all met trauma, often more than once.  Chapter 3 lets you know what effects this meeting or meetings have had on you, and the book shows you how to reverse the affect - to make it stop working against you and start working for you.

The process I describe in this book leads you through healing that frees you of old patterns, allowing you to be present in your current thoughts and feelings, and thus more creative in your responses.  (Page 13)

To go into the Process any further, here, would be like trying to make a Red Velvet Cake in a toaster.  You need to read the book (Chapter 3, twice!).  You need to “meet” the interesting people in the case studies.  You need to study the diagrams and follow the charts.  And you need to learn the various Blocking Beliefs and find which ones you are affected by.  There’ll be some you’ll identify with so strongly, you’ll think you wrote them yourself.

Whether you feel stuck in your life or just know there is more that you can accomplish, this book will assist you.  CLEAR helps you move toward your goals by removing triggers that keep you stuck in old patterns.   It helps relieve general and specific anxiety as well as specific issues such as phobias, performance anxiety, and test anxiety.  It helps remove stress that leads to illness.  It also assists you in clearing the blocks that lead to procrastination, lack of motivation, and fears related to success and failure.  CLEAR alleviated depression and moodiness, and helps you understand the issues underlying these emotions.  (Page 9)

For more information, please visit http://www.changeworksinc.com/index.html.  Click on the Publications button to purchase what could be the most rewarding book you ever hold in your hands.  After you’ve bought your copy, visit with Julie by looking around the website and seeing what she has to say.

You know that I don’t recommend many books (aside from The Bible, Dean Koontz and Agatha Christie!) on Self Help Daily.  I read so much that if I were to recommended every single thing I read, you’d never know which books were the “Stand Outs.”  So when I tell you that you should read a certain book, you know I mean it.  It’s a Stand Out.  I could, literally, pitch a new book to you every day of the week - complete with a self-serving Amazon affiliate link - but I don’t.  In fact, I’ve never used an Amazon link on this blog.  Nothing against them, of course - we use Amazon for most of our online book buying.  I just want you to know that when I put a book on your desk, I’m doing it for one reason and one reason only.  I have read it, and I want you to read it as well.

Get your copy of Change Works with CLEAR as soon as possible!  http://www.changeworksinc.com/index.html

Newsweek’s Jerry Adler put into writing all the thoughts swirling around my mind about the popular new book, “The Secret,” by Rhonda Byrne.  I had typed out half of a post for this blog and had basically said the same things he said in his first paragraph.  I hadn’t gotten much further than ….”the absolute LAST thing our society needs is encouragement to become MORE self-obsessed and self-absorbed…”  The Secret actually teaches the reader to avoid certain people - even looking at them could be bad for you. 

How could anyone get so wrapped up in themselves like that?  To the point of thinking of others only in terms of what they mean to yourself?  This person’s overweight….or struggling with money problems…or facing a troubled relationship…or has a character flaw - I’ll just mark them and avoid them.  Nice.

There are shreds of truth behind the books thinking - our thoughts are very, very important. But, come on, they don’t make the scale go up - calories do.

If you want to lose weight, you eat less/exercise more.  It all reminds me of what we hashed out in our last post - people flee from the simple and think there MUST be some hidden code holding all the answers….a Secret.

It’s all a marketing circus - and a successful one, at that.  The author - and others involved, will be rolling in cash while the readers are left rolling in something else.  It’s actually, in my opinion, a pretty dangerous book. 

None of us are God and we shouldn’t try to play God, even with ourselves.  There is no hidden, secret, mythical, mysterious little trick to getting what you want or curing what you have.  The book was, and is, a means of making money.  Plain and simple.

I hope you’ll read the Newsweek article in it’s entirety.

If anyone is a fan of the book’s, let me apologize for the toes I just stepped on.  Everyone, including me, has their own opinions and have to do what they think is best - and, personally, I’m on board with those who think this book is bad news.