A brief but comprehensive overview of the connection between health of the mind and body.
A physician blends traditional medicine with a more holistic approach in order to address both the physical and psychological aspects of emotional pain.
With a mix of personal experience, anecdotes from the examination room and empirical research, this book focuses on the interdependent relationship between physical and mental health, calling on both doctors and patients to understand how to comprehensively treat serious health problems. In exploring the relationship between heartache as an emotional concept and actual problems with cardiac function, Hinds (A Life Larger Than Pain, 2003) draws on both his work as a physician specializing in pain management and the personal experience of dealing with his daughter’s death. He demonstrates how neurotransmitters associated with grief limit the heart’s ability to function properly, in some cases leading to severe reactions. The book doesn’t disparage traditional Western medicine, and the use of surgical procedures and medications are encouraged to treat the symptoms of heartache, but both doctors and patients are asked to approach the problem from a broader perspective. Doctors, the author writes, should ask patients if they are suffering from heartache and incorporate that information into their treatment plans. Patients should not expect to be completely cured of the condition, but they should acknowledge the source of the pain and work to heal and respond appropriately. The author, a Quaker, also addresses the role spirituality can play in the healing process, though his advice for addressing the emotional components of pain goes beyond a strictly religious perspective. The book touches on some methods for controlling physical responses and healing emotional pain, including meditation, prayer, biofeedback and yoga, but since it does not go into particular detail, readers should consult other sources for more specific advice. Thankfully, with frequent citations of both scholarly research and popular books throughout this relatively short text, the author provides readers with evidence supporting his approach to heartache and plenty of resources for further reading.
A brief but comprehensive overview of the connection between health of the mind and body.Pub Date: May 8, 2013
ISBN: 978-1475195668
Page Count: 126
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: July 17, 2013
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Honest messages from one of America's best known women.
A compilation of advice from the Queen of All Media.
After writing a column for 14 years titled “What I Know For Sure” for O, The Oprah Winfrey Magazine, Winfrey brings together the highlights into one gift-ready collection. Grouped into themes like Joy, Resilience, Connection, Gratitude, Possibility, Awe, Clarity and Power, each short essay is the distilled thought of a woman who has taken the time to contemplate her life’s journey thus far. Whether she is discussing traveling across the country with her good friend, Gayle, the life she shares with her dogs or building a fire in the fireplace, Winfrey takes each moment and finds the good in it, takes pride in having lived it and embraces the message she’s received from that particular time. Through her actions and her words, she shows readers how she's turned potentially negative moments into life-enhancing experiences, how she's found bliss in simple pleasures like a perfectly ripe peach, and how she's overcome social anxiety to become part of a bigger community. She discusses the yo-yo dieting, exercise and calorie counting she endured for almost two decades as she tried to modify her physical body into something it was not meant to be, and how one day she decided she needed to be grateful for each and every body part: "This is the body you've been given—love what you've got." Since all of the sections are brief and many of the essays are only a couple paragraphs long—and many members of the target audience will have already read them in the magazine—they are best digested in short segments in order to absorb Winfrey's positive and joyful but repetitive message. The book also features a new introduction by the author.
Honest messages from one of America's best known women.Pub Date: Sept. 2, 2014
ISBN: 978-1250054050
Page Count: 240
Publisher: Flatiron View Books
Review Posted Online: Aug. 22, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2014
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
An eye-opening glimpse into the attempted self-unmaking of one of Hollywood’s most recognizable talents.
The debut memoir from the pop and fashion star.
Early on, Simpson describes the book she didn’t write: “a motivational manual telling you how to live your best life.” Though having committed to the lucrative deal years before, she “walked away,” fearing any sort of self-help advice she might give would be hypocritical. Outwardly, Simpson was at the peak of her success, with her fashion line generating “one billion dollars in annual sales.” However, anxiety was getting the better of her, and she admits she’d become a “feelings addict,” just needing “enough noise to distract me from the pain I’d been avoiding since childhood. The demons of traumatic abuse that refused to let me sleep at night—Tylenol PM at age twelve, red wine and Ambien as a grown, scared woman. Those same demons who perched on my shoulder, and when they saw a man as dark as them, leaned in to my ear to whisper, ‘Just give him your light. See if it saves him…’ ” On Halloween 2017, Simpson hit rock bottom, and, with the intervention of her devoted friends and husband, began to address her addictions and underlying fears. In this readable but overlong narrative, the author traces her childhood as a Baptist preacher’s daughter moving 18 times before she “hit fifth grade,” and follows her remarkable rise to fame as a singer. She reveals the psychological trauma resulting from years of sexual abuse by a family friend, experiences that drew her repeatedly into bad relationships with men, most publicly with ex-husband Nick Lachey. Admitting that she was attracted to the validating power of an audience, Simpson analyzes how her failings and triumphs have enabled her to take control of her life, even as she was hounded by the press and various music and movie executives about her weight. Simpson’s memoir contains plenty of personal and professional moments for fans to savor. One of Kirkus and Rolling Stone’s Best Music Books of 2020.
An eye-opening glimpse into the attempted self-unmaking of one of Hollywood’s most recognizable talents.Pub Date: Feb. 4, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-06-289996-5
Page Count: 416
Publisher: Dey Street/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Feb. 15, 2020
PERSPECTIVES
BOOK TO SCREEN
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