Meditation teacher and spiritual adviser Kimes’ debut book guides readers through meditation exercises to relax the mind and center the spirit.
Weaving together essays, activities, and poetry, the author presents a lovely New Age–oriented self-help manual. She offers suggestions regarding which crystals to use in conjunction with various, specific meditation practices, and also explores vibration and sound-healing practices, as well as methods to control one’s thoughts and reverse negative beliefs. The author posits, “One of your greatest achievements will be to understand yourself.” To that end, she addresses how one may achieve self-understanding through visualizations and breathing exercises. In a comprehensive discussion of chakras, the author takes time to detail each chakra and assert its role in the body, the areas of life it affects, and the ways in which readers may work to heal and nurture it. Over the course of the book, Kimes offers many exercises that encourage the idea of being “present,” which encompass visualizations of being within one’s inner “temple,” on staircases and in hallways associated with specific memories, and with “Masters of Light.” Overall, this is an easy-to-read, positive reflection on various New Age practices with an encouraging voice. The book is well-organized, so that it can be effectively read straight through or can be dipped into to find appropriate exercises as needed. It concludes with discussions of the author’s travels and her experiences with other people who claim to have healed their souls and bodies using the reiki alternative-healing technique.
A supportive guide to self-healing, meditation, and spiritual growth.Pub Date: Aug. 28, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-982210-41-0
Page Count: 130
Publisher: BalboaPress
Review Posted Online: May 9, 2019
Categories: BODY, MIND & SPIRIT
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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.
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. 16, 2020
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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
Categories: BODY, MIND & SPIRIT | SELF-HELP
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