Book Reviews
We love books and we love to review and recommend the ones we think are simply enjoyable or useful - from books like Taming Your Gremlin and Eat, Pray, Love to The First 90 Days (in any job), to Working With You is Killig Me. We hope you enjoy the books as much as we have reading them.
| Friday, Oct 02, 2009 |
| Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress Free Productivity |
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| Friday, Oct 02, 2009 10:15 |
| This book is 7 years old and it's still high on Amazon's list. I can see why. If you need to organize yourself and you don't know a great organizer, I can recommend one - Melissa Stacey of Feeling Organized. She's beyond amazing!. Again, though, if you don't hire an organizer and you're doing it yourself, David's book is the best there is. I read it just after it came out and took his advice on setting up a file drawer where I could put general folders (I color code mine) to keep my loose papers and floating ideas contained. That alone was worth the price of the book 1000-fold. Amazing advice. It's an easy read. |
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| Tuesday, Sep 15, 2009 |
| The Elements of Persuasion: Pitch Better, Sell Faster & Win More Business! |
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| Tuesday, Sep 15, 2009 09:54 |
| Robert Dickman got it right when he and Richard Maxwell wrote The Elements of Persuasion. If you're worried that this book is about selling products and you're not in sales, think again. Why? Because you are your product; your ideas are your product. And you need to sell those two every day at work. Using storytelling as the model, Dickman and Maxwell show you how to take five elements -- passion, hero, antagonist, awareness and transformation -- and grab your audience (whether one or many) at the gut level. With great examples, you'll learn ways to engage your listeners' passion and bring the hero (you; the protagonist) to life, get your listeners past perceived obstacles, bring them into a new awareness, and transform how they look to the future…a future as now seen through their own eyes by way of your story! We try to persuade people every day with logic and reason. And while both logic and reason are not to be left behind, it's the story that's remembered most and what will put them into action. |
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| Monday, Jun 22, 2009 |
| Womenomics: Write Your Own Rules for Success |
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| Monday, Jun 22, 2009 10:22 |
| Finally, a book about and for working women that not only speaks to the realities of the work-life-family imbalance we all face, but also has sound advice for what can be done about it. Womenomics: Write Your Own Rules for Success is an uplifting, fast-paced, well-written book with a powerful message -- if it's broke, fix it, and here's how. The authors, Claire Shipman and Katty Kay, both working mothers in broadcast journalism, have upsized, downsized and right-sized their work lives to fit their needs as their families have grown. And that has meant learning how to say "no" to what wasn't going to work for their lives. They've included powerful information with supporting statistics about the value women bring to the success of the bottom line. There are thought-provoking assessments that help you figure out what you can do to balance your life, and guidance on just how you can do it. The book is easy to digest -- each chapter ends with "News You Can Use," a bulleted list that reviews the major points. Chapter Seven's "Nine Rules to Negotiate Nirvana" give you everything you need to take your next steps. Some of what the authors suggest is not for the faint of heart -- but how much of going after what you want actually is? And while many (but not all) of the women whose stories the authors relay are executive-level, there is still plenty of useful information and advice for the everyday professional. This book is both inspirational and practical -- I highly recommend it. |
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| Monday, Jun 15, 2009 |
| Put Your Best Foot Forward...Make a great impression by taking control of how others see you. |
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| Monday, Jun 15, 2009 03:31 |
Authors Jo-Ellan Dimitrius and Mark Mazzarella provide an in-depth view of what you should and shouldn't do, say, or wear in the corporate environment. If you want to influence others with your leadership presence, this book provides some very important information. The authors stress that wardrobe choices, body language, voice, communication style, the content of what you say, your actions, and your environment all contribute to your effectiveness with others. They also discuss what they call "toxic traits" -- those characteristics of yours that can send people running. The authors draw on their backgrounds in the courtroom. Mark Mazzarella is a trial lawyer and Jo-Ellan Dimitrius is a consultant who has headed the jury-selection for many high-profile trials -- she's a body language/image expert who chooses people for a jury or sends them packing just by the way they "show up." She's able to tell if a person will or won't be sympathetic to a defendant's situation -- now there's a skill! While what we focus on at Hairpin Turns is the corporate environment, not the courtroom, Dimitrius and Mazzarella share insight that applies to all of us. |
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| Tuesday, Jun 02, 2009 |
| Amazon's Kindle 2 - the wireless reader. |
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| Tuesday, Jun 02, 2009 10:21 |
| In a word, it's FANTASTIC. It's small, just about the size of most books -- about 8x5. I loaded my first book onto it last night and fell asleep reading it. My Kindle 2 went to sleep too, so I didn't lose any battery life.I can't recommend this enough. Here's why I love this Kindle 2. It's small - 8x5, so it feels like a book. And if you get the jacket that it easily clips into, you open it up and it even looks like a book - reader on one side, left case flap on the other. The beauty, of course, is that you don't have to worry about keeping the book open, which I often find annoying when I'm reading. You can take notes (there's a keyboard) that are then kept in a separate place and you can find them anytime. Also, you can change type size (there are 6 sizes), highlight words or lines you want to go back to (just like I do in a book). And best of all, you can take it to the gym with you and read while you're running or whatever (because it stays open). You can click here or you can just go to Amazon and read more about this. Kindle is came out with a new, larger model, the Kindle DX, in June. It's almost the size of a piece of paper, 10.7x8. It's a little too big for me, but you might like something larger. |
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| Monday, May 18, 2009 |
| How Not to Look Old: Fast and Effortless Ways to Look 10 Years Younger, 10 Pounds Lighter, 10 Times Better. |
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| Monday, May 18, 2009 10:17 |
| At first it might appear that this book is only for women over 40, but I guarantee you, this book is for everyone, young and not-so-young. And it's worth it! With contents like: 10 things you can do in the next 10 minutes to take off 10 years; what's too young, what's too old, and what's just right; high, medium and low priced clothing options; plus, tips on make-up (should never wear too much, but some), shoes, accessories. In addition to giving tips on looking younger, Charla Krupp's book is a great guide for achieving an overall professional appearance. As a career strategist for women in the corporate world, I've seen many a woman have difficulty moving ahead, not because she looked old (although there still are issues with that in the work-world), but because she didn't have the right leadership presence for the job. Yes, it's still an annoying world out there when we know that we might be judged on how we look. But baggy pants, baggy tops, and a bad job of hair highlighting can give the impression that you're not leader material. Krupp provides solutions to all these challenges. You may not need to read the entire book, but there may be a few chapters that are right up your alley. They were for me. And the pictures are great, though it's a bit L.A.-style with photos of a number of celebrities. But overall, a very helpful book. |
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| Thursday, Aug 21, 2008 |
| The First 90 Days...Critical Success Strategies for New Leaders at All Levels |
| LEADING Series Pick |
| Thursday, Aug 21, 2008 11:46 |
| This is another one of those amazing finds. Who hasn't gone to a new company or taken on a new role where you're at right now where you haven't had to get people on board with you? We're under the microscope the minute we walk in the door - all eyes on us. Oh yes, everyone's welcoming, AND they expect that it's not going to take you too long (hint, less than 90 days in most organizational cultures) to get fully up and running. There's relationship building, figuring out what you really need to deliver on fast, early wins that impress, and more. It's still a top seller on Amazon, around 600, even after 5 years. |
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| Thursday, Aug 14, 2008 |
| What Got You Here Won't Get You There...How Successful People Become Even More Successful. |
| LEADING Series Pick |
| Thursday, Aug 14, 2008 11:36 |
| Not only will you find out how successful people (and that would be you!) become even more successful, you'll discover the 20 workplace habits you need to break, which is really what this book is about. For example, "the higher you go, the more your problems become behavioral," and he's not talking about the behavior of people who work FOR us. He's talking about us. Ouch! He's got a whole section on how to change for the better. Goldsmith is a genius when it comes to this stuff. This book is high on Amazon's list, as of this writing, it's 325. Also, it's a New York Times bestseller. Not a long, tedious book, but a quick, snappy read. Sure, it's got 218 pages, but when you're reading all about YOU, it goes quickly. |
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| Thursday, Aug 07, 2008 |
| Why Should Anyone Be Led By You?...What It Takes to Be An Authentic Leader |
| LEADING Series Pick |
| Thursday, Aug 07, 2008 09:02 |
 Yeah, why should anyone be led by any of us? What do we bring to the party? I found the title so intriguing, I just had to read the article. And I'm glad I did. This is a Harvard Business Review article (it's also a book, but the article is really enough to get the picture of what they're saying) about leadership. Rob Goffee and Gareth Jones have found four "unexpected qualities" that great leaders share...I was surprised too. (1) They selectively reveal their weaknesses (you have to be pretty smart to figure out which weaknesses you choose to let people know about!). (2) They use intuition to figure out the right timing and the right course for their actions (so leaders have to be self-aware). (3) They manage people using "tough empathy." (4) They know what makes them different and they make the most of it. This is a great, short article. You can get the electronic download for $6.50 at Harvard Business School Press on line. Just click the image to the left or click here. |
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| Thursday, Jun 26, 2008 |
| The Office: The Bad and the Ugly |
| LEADING Series Pick |
| Thursday, Jun 26, 2008 10:42 |
 Are you a bad boss? No, no, say it ain't so! This article is from Inc.com and posted on the Yahoo! site. It's a short one, so check it out. In thinking about your 6 sources of power at work, one of them is positional power. If you're not using your positional power in a way that motivates people to work for you, you might be inadvertently driving people away. Lost any/many employees lately? Take a look and see if you see yourself in any of the points Leigh Buchanan covers. Enjoy! |
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| Thursday, Jun 19, 2008 |
| Working With You is Killing Me..Freeing Yourself From the Emotional Traps at Work |
| LEADING Series Pick |
| Thursday, Jun 19, 2008 02:50 |
| Whew, and who doesn't want to do that! Free yourself from emotional traps at work that is. They're everywhere and it's hard to escape them because, well, we're all human. Kathi Crowley is a Harvard-trained psychotherapist and knows her stuff. The book's got some great quick assessments and exercises that you can do to see just how caught up in the emotional trap you might be AND she tells you how to get out of it. So if you're feeling powerless, you can take back your power by getting skillful at managing yourself in various work-related situations. One chapter is Managing UP -- Taking Control. And who doesn't' want to do that? Another chapter along that same line is Difficult and Extreme Bosses -- How to Keep Your Sanity. The core of the book is about managing your reactions to the types of difficult situations you find yourself in at work, and in doing so you take control. And you need to do that (take control) if you want to manage your personal brand successfully at work. Great book. I've recommended it to several clients who've raved about it. |
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| Thursday, Jun 12, 2008 |
| In The Company of Women...Indirect Aggression Among Women: Why We Hurt Each Other and How to Stop. |
| LEARNING Series Pick |
| Thursday, Jun 12, 2008 02:45 |
| How do women use their power? How do they indirectly sabotage themselves and other women? This book is about trouble with women in the workplace and it is exceptional! Yes, lots of pages, but you don't need to read it all. This has some of the best research about women and how we can trip ourselves up with our own behavior at work with other women, and end up being cut off from important information, shut out of meetings, and yes, sabotaged. And that does happen. Remember the mean girls when you were young? They're all grown up now and working with and for you. Heim & Murphy talk about the Power Dead-Even Rule. You need to know that rule and more in order to survive with women at work. So if you only read that section, it's worth buying the book for that alone. |
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| Thursday, Jun 05, 2008 |
| Eat, Pray, Love |
| LEARNING Series Pick |
| Thursday, Jun 05, 2008 09:32 |
| Taking control of her life...yes that's what Elizabeth Gilbert did. She took back her power after having given it up for years. I'm sure that many of you have read this book by now, but it's highly worth mentioning. Gilbert's ability to draw the reader into her life in a way that causes you feel like you're right there with her, makes for an amazing journey. I meditate, but nothing like Elizabeth did during her 4 months in India. She threw herself into the experience and came out of it more whole and at home with herself than she ever had been. I was ready to pack my bag and take a sabbatical just to do what she did...and maybe I will before too long! This book taught me a lot about giving myself the opportunity to deeply experience the self through meditation, and, well, maybe eat my way through Italy for a few months too! Can't recommend it highly enough. |
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| Thursday, Jul 17, 2008 |
| The Definitive Book of Body Language |
| LEARNING Series Pick |
| Thursday, Jul 17, 2008 03:41 |
| Barbara and Allan Pease have been studying this stuff for about 30 years and this is just their latest book about how body language speaks volumes. Yes, "speaks." We don't need to utter a word and people are already sizing us up because of our body language. What's fun about this book is that it has actual illustrations so you can see the body language they're talking about. While much of it has to do with how we can read others' body language, there are great skills for us about our own language and the messages we're sending. We can get people to be influenced by us just by how we hold ourselves. Hmmmm. Interesting. This is a good read for how to influence others to both see things your way and to see you the way you want to be seen. The book is an international best seller...still. |
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| Thursday, Jul 10, 2008 |
| Taming Your Gremlin...A Surprisingly Simple Method for Getting Out of Your Own way |
| LEARNING Series Pick |
| Thursday, Jul 10, 2008 04:57 |
| Everyone's got a gremlin in her/his head that talks incessantly about anything and everything, and, of course, it's negative chatter. This book nails that gremlin cold and gives you a way to work out of being driven by the noise. Rick Carson wrote his first gremlin book about 20 or more years ago. I happened on it in the late 90s and started offering it to my clients as part of our leadership program. Although I don't include it in the program these days, I do recommend it to people, and I'd say, highly! Carson's newest edition - this one - has fewer graphics and more excellent exercises. So if you've got a gremlin going in your head, get this book. It's a pretty quick read - of course you need to do the exercises - but it is SO well worth it. |
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| Thursday, Jul 03, 2008 |
| Learned Optimism...How to Change Your Mind and Your Life |
| LEARNING Series Pick |
| Thursday, Jul 03, 2008 05:01 |
| It's all about attitude! If you've ever noticed that you're looking at life from the glass-half-empty (or dry, for that matter!) perspective, then get this book. And even if you only sometimes approach life from that angle, it's still well worth the read. This is not a fly-by-night self-help book. In fact, I wouldn't even lump it in the self-help category; it's more self-awareness... self-learning. Seligman is a psychologist whom other psychologists think is exceptional. His book was a national best seller and still ranks around 1500 on Amazon's most popular list. And not only is this book well researched, it's SO readable and practical. In other words, he tells us what to do about those negative/disabling attitudes of ours that might crop up from time to time (Oh no, not me! Say it ain't so!). Seligman shows us how we learn pessimism and how we can break away from it. He even talks about how we can help our children escape it. So if you find yourself sometimes caught up in negative thoughts that just won't go away, read this book. It's freeing! |
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| Thursday, Sep 25, 2008 |
| Yes! 50 Scientifically Proven Ways to Be Persuasive |
| LEADING Series Pick |
| Thursday, Sep 25, 2008 02:51 |
 This book's fantastic if you want to learn the ways of influence quickly. 50 very short chapters, all about 3 pages each, bound in a relatively small book (5x6.5) so the reading goes quickly and easily. One of the authors, Robert Cialdini, is THE leading authority on influence and persuasion in the country. Sample chapters are, "What common mistake causes messages to self-destruct?" Notice that's it's only one mistake! Or, "Which office item can make your influence stick?" Office item?? Oh, this is good! You'll be influencing like mad in no time. |
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| Thursday, Sep 04, 2008 |
| Harnessing the Science of Persuasion |
| LEADING Series Pick |
| Thursday, Sep 04, 2008 05:47 |
 Persuasion is an art and a science and Robert Cialdini, the leading expert on influence in the United States, brings it home with this article. There are six principles of persuasion: Liking, Reciprocity, Social Proof, Consistency, Authority, and Scarcity. And in very succinct fashion, Cialdini lets you know how you can make them work for you. |
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| Wednesday, Jan 21, 2009 |
| When Your Colleague is a Saboteur |
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| Wednesday, Jan 21, 2009 12:02 |
 This is a brilliant 3-page case study with additional commentary by 3 professionals. If you've ever had your work sabotaged or your reputation besmirchded by a co-worker, READ THIS NOW. Because it's not their bad behavior that will do them in, it's your behavior toward the situation that will do YOU in. If you don't have access to the current HBR issue (November, 2008), you can go to Harvard's site and get the electronic download for $6.50. So well worth it. Just click the image to the left. Although this case doesn't have much to do with negotiation, it has everything to do with politics and your future as a leader at your work. Given the importance of the content, I felt it was imperative to get it out there to you now. |
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| Thursday, Oct 23, 2008 |
| The Bully at Work...What You Can Do to Stop the Hurt and Reclaim Your Dignity on the Job |
| LEARNING Series Pick |
| Thursday, Oct 23, 2008 03:58 |
| When you're being bullied by someone in power, there's always a chance you'll be hurling yourself into the fire politically. The same holds true when you're being bullied by someone who's not all that high up, but IS in political favor with those who are. We thought we'd left the bullies back in school. Not so! They're alive and well and in the workplace, and some are actively sabotaging what could have been or what once was our meteoric rise up. We all need to learn how to handle these types of people who, by the way, just want to throw us under the bus. Gary and Ruth Namie are the definitive experts in this area and their advice is great. |
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| Thursday, Oct 09, 2008 |
| Crucial Conversations and Crucial Confrontations...tools for talking and resolving problems when stakes are high |
| LEADING Series Pick |
| Thursday, Oct 09, 2008 01:50 |
| Because this week's pick is a "twofer," there won't be a new recommendation for 10/16. I was considering putting up either one or the other of these books and deciding which one, when I saw that on Amazon, they're offering the "value pack" if you get both. Of course individually, they're both great, so if you chose one over the other, you couldn't go wrong. In the politics of work, you need both. First you must be skillful in having the important - the crucial - conversations with those who control your destiny AND you must know how to manage yourself during a crucial confrontation so you don't cut short your promising career in the company you're in! Brilliant books. Crucial Conversations is still around 300 on Amazon's best list and was a NYT Best Seller. |
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| Thursday, Oct 02, 2008 |
| Nice Girls Don't Get the Corner Office...101 Unconscious Mistakes Women Make that Sabotage Their Careers |
| LEARNING Series Pick |
| Thursday, Oct 02, 2008 03:12 |
| So true...nice girls don't get the corner office. This book has been a bestseller forever. In fact, it was a national bestseller. Lois Frankel does a great job of listing those pesky things that we do and say at work that have us look way smaller (and I don't mean in size) than we actually are. "Oh, I'll make that copy." or "I'm sorry." (when in fact, there's NOTHING to be sorry about. It's just that we're so used to saying it that it just slips out without notice, by us, anyway, but not by everyone else). Oh, and laughing at the end of most sentences...what's up with that??? So many women actually do that, and it takes away from whatever they've just said. This is a very easy read...divided into sections..with one short page for the mistake and one page for coaching tips. Get this book. Treat it as a workplace bible. |
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| Wednesday, Nov 26, 2008 |
| Breakthrough Bargaining |
| LEADING Series Pick |
| Wednesday, Nov 26, 2008 10:17 |
 Talk about power! This HBR article by Kolb and Williams, two women well-known for their expertise in negotiation (Deborah was an original member of the Harvard Negotiation Project) takes you on a behind-the-scenes look at how power is used in the informal workplace negotiation where phone calls go unanswered, meetings get postponed, ideas get ignored. The list goes on. They talk about the "shadow campaign" which has 3 types of moves: Power Moves, Process Moves, Appreciative Moves. This article is well worth the $6.50 and the 15 minutes it will take to read it. It will OPEN your eyes to what's going on behind the scenes that can thwart you. And you can figure out how you can get in the back-room shadow negotiation too! All of this is closely linked to our work here at Hairpin Turns on personal brand, influence and political intelligence at work. BTW: Deborah was one of my professors in business school. She's excellent. As always, click on the graphic and you'll get to where you can buy the immediately-downloadable article. |
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| Thursday, Nov 20, 2008 |
| Investigative Negotiation |
| LEADING Series Pick |
| Thursday, Nov 20, 2008 10:17 |
 This is an exceptionally great article about what you should be thinking about any time you enter a negotiation. The authors (Malhotra and Bazerman, both professors of business administration at the Harvard Business School) are genius researchers on this. There are four principles covered in 6 pages and they tie in with what I'm covering in the negotiation phases for this month's podcasts. |
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| Thursday, Nov 13, 2008 |
| The Disease to Please...Curing the People-Pleasing Syndrome |
| LEARNING Series Pick |
| Thursday, Nov 13, 2008 06:29 |
| Yes, I know. You see the title and you might think, "Not for me." I had the same thought, and bought it anyway because many of my clients were experiencing some form or another of this syndrome. It comes in many forms like rarely getting what you want in negotiatoin possibly because you're often putting others first and therefore YOU last. Now this doesn't mean that every one of us should rush out there to the front of the line and leave everyone else behind us choking on our dust. Hardly! But it could mean looking at the behaviors that send the message that we're not "quite right" for the big leadership jobs we'd like. This book is so well put together by Harriet Braiker who's a psychologist who knows what she's talking about. It's broken into 3 sections: Part 1: People-Pleasing Mindsets, Part 2: People-Pleasing Habits (in both of these, through assessments and stories, you get a big, honkin' picture of yourself), and Part 3: People-Pleasing Feelings. You then get to put a 21-day action plan into motion. Yet another book I highly recommend and many of my clients would say the same thing. This is also great if you're always saying "Yes" in any negotiation! |
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| Saturday, Jan 31, 2009 |
| The Power of Full Engagement...Managing Energy, Not Time, is the Key to High Performance and Personal Renewal |
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| Saturday, Jan 31, 2009 04:09 |
| It's tough to be influential (or successful for that matter) when you're up to your teeth in work with no time to think and no energy to enjoy the rest of your life. Jim Loehr is a performance psychologist who took his groundbreaking work and brought it into the corporate arena. By paying attention to the four areas in our life from which we draw energy .. mental, physical, emotional and spiritual, Loehr shows us how we can be fully engaged in our lives. |
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| Sunday, Jan 25, 2009 |
| The Power of Intention...Learning to Create Your World Your Way |
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| Sunday, Jan 25, 2009 04:12 |
| What better way to kick off a new year, a new quarter, a new time of life than with Dr. Wayne Dyer's book on intentions. Any time we want to change something in our lives, it seems like we need to summon up personal resolve or find the willpower to do it. Oh brother. What a struggle that sounds like! When any change of focus or anything new is started with intentions -- which are freeing for the mind and psyche -- instead of resolutions or willpower -- which by those words' very meaning, has us struggling to "make it" happen -- a new vista opens. Wayne Dyer is a gift and so is this book. While many people over the years have written about intentions -- an early writer was Napoleon Hill who penned Think and Grow Rich in the early 1930s as the great depression was fully underway, Dyer takes this discussion to the core. He helps us see how we actually CAN have our intentions come to life, effortlessly. |
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| Wednesday, Dec 31, 2008 |
| Getting Things Done...The Art of Stress-Free Productivity |
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| Wednesday, Dec 31, 2008 04:10 |
| This book is 6 years old and it's still 130 on Amazon's list. I can see why. If you need to organize yourself and you don't know a great organizer (oh, I can recommend one, Andrea K, the Organizing Sherpa...I've needed serious office organization and handholding and she's been beyond amazing!). Again, though, if you don't hire an organizer and you're doing it yourself, David's book is the best there is. I read it just after it came out and took his advice on setting up a file drawer where I could put general folders (I color code mine) to keep my lose papers and floating ideas contained. That alone was worth the price of the book 1000-fold. Amazing advice. It's an easy read. |
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| Wednesday, Dec 31, 2008 |
| Dreams From My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance |
| LEADING Series Pick |
| Wednesday, Dec 31, 2008 01:54 |
| No matter what your political bent, this book is worthwhile read. An eloquent writer, Obama gives us a glimpse of a leader in the making as he writes about his journey to pursue a life of meaning and passion in the world. It's rare that we get the inside, personal and poignant view of someone writing about social responsibility and search for meaning years before their rise. This is the insightful and honest account of the beginning of a leader's life and I recommend it highly. |
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| Thursday, Dec 18, 2008 |
| Feng Shui for Dummies |
| LIVING Series Pick |
| Thursday, Dec 18, 2008 03:42 |
| I must say that I don't find the cover of this book very feng shui-ish, what with the black and yellow. But that's the "dummies" book brand, so that's the way it is. That said, this is an excellent book as a beginner's foray into everything feng shui is and can be in freeing living and work spaces for light and welcoming energy. While many out there might poo-poo the concept of feng shui, if you're into clearing your space, then why not do it with the help of someone who practices this as an art! You know how some spaces feel dead while others have a buoyant, energetic feeling to them? You can experience that yourself with a little help by putting feng shui to work in your work and home environments. Do this once a quarter and Feng Shui your way to freedom by recycling whatever you can and delivering your donations to your favorite charity. |
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| Friday, Dec 12, 2008 |
| Guided Mindfulness Meditation |
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| Friday, Dec 12, 2008 05:05 |
| This is NOT as hard as it might seem. This is your every-day kind of mindfulness/meditation that can change your life. And it's pretty easy. Jon Kabat-Zinn is one of my favorite people. I've been following his mindfulness practices for years and this CD guides you through meditations even when you think you just can't. First off, he has both sitting-up and lying-down meditations. Oh yes, I often do the lying-down ones! They're set up as 5-minute, 10-minute, 20-minute, etc. meditations so that you'll know exactly how long you'll be doing it. No more having your mind wander wondering how long you've been at it! He comes from a practice, not spiritual perspective on this - mindfulness - rather than spiritual connection - which makes it palatable for the masses, like moi. He talks you through it, so that you're not feeling alone. He also has meditations where he doesn't talk at all if that's what you prefer. Everyone needs to quiet the constant chatter in our heads, especially if that chatter often is negative...oh, and even when it's not. When we quiet ourselves down, we "hear" more. |
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| Thursday, Dec 11, 2008 |
| Change Your Thoughts - Change Your Life |
| LEADING Series Pick |
| Thursday, Dec 11, 2008 07:00 |
| Tao Te Ching, the "Great Way" are the 81 verses of Lao-tzu, a Chinese philosopher (604 BCE - 531 BCE). Wayne Dyer spent the better part of a year researching translations of Lao-tzu's verses and has compiled them in a magnificent book where he (Dyer) speaks of the modern-day application of each of Lao-tzu's teachings, the most famous of which is, "The journey of 1000 miles begins with the first step," or "...begins beneath one's feet," depending on which translation you read. The book is profound, moving, spiritual..and is meant to be read and savored over time. Dyer has been writing about all things transformational for many years and not only does this book not disappoint, it may very well be the hallmark of his work. Chapters (for example) are titled "Living by Letting Go," "Living Untroubled by Good or Bad Fortune," "Living in Wholeness." In the world we live in today, these are words to live by. |
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| Thursday, Dec 04, 2008 |
| Three Cups of Tea |
| LIVING Series Pick |
| Thursday, Dec 04, 2008 01:54 |
| This is the incredibly inspiring story of Greg Mortenson's drive, against ALL odds, to build over 50 schools through his Central Asia Institute to bring education to (mostly) girls in poverty-stricken, rural regions in Pakistan and Afghanistan. With no money and little knowledge of the cultural bridge he would have to cross to do what he's done, makes this a remarkable story. Talk about influence! The book is number 32 on Amazon's list and is a New York Times bestseller. The reference to the 3 cups of tea is that by the time you have had your third cup of tea with a family in this rural region, you have become one of them. This is a story of hope, courage and determination, not just by Mortenson, but by the many rural families in this region who have courageously stepped out in light of deep cultural norms, to give girls a chance. |
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