A creative, solution-filled book about restoring rest, health, and vitality to one’s life.
This short guide to a healthier, more relaxed, and balanced lifestyle posits strategies that are easy and memorable.
Acupuncturist and Chinese-medicine practitioner Kearney is a well-educated and experienced author with a message. In this text, he presents his own journey of healing personal ailments, such as a stutter and anxiety, through practices such as meditation, stretching, and controlled breathing. He presents a well-organized, well-researched text containing empowering solutions for stress, depression, and a host of other physical issues. With endorsements from such household names as Ringo Starr, Kearney suggests simple tactics, including mindful breathing, pausing, and using humor, to ground oneself in the present moment. In a humorous anecdote that explains the book’s odd title, the author describes the mantra, “Just Chaaa,” as a memorable, universal idea of relaxing, accepting the present, and releasing the need to control external factors. The book is also full of intriguing perspectives on biology. For example, the author states that the human eye was designed to view the horizon and wide-open space; thus, he says, bodily alignment, lifted stature, and an open gaze help restore the body to its natural, relaxed state. It’s easy to see why contemporary practices, such as long hours at a computer or lying on a couch watching television, wouldn’t signal the body to relax in the same way that engagement with nature on a trail, beach, or an open field might. What sets this book apart from other self-improvement texts is its innovative approaches: “walking breath,” “slow power,” and resting before sleep are just a few of the ideas that are easy to try right away, and the author takes the time and care to explain the science and rationale behind each practice. In one example, Kearney suggests using the fingertips to apply pressure to certain points of the body in order to bring energy into these places. Overall, this book is a breath of fresh air to the self-improvement genre.
A creative, solution-filled book about restoring rest, health, and vitality to one’s life.Pub Date: June 29, 2015
ISBN: 978-1-5123-8749-0
Page Count: 140
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: July 24, 2015
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
This is not the Nutcracker sweet, as passed on by Tchaikovsky and Marius Petipa. No, this is the original Hoffmann tale of 1816, in which the froth of Christmas revelry occasionally parts to let the dark underside of childhood fantasies and fears peek through. The boundaries between dream and reality fade, just as Godfather Drosselmeier, the Nutcracker's creator, is seen as alternately sinister and jolly. And Italian artist Roberto Innocenti gives an errily realistic air to Marie's dreams, in richly detailed illustrations touched by a mysterious light. A beautiful version of this classic tale, which will captivate adults and children alike. (Nutcracker; $35.00; Oct. 28, 1996; 136 pp.; 0-15-100227-4)
Pub Date: Oct. 28, 1996
ISBN: 0-15-100227-4
Page Count: 136
Publisher: Harcourt
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 1996
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
An extravaganza in Bemelmans' inimitable vein, but written almost dead pan, with sly, amusing, sometimes biting undertones, breaking through. For Bemelmans was "the man who came to cocktails". And his hostess was Lady Mendl (Elsie de Wolfe), arbiter of American decorating taste over a generation. Lady Mendl was an incredible person,- self-made in proper American tradition on the one hand, for she had been haunted by the poverty of her childhood, and the years of struggle up from its ugliness,- until she became synonymous with the exotic, exquisite, worshipper at beauty's whrine. Bemelmans draws a portrait in extremes, through apt descriptions, through hilarious anecdote, through surprisingly sympathetic and understanding bits of appreciation. The scene shifts from Hollywood to the home she loved the best in Versailles. One meets in passing a vast roster of famous figures of the international and artistic set. And always one feels Bemelmans, slightly offstage, observing, recording, commenting, illustrated.
Pub Date: Feb. 23, 1955
ISBN: 0670717797
Page Count: -
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: Oct. 25, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 1955
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