Review: Freedom

June 7, 2013 By Leave a Comment

Part of our relaxing vacation was to spend lots of time reading (and lots of time on planes), so I was able to finish another hefty novel, Freedom.  It ended up being a great book that I couldn’t put down and a reminder why I should read more fiction.

The story revolves around a husband and wife, with sections of the book telling the tale of their respective childhoods, how they met in college, raising their children, and then downward spiral of their marriage.  Although it came highly recommended and reviewed, many of the criticisms missed the main reason I enjoyed the saga.  I thought it was an excellent study of how people’s personalities and decisions (actions) in life are shaped and molded as children, as young adults, as parents, and finally as parents to adult children.  Watching the dynamics and patterns, often of ill-advised choices or irrational behavior, play out and repeat from generation to generation was fascination to me.  The good guys were bad and the bad guys were sometimes good, and I swung between being highly annoyed with the characters to feeling sympathetic to their struggles as most of their angst was self-induced.

GOOD NEWS OF THE DAY:  It’s a friends dinner night, with special out of town friends.

Filed Under: book, review

Review: Downward Dog, Upward Fog

June 6, 2013 By 2 Comments

Being into yoga these days, I am a sucker for yoga novels & threw Downward Dog, Upward Fog onto my wish list.  Luckily, I received it for my birthday & it was the perfect book to take along on our big vacation last month.  I often feel like I *should* read more novels and less non-fiction (no idea why I believe that…), so a funny and fast read about a young girl who finds yoga in a mid-life crises sounded right up my alley.

The book was quite entertaining & just the right story for riding in airplanes and sitting around our bungalow.  Although a bit overly dramatic at times, I mostly enjoyed the story of a girl my age, juggling relationships, family, and a job all while going through a huge period of learning & self-discovery.   She dips her toes into yoga only to end up at a weekend silent retreat to that catapults her into extensive reading, explorations of spirituality, and the wonders of meditation.  Entertaining and funny, the book was engaging even if some of the main character’s behaviors and obsessions bordered on extreme.

GOOD NEWS OF THE DAY: Zoe went for a swim with the family yesterday.

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Review: Return to Love

June 3, 2013 By Leave a Comment

Return to Love: Reflections on the Principles from A Course in Miracles

On a bit of a spirituality and self-help kick, I’d ran across numerous recommendations for this book.  Although the full text of “A Course in Miracles” sounded appealing, I thought I’d start out with the overview (cliff notes) version after so many people had mentioned how life-changing this book was for them.

I tried really, really hard to like this book, but I just couldn’t force myself to finish it.  After struggling through the first half, I decided to grab some light & fun reads for our vacation instead of this highly demanding book.  Perhaps I wasn’t ready or mature enough for the lessons.  Maybe it would have been better to read it slower & digest more or read it faster & improve the continuity, but I really struggled to wrap my mind around the concepts in the book.

Granted, the basis for everything was simply love, but the applications and extrapolations in each chapter found me reading and re-reading sentences very frequently.  I did really like the book, but I often felt it was over my head or it wasn’t all really clicking for me in a cohesive way.  I have a feeling this will be a book I re-visit in 5 or 10 years, but my head+heart just weren’t in the right place to really absorb the full message of the book.

GOOD NEWS OF THE DAY: Finally, re-grouping and recovered from our vacation, with tons of amazing photos to blog (hopefully soon).

Filed Under: book, faith

Review: Essential Spirituality

April 30, 2013 By 2 Comments

Essential Spirituality: The 7 Central Practices to Awaken Heart and Mind

I picked up this book as it was the book club pick for Stratejoy & I was a little apprehensive going into it about stepping outside of mainstream Christian readings.  However, the idea that all of major world’s religions (Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Hinduism, and Buddhism) all shared these core principles about how to be more spiritual.  I’m so glad that I read this book, and it was really interesting to me all the similarities and themes that were common across so many religions.

I’d decided to take notes in my journal on this book & I’m really glad that I made this effort- there were so many great lessons and things that I learned.  The first few chapters were challenging reading, but once I got through them a light bulb really went off for me.  Been on a bit of a quest lately, soaking up lots of information about consciousness, spirituality, and soul health.  It’s a really big topic that’s challenging to wrap your mind around and really feel comfortable talking about it or feeling like I have anything cohesive to say about it.  At this moment, spirituality to me is being more fully present and aware in the moment, and living a life of gratitude, service, and compassion.

According to the book, the purpose of increasing our spirituality is to be more ethical (make moral choices & actions), improved concentration (deeper thinking & enhanced presence), and wisdom (beyond knowledge).

  1. The first exercise was about transforming motivation, or reducing our cravings and finding the soul’s desire.  This really struck home with me where we live in a society obsessed with happiness and obtaining material possessions.  We try to control every outcome and spend immense time and energy (and worry) attempting to guarantee a specific result.  All this craving, which is never satisfied even when we get our desires, just causes unnecessary suffering & we are better served by not attaching our happiness to outcomes but seeking higher motives (truth & justice, kindness & altruism, and beauty/sacred).
  2.  Cultivating emotional wisdom instructs us to heal the heart (learn to forgive) and learn to love (not lust or cheap love).  Having greater control over our emotions (and emotional reactions) is really a powerful tool that so many people could really benefit from in life.  
  3. Living ethically is another common theme among all religions and includes the idea that we feel good when we do good by increasing our positive emotions and decreasing the mental turmoil (guilt/grief) we must manage. 
  4. By improving concentration and calming the mind (meditation), mindfulness is increases and we are less likely to let the subconscious control the conscious or behaviors. (mindfulness turned inward)
  5. To awaken the spiritual vision is another shared practice among the religions which aids us in seeing clearly and recognizing the sacred in the everyday and everything. (mindfulness turned outward)
  6. All major religions also advocate cultivating spiritual intelligence which is the basis for wisdom and help us understand the life (purpose & death) beyond just intelligence, knowledge, experiences or power.  Both having vision (understanding) and the wisdom to know how to take practical actions are important to tackling the deeper questions of nature, life, God, and the mind.
  7. The final shared spirituality practice is applying all these principles to action through the  joy of service to others and expressing generosity.  Realizing that every action can be service to others, transforming the  motivations towards love, kindness, and compassion is the key to releasing attachments (#1) and helping us heal our wounds (#2).

These exercises were quite valuable to me as I am on this journey towards enlightenment, and I thought it was so fascinating that all these religions had shared themes and goal even if they used different methods to arrive at spirituality. This is a great book & I highly recommend it to those who are looking for something a little different than a typical “christian book”  but also want to learn ways our faith should really be making a big impact in our daily lives. 

GOOD NEWS OF THE DAY: Hanging out with my sister for dinner & helping her plan her summer trip to Cali.

Filed Under: book, faith, review

Review: The Four Day Win

March 21, 2013 By Leave a Comment

The Four-Day Win: End Your Diet War and Achieve Thinner Peace

I’d read one of her other books recently (Finding your North Star) & this one appealed to me, especially the description, “Science-based thought and behavior strategies that will enable you to stay on a healthy eating program…forever.”

If I had to give a summary of the book, it would be “the psychology of eating”.  This isn’t a diet book itself, but rather a guide to examining thought patterns around eating and exercising.

I will say the title was a bit misleading (to me at least)- I thought this was a book you read in 4 days, but her strategy is to have  you do dozens of incredibly simple tasks for 4 days in a row to embrace a new pattern.  Put several of these successful 4 day challenges together & you have a new habit.  I didn’t actually do each of the chapters/challenges for 4 days, but it would take you quite a while to work through the 30+ chapters.

Overall, I really liked the book & a new way to understand my relationship with eating & my body.  She presented some really great information about all the neurological ways we are setting ourselves up to fail as well as the ways our subconscious mind really has a way of thwarting our best plans and rock-solid resolutions.

The first two-thirds of the book are all exercises to get in touch with the mind-body connection, how to step outside the constant struggle for willpower, and identifying the best diet and exercise regimen for your personality type.  She never specifically endorses a weight-loss diet or particular exercise, but really pushes readers to take tiny baby steps toward finding what works best for their mind, personality, body, and daily life.

I think it’s a really powerful book & it certainly has made me much more aware of the thought patterns that surround my eating.  She’s a very funny & clever writer , and the book is filled with lots of examples from her real clients over the years.

GOOD NEWS OF THE DAY: Saw a bluebird and the most adorable puppy on my bike ride today.

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