Inspiring workbook on fostering a more authentic, joyful life.
In this debut how-to guide, a life coach/writing instructor shares her healing journey and self-care practices, by which readers can hear and heed their own inner voices.
For Payne, “Hiding within the folds of a broken marriage kept me from looking at the brokenness I held within and kept me from hearing the true desires of my heart.” In 2010, after finally asking her husband of 19 years to leave, Payne experienced a visitation from her dead grandmother, who led her to an “ethereal elevator” from which Payne stepped out, “thriving in my life in every way.” After acting on this vision to become a writing instructor and life coach, Payne discusses the importance of “standing firm for yourself” and being guided by intuition. She touches on the science behind self-care, describing the mind/body benefits of meditation, for example, and how “your innate need to be self-filled will give you a healthy sense of self and, in turn, bring you to a more meaningful and sustainable way of serving others.” She recommends having “sacred circles” of friends and family for support, acknowledging that she herself hadn’t shown her true self to her ex-husband. Payne takes readers through a series of statements to analyze current belief systems and to take “bridging action” to reframe perspectives, many focused on becoming more open to taking steps toward her recommended self-care practices, which include meditation, journaling, and committing to good sleep, relaxation time, and communing with nature. Payne, in her debut, offers a relatable personal story with admirably honest admissions about her own blind spots and flaws. In several other real-world examples, she also draws on client experiences to showcase how one can only be truly “response-able” in life if one is “self-full.” While her book contains the same kind of mindfulness advice that can be found in similar books, Payne’s gently guiding tone and her array of useful tips—such as 10 specific routes into journaling—will be particularly helpful to those just starting out in the search into self.
Inspiring workbook on fostering a more authentic, joyful life.Pub Date: July 27, 2015
ISBN: 978-1-5006-1778-3
Page Count: 150
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: Oct. 5, 2015
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Doyle offers another lucid, inspiring chronicle of female empowerment and the rewards of self-awareness and renewal.
More life reflections from the bestselling author on themes of societal captivity and the catharsis of personal freedom.
In her third book, Doyle (Love Warrior, 2016, etc.) begins with a life-changing event. “Four years ago,” she writes, “married to the father of my three children, I fell in love with a woman.” That woman, Abby Wambach, would become her wife. Emblematically arranged into three sections—“Caged,” “Keys,” “Freedom”—the narrative offers, among other elements, vignettes about the soulful author’s girlhood, when she was bulimic and felt like a zoo animal, a “caged girl made for wide-open skies.” She followed the path that seemed right and appropriate based on her Catholic upbringing and adolescent conditioning. After a downward spiral into “drinking, drugging, and purging,” Doyle found sobriety and the authentic self she’d been suppressing. Still, there was trouble: Straining an already troubled marriage was her husband’s infidelity, which eventually led to life-altering choices and the discovery of a love she’d never experienced before. Throughout the book, Doyle remains open and candid, whether she’s admitting to rigging a high school homecoming court election or denouncing the doting perfectionism of “cream cheese parenting,” which is about “giving your children the best of everything.” The author’s fears and concerns are often mirrored by real-world issues: gender roles and bias, white privilege, racism, and religion-fueled homophobia and hypocrisy. Some stories merely skim the surface of larger issues, but Doyle revisits them in later sections and digs deeper, using friends and familial references to personify their impact on her life, both past and present. Shorter pieces, some only a page in length, manage to effectively translate an emotional gut punch, as when Doyle’s therapist called her blooming extramarital lesbian love a “dangerous distraction.” Ultimately, the narrative is an in-depth look at a courageous woman eager to share the wealth of her experiences by embracing vulnerability and reclaiming her inner strength and resiliency.
Doyle offers another lucid, inspiring chronicle of female empowerment and the rewards of self-awareness and renewal.Pub Date: March 10, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-9848-0125-8
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Dial Books
Review Posted Online: Dec. 21, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2020
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SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
A vibrant, encouraging depiction of a sinister disorder.
A British novelist turns to autobiography to report the manifold symptoms and management of his debilitating disease, depression.
Clever author Haig (The Humans, 2013, etc.) writes brief, episodic vignettes, not of a tranquil life but of an existence of unbearable, unsustainable melancholy. Throughout his story, presented in bits frequently less than a page long (e.g., “Things you think during your 1,000th panic attack”), the author considers phases he describes in turn as Falling, Landing, Rising, Living, and, finally, simply Being with spells of depression. Haig lists markers of his unseen disease, including adolescent angst, pain, continual dread, inability to speak, hypochondria, and insomnia. He describes his frequent panic attacks and near-constant anhedonia, the inability to experience pleasure. Haig also assesses the efficacy of neuroscience, yoga, St. John’s wort, exercise, pharmaceuticals, silence, talking, walking, running, staying put, and working up the courage to do even the most seemingly mundane of tasks, like visiting the village store. Best for the author were reading, writing, and the frequent dispensing of kindnesses and love. He acknowledges particularly his debt to his then-girlfriend, now-wife. After nearly 15 years, Haig is doing better. He appreciates being alive and savors the miracle of existence. His writing is infectious though sometimes facile—and grammarians may be upset with the writer’s occasional confusion of the nominative and objective cases of personal pronouns. Less tidy and more eclectic than William Styron’s equally brief, iconic Darkness Visible, Haig’s book provides unobjectionable advice that will offer some help and succor to those who experience depression and other related illnesses. For families and friends of the afflicted, Haig’s book, like Styron’s, will provide understanding and support.
A vibrant, encouraging depiction of a sinister disorder.Pub Date: Feb. 23, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-14-312872-4
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Penguin
Review Posted Online: Nov. 3, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2015
SEEN & HEARD
Readers Donate Depression Book After Star Suicide
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