A rare self-help guide that delivers the perfect balance of facts and memoir.
A critical care nurse imparts the importance of health literacy through facts and personal history.
During her childhood in Norway, debut author Pelaez was surrounded by people who needed to know how to take better care of themselves. Her parents suffered from cardiovascular disease after lifetimes of smoking, stress, and sedentariness. The author assumed these habits herself, and it was a long chain of cigarettes to the self-actualized life she leads today. As a critical care nurse, Pelaez witnesses epidemics like CVD firsthand. In 2010, 150,000 people under the age of 65 died from CVD in the U.S. To make matters worse, only 15 percent of Americans are health literate and aware of the way their daily habits affect their bodies and, by extension, their capacities to enjoy life. Obesity, high blood pressure, smoking, and even low self-esteem lead to life-threatening cases of CVD every day. Using Abraham Maslow’s “Hierarchy of Needs” to ground her case, Pelaez details the science behind CVD, its many (scarily common) causes, and how to prevent it. Rather than deliver a dry, long-winded set of facts and statistics, Pelaez interweaves her medical expertise with her own personal experiences. Descriptions of Norwegian culture, family relationships, and devastating bouts of illness make for a riveting read. She readily blends tips for physical and mental well-being, which makes them easier to implement: Pelaez notes the five ingredients in Norwegian pancakes and segues into the five core components of meditation without missing a beat. Moving deeper into the realm of interior life, Pelaez explains the importance of self-love and how our views of ourselves can radically affect our health. The importance of planning ahead for the end of life is also covered here.
A rare self-help guide that delivers the perfect balance of facts and memoir.Pub Date: May 11, 2015
ISBN: 978-1-5043-3074-9
Page Count: 330
Publisher: BalboaPress
Review Posted Online: Sept. 10, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2015
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A very welcome instance of philosophy that can help readers live a good life.
A teacher and scholar of Buddhism offers a formally varied account of the available rewards of solitude.
“As Mother Ayahuasca takes me in her arms, I realize that last night I vomited up my attachment to Buddhism. In passing out, I died. In coming to, I was, so to speak, reborn. I no longer have to fight these battles, I repeat to myself. I am no longer a combatant in the dharma wars. It feels as if the course of my life has shifted onto another vector, like a train shunted off its familiar track onto a new trajectory.” Readers of Batchelor’s previous books (Secular Buddhism: Imagining the Dharma in an Uncertain World, 2017, etc.) will recognize in this passage the culmination of his decadeslong shift away from the religious commitments of Buddhism toward an ecumenical and homegrown philosophy of life. Writing in a variety of modes—memoir, history, collage, essay, biography, and meditation instruction—the author doesn’t argue for his approach to solitude as much as offer it for contemplation. Essentially, Batchelor implies that if you read what Buddha said here and what Montaigne said there, and if you consider something the author has noticed, and if you reflect on your own experience, you have the possibility to improve the quality of your life. For introspective readers, it’s easy to hear in this approach a direct response to Pascal’s claim that “all of humanity's problems stem from man's inability to sit quietly in a room alone.” Batchelor wants to relieve us of this inability by offering his example of how to do just that. “Solitude is an art. Mental training is needed to refine and stabilize it,” he writes. “When you practice solitude, you dedicate yourself to the care of the soul.” Whatever a soul is, the author goes a long way toward soothing it.
A very welcome instance of philosophy that can help readers live a good life.Pub Date: Feb. 18, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-300-25093-0
Page Count: 200
Publisher: Yale Univ.
Review Posted Online: Nov. 24, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2019
BOOK REVIEW
A moving, heartfelt account of a hospice veteran.
Lessons about life from those preparing to die.
A longtime hospice chaplain, Egan (Fumbling: A Pilgrimage Tale of Love, Grief, and Spiritual Renewal on the Camino de Santiago, 2004) shares what she has learned through the stories of those nearing death. She notices that for every life, there are shared stories of heartbreak, pain, guilt, fear, and regret. “Every one of us will go through things that destroy our inner compass and pull meaning out from under us,” she writes. “Everyone who does not die young will go through some sort of spiritual crisis.” The author is also straightforward in noting that through her experiences with the brokenness of others, and in trying to assist in that brokenness, she has found healing for herself. Several years ago, during a C-section, Egan suffered a bad reaction to the anesthesia, leading to months of psychotic disorders and years of recovery. The experience left her with tremendous emotional pain and latent feelings of shame, regret, and anger. However, with each patient she helped, the author found herself better understanding her own past. Despite her role as a chaplain, Egan notes that she rarely discussed God or religious subjects with her patients. Mainly, when people could talk at all, they discussed their families, “because that is how we talk about God. That is how we talk about the meaning of our lives.” It is through families, Egan began to realize, that “we find meaning, and this is where our purpose becomes clear.” The author’s anecdotes are often thought-provoking combinations of sublime humor and tragic pathos. She is not afraid to point out times where she made mistakes, even downright failures, in the course of her work. However, the nature of her work means “living in the gray,” where right and wrong answers are often hard to identify.
A moving, heartfelt account of a hospice veteran.Pub Date: Oct. 25, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-59463-481-9
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Riverhead
Review Posted Online: Aug. 2, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2016
© Copyright 2024 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
bookshelf
