5 comments about Excuse Me, Your Soul Mate Is Waiting (Excuse Me).

1. What a wonderful book. Fun to read. Marla adds her own anecdotes which are very entertaining. I already have a soul mate, and yet, this book was great, because, one, it confirmed what I already knew intuitively, and two, it's great for getting anything out of life, not just soul mates. I highly recommend it.



2. I loved this book. It was so encouraging and inspiring. If you've dated a gazillion frogs, this book will give you hope. The author's style is conversational and easy to read. I plan to write some of the affirmations on cards and refer to them often. Marla Martenson has written a book on relationships that feels hopeful, but realistic. You'll love this book.



3. Marla gives the impression that she knows what she's talking about, and hasn't spent all this time in the matchmaking business without gleaning some valuable advice to pass along. In a field where most think about what they can get, Marla reminds us that, though it is important to have a clear picture of what we want, it's also important to think about what we can give. Her friendly style makes this a pleasure to read!



4. I have read several books on relationships and I must say, 'Excuse Me, Your Soul Mate is Waiting' is one of the best. Marla makes a number of key observations that are bang on. The examples she cites are very powerful and each chapter concludes with helpful "exercises". As a matchmaker, the author has a unique perspective and peppers the book with anecdotes and insights from her years matching males and females. She does a good job of appealing to both men and women (although she uses slightly more female examples.



5. This book was really fun to read. It has a lot of info we know but tend to forget or realize. I finish reading this book in 2 days. I wish I can remember all the advice that the author stated. I may have to read it again.

5 comments about Find Your Focus Zone: An Effective New Plan to Defeat Distraction and Overload.

1. As a medical student I felt I had a grasp on time management and attention skills, and then I read Find Your Focus Zone. I had no idea how much this book would change my life for the better. It's a must read for all high functioning people who want to reach their fullest potential. Thank you, Dr. Palladino, for writing such a cutting edge, powerful and useful guide for making the most of each moment of precious time.



2. HELP FOR MY SCATTERED BRAIN!
   I like this book. Tips and strategies for staying engaged with boring tasks, as well as practical methods for dealing with anxiety, pressure to perform, and fear of failure. It teaches the art of finding and maintaining a state of productive focus. It provides tools to call yourself to attention so you can visit that wonderful place where "all systems are go" and you are humming along. You don't have to be a scientist to appreciate the clear explanation of the upside down U that graphs the relationship between attention and stimulation. Even the Brain Chemical Attention Chart, showing the relationship of serotonin, dopamine and norepinephrine to attention, is clear and understandable. The book is easy to read, user friendly, and contains lots of practical advice. I had no problem staying in my "focus zone" as I read.



3. When a friend put this book in my hands a few months ago, I wondered if he was trying to tell me something, and if I should be offended. Find Your Focus Zone: Hadn't I read enough time-management books or self-improvement books already? Now I've read the book -- and passed on a few copies myself -- and I'm signing on here to say that THIS IS NOT YOUR TYPICAL SELF-HELP BOOK.
   
   For one thing, it's really helpful. Really, really helpful. Palladino has a novelist's gift for succinct and memorable character descriptions, which means that her description of the too hyperfast, hyperfocused guy reminded me of someone (several someones) I knew, as did her sketch of the woman who is scattered and spacey, the folks who are overstimulated, understimulated, afraid of failure. I started turning down pages to share with people but stopped partway through. I could tell that nearly everyone I know could benefit from Palladino's clear analysis of what makes us less effective in every part of our lives.
   
   That leads me to another part of Find Your Focus Zone that surprised me: how much I found that Palladino's advice could help me in my family life. Her portraits of parent-child interactions hit home with even more force than did her sketches of workers. Because of her book, I've changed the way I think about my daughter's foot-dragging over homework and music practice. Also how my husband and I work with her and our son on chores, how we think about our family meals, our vacations, our dreams for them. Little stuff and big stuff.
   
   If you wonder about the effect of the new connectivity toys and tools on children, read this book. If you wish work didn't intrude on your family life but find it hard to leave it at the office, read this book. If you wish you could just Get More Done, read this book. If you feel like there's more in you than your work is getting out, read this book. If you're a manager or business owner, read this book. If you're just starting out in a job, read this book.
   
   Best of all, it's not just easy to read and well-written. It's clear that Palladino knows her science. She trusts the intelligence of her readers when she describes current research in attention and attention disorders. It's a pleasure to read a book with clear footnotes that also has practical end-of-chapter suggestions.
   
   So if someone gives you this book, thank them. And then buy another to pass on.



4. The book provides great insight into strategies for finding your own focus zone. I'm still trying to hone the methods for my optimal zone, but all in all, the book is very valuable.



5. I've spent about 15 years reading books and articles about this subject, and this is the first time I've actually experienced an immediate and tangible shift in focus. That's pretty close to miraculous, especially since I've even been an editor or contributor to some books on the subject.
   
   See, I have a very very busy mind. I'm a marketing director for a Boston high-tech company (fast-moving group in a rapidly changing environment with constantly large amounts to learn), I sing in a championship men's chorus which requires a substantial commitment, I'm in an a capella quartet (ditto), I'm Class Notes secretary for my college class, and just for fun last year I discovered a very advanced life-threatening cancer, learned an enormous amount fast (as if my life depended on it) and completely beat it, while being stuck with two houses because we'd moved at the start of the housing slump. Now that the house and cancer are resolved, I'm a team leader in a year-long self-development course, I've become an active blogger, and I've published my year-long cancer journal and I'm becoming active in the "e-patient" movement to promote a new kind of doctor-patient relationship for the internet-enabled, whose principles played a big role in my cancer success last year.
   
   I mean, I love my life, but with a life like that, who has time to stop and "go to school" about focusing?
   
   I'll never forget the first time management course I took, decades ago. It said you just make a list and mark everything A,B,C for priority and then do the most important stuff. I wanted to reach out and SLAP the author, saying "You idiot, if I could do THAT, I wouldn't need this course!"
   
   Where most books spend chapters being philosophical about why their solution WILL be useful later in the book, Find Your Focus Zone immediately gets to the point, delivering solutions in the very first chapter. Sure, it deepens your understanding later on, but the punchline, the payoff, is delivered right away.
   
   I experienced it like a caffeine jolt of understanding and awareness. It's about finding the level of stimulation that works for you (which isn't as easy as it might sound). The funny thing is that I read it months ago and didn't think much about it since then, but then the other night in the middle of a marathon of productivity, I realized I was *doing* it, and it was working. I was moving from task to task with grace and ease, just gettin' stuff done.
   
   Frankly, I've always had a hard time with the idea that with all the ways I experience and contribute and enjoy life, somehow I shouldn't be the way I am. I mean, I have more fun and I experience more stimulation than two or three ordinary people. This book doesn't say for a minute that you've got to learn to be different - it says "Here's this one massively useful knob you can control about your environment, to get more stuff done while being exactly the way you are." How cool is that?

5 comments about Oneness.

1. This book is fantastic. I've been reading one chapter every night - It's seems like the right thing to do (for me) and I consider each and every chapter to be a gift and an energy package containing intelligent light. The timing is uncanny and quite comical at times. It's as if this book was written just for me - and in a more general sense, it was. When your time is right to read something like a bible or holy book for you in this time, the you too will stumble across this and feel the direct NEED to get it and savor each and every pearl of enlightenment... A true roadmap for anyone on the path of your HEART! ENJOY!



2. I was so thrilled when I bought this book... I have read many books on the subject of spiritual awakening and spirituality. But, for me this one is a hard read, not because of the subject. In my opinion the author seems to talk in circles at times. I have had the book for several weeks and am only in chapter 3. I don't feel as if I have gained anything from what I have read. A few times I have caught myself saying, "WHAT!?" Not that what I had read was to far fetch, more so on trying to figure out just what they were trying to say in the first place. I am hoping it gets better as I read on...



3. [ASIN:1419679120 Self-Empowerment 101: Re-enchantment with our own capacity for empowering ourselves and others]
   
   I am deeply touched by the presence, depth and richness of this work. It is a bedside staple. I flip to any page and always find wisdom that deepens my understanding and strengthens my knowing of the presence of Oneness everywhere and always. Its languaged in a way that is compelling, revealing and sensitive. At the same time it is a no-nonsense read. I'm grateful for the gifts that it has delivered.



4. This was definitely the right book at the right time for me. The knowledge is mind-expanding and useful for those consciously in the ascension process. For me it is Seth meets Kryon.
   It is clearly written and meaty (no fluffy or meandering text but straight to the point).
   It really gets into multidimensionality and the ascension process: enlarging the overview but with a lot of comment on practically working with the ascension process and what to keep an eye on.
   I found it so clarifying, to the point and beautifully integrating other stuff on ascension and takes things that have been available to the next level. I now can't wait to read 'The Calling'.
   It is just so good. I can't recommend it highly enough for those into this stuff. It is both a real gem and one that will become a major spiritual classic in the times ahead.



5. This book is appealing in title and its looks, but like the old saying goes, don't judge a book....
   
   I find this book very conflicting as im sure the author has a true understanding of the reality of oneness yet she talks about how teachings that say "this is an illusion" are wrong, then goes on to talk about "the illusion we are separate" which is conflicting, as obviously if oneness is reality then separateness is an illusion.
   
   The author also talks about how we have so much control over our realities with our thoughts, thus solidifying the sense of free will, which if you enquire into is not real, she also talks of trust & surrender, so i ask which is it, surrender or free will?
   
   We do create our own realities in thoughts, yes, but these are NOT NOT NOT the ultimate reality, which is oneness. Thoughts are illusory and reveal themselves as such.
   
   This is the whole reason why the spiritual search starts as we realise anything we create or do with thoughts will not ever bring true lasting fullfillment, we are already full if we simply look inside instead of trying to create outside objectives. The only true fullfillment comes from turning the thought energy/capacity toward the subjective see-er not by pruning our creative thought patterns, which is endless.
   
   In truth all teachings are incorrect and the author seems to have overlooked this truth, that the truth can not and never will be transcribed in any word or carried in any thought that can be worded.
   This is the only teaching ever needed to a spiritual seeker, to know that no activity of the thinking mind can ever touch the truth.
   
   The only way to truly experience oneness is to stop all mind activity, in no way can true lasting awakening happen through caressing our thoughts into only positive ways of thinking, this can help us yes, but again the mind will fall into "me" structures which will ALWAYS be of selfish interest, the SELF is where the oneness of cosmic consciousness lies. In this consciousness "you" & "me" are nothing, to be in oneness "you" must completely disappear, this book seems to do nothing but solidify that idea there is a "you" who can attain oneness.

5 comments about Writing as a Way of Healing: How Telling Our Stories Transforms Our Lives.

1. My daughter Debbi gave me this book for my birthday. I read Ms. DeSalvo's book when I was in the final stages of confronting the tragic suicide of my father that happened two days before my high school Senior Prom. For nearly fifty years after the day my entrepreneur father put a gun to his head and pulled the trigger his death gnawed at me. By facing what happened to me on that dreary spring day in Boston and trying to make sense of my Pop's state of mind on the day he died I was able to dig down deep into my soul and describe how I felt. I opened up my heart and was able to face a time only years had kept at bay. By writing about my heretofore-suppressed feelings I began to sob over the keyboard and took my first steps to understand why my father died. Desalvo's book validated my earlier conclusion that writing is truly a way of healing.



2. Although the book was not quite what I was expecting, i.e. a book that teaches you how to journal, I found it exceptional nonetheless. It was inspirational as it shared stories of other writers who write to save their sanity and souls. It also offered useful techniques to get you thinking about your memories and how to record them.
   
   I highly recommend this very readable book.



3. I have read a great many books on writing, and written a few myself. But Writing as a Way of Healing has gone straight to the top of my list of favorites, and I suspect that it will stay there for a very long time--perhaps for all time. But in the process of reading this book, I discovered I had to read the book that went before it, and now I want to tell you about both.
   
   Louise DeSalvo has been teaching English and creative writing for nearly twenty years. The first in her working-class Italian family to graduate from college, she escaped a soul-deadening home life--a depressed mother, an angry father--by reading, going to the movies, and dating, dating, dating. It wasn't until the late 1980's, when she wrote a scholarly book about the impact of childhood sexual abuse on the life and work of Virginia Woolf that she began to come to terms with her own childhood traumas and the lingering shadows of her mother's death and her sister's suicide. She dealt with her pain, anxiety, and depression in a memoir called Vertigo (now available in paperback, published by Plume), in which she explored her own story. Vertigo isn't a pleasant book, or easy--it's about hidden pain and the depression and despair into which a woman can fall when she attempts to avoid self-knowledge. But it is a necessary book, for through it, DeSalvo learns that the process of life-writing is also the process of healing. What she discovered in Vertigo, and what she subsequently put to use in her own teaching, is the subject and object of Writing As a Way of Healing.
   
   DeSalvo's section and chapter titles, by themselves, are helpful clues to the book's significance. The first section is called "Writing as a Way of Healing," and contains four chapters: Why Write, How Writing Can Help Us Heal, Writing as a Therapeutic Process, and Writing Pain, Writing Loss. Section Two is called "The Process/The Program," and has four chapters: The Healing Power of the Writing Process, Caring for Ourselves as We Write; and Stages of Growth I and II. The third section, "From Woundedness to Wholeness Through Writing" contains two chapters: Writing the Wounded Psyche and Writing the Wounded Body. The Epilogue is called "From Silence to Testimony." Each of the chapters contains suggestions for writing, examples (from such writers as Audre Lorde, Alice Walker, Jamaica Kincaid, Isabel Allende, Djuna Barnes), discussion, and ideas--lots of ideas, so many ideas that you'll find yourself wanting to stop reading and start writing (something that DeSalvo herself, no doubt, would applaud).
   
   DeSalvo refers extensively to a favorite researcher of mine--Dr. James Pennebaker--whose book Opening Up has been an important influence on my own understanding of the healing power of the writing process. When we use writing to explore traumatic or anxiety-provoking events in detail, together with the feelings that arise from those events, the writing process can help us to understand more clearly, cope in a more balanced way, and even feel better physically. Seen from this point of view, life-writing becomes a lifetime project, as we unravel the meanings of events and explore our responses to them. When we commit ourselves to this very important lifelong project--recognizing that we don't write our story once and for all and forget it!--we commit ourselves to a lifetime of learning, growing and healing.
   
   by Susan Wittig Albert
   for Story Circle Book Reviews
   www.storycirclebookreviewsorg
   reviewing books by, for, and about women



4. Despite being a writer, it's so hard expressing the extent to which this book has touched my soul. I came to it desperately in need of guidance, already knowing DeSalvo's reputation as a Woolf critic I've greatly admired. I knew her book would be useful. I had no idea it would be life-changing. This is one of the most influential books on my life I've ever read, and it may even be the most influential on me. I've never found any book on this topic to truly cut to the heart of what it is to need to find healing, much less a book with as much practical advice as this one. DeSalvo doesn't spew platitudes and feel good metaphor. She presents empathetic real advice on how to free yourself from the horrors of the past. I hope to meet Louise DeSalvo one day and thank her for this book. It's touched me to the core.



5. This book was a turning point for me in my writing. I found it fascinating to hear the stories behind established authors whose painful beginnings were the sources of their writings. It helped me understand the significance of story, my story included, which created a new confidence in writing. I often refer it to people who express a desire to write but who feel no one wants to hear their story. This book was very interesting to read and full of significant information about specific authors/writings.

5 comments about Stress-Free.

1. I haven't found a Louise Hay CD that I haven't liked. I especially like the subliminal component to this CD. It is nice to listen to the ocean and calming sounds - which alone help to relieve stress. Her tapes always work well for me and the clients I recommend them to. I would recommend listening to a CD consistently for 30 days then only as needed. It is amazing how you no longer struggle with the same Stresses after you listen to the CD for a while. I listened to it when I was driving from work. Now I have it on (subliminal side)in my office when clients come in. It creates a stress free office. She tells us that Stress is just a form of fear and if we fear something - we just attract it into our lives. This reason alone should make you want to de-stress. We really can't afford to focus on our fears...we need to spend our time focussing our what we want to create in our lives.



2. In my opinion, everything that Louise Hay has written has been wonderful. Her very simplistic and down to earth writing really works for me. Since 1988, I have read Louise's books and listened to her tapes and CD's. I first bought this on tape in 1990 and wore out the tape! So I ordered the CD in 2005. When I first listened to this CD, I was amazed because it has both Louise's soothing words and also beautiful music with a subliminal message that will go to your sub-conscious mind. This CD gives you practical help in everyday living and letting go of negative and stressful thoughts and old beliefs. And because I feel that Louise Hays teachings, CD's and books really work for me, I own 14 of them! And This CD really works for me and I have it to use when needed. Thanks Louise!



3. I listened to a tape of Louise Hay's about fear from the library and it was so great so I ordered this. But this one is annoying to listen to because instead of the affirmations saying "I am safe" etc, it says "I am safe. You are safe." because Louise Hay says the affirmation that you are supposed to hear and then she also says the subliminal message that you usually don't hear. The other track just has music with the subliminal message under it. But there isn't any track that has just the affirmations (I am safe) with the subliminal part (you are safe) hidden. It is distracting to hear "I am safe. You are safe." I don't know why they did it this way.



4. Great to receive product at a great price.
   
   Thank You! Lynn



5. This CD provides you the opportunity to release anger and resentment stored in your mind and heart. You bring peace and joy to your life once you allow yourself to release old memories and hurts.

5 comments about How You Can Survive When They're Depressed: Living and Coping with Depression Fallout.

1. This book can be a great help. If you are around someone who is suffering from depression, the load of everyday life can be terribly heavy. It helps so much to understand what is going on with your depressed loved one, but also to know that other people go through this too. The realization that you are not doing everything wrong, though the other makes you feel this way often, is very liberating. It can give you the strength you need to put more time and effort into helping the other conquer or understand their own inner tormentor. It can help you objectify the problem and your role in it, and protect yourself by keeping the necessary distance so that you don't get swallowed up by it - and sometimes even to walk away from it altogether if it threatens to destroy you. And if you can get the other to read it, too, then they can read a more objective - and less accusing - report on what life has been (or is) like for you, making it easier for them to understand what you have been going through, reducing the risk of an unproductive me-you discussion.
   Though I tend to want to be self-reliant and think I don't need outside help, I don't honestly know if we (my then-boyfriend and I) would have been able to process, and leave behind us (and move on), the terrible period we had together had it not been for this book.



2. This book deals with depression from the inside out. It is very informative and insightful and a book I would highly recommend for anyone who lives with a depressed person or is depressed.



3. I cannot praise this book enough. I have been dealing with my Husbands depression for the past ten years. I had been pulled down in to the black hole with him, believing it was all my fault how unhappy he was.This book has made me realise that it's not me, and its not him, its this awful illness he has. On bad days when everything seemed so hopeless I could read another chapter of this book and feel uplifted. It was like someone had written this book about us! It offers no end of helpful suggestions for yourself and the one you love. It has helped me bring it to my husbands attention and encourage him to get help.Fantastic!!



4. It is so helpful to know that I can name what I am experiencing, and that I am not alone. The advice and coping strategies in this book have changed my life immeasurably for the better.



5. I found the book to be negative and in some circumstances, over-exaggerated. There are frequent uses of "many", and "most", and this book generally paints depressives as being difficult, demanding and fault finding. People can have ongoing problems with depression and not be selfish monsters. I think this book drives people apart and looks for blame. I even get the feeling that the author has a deep seated hostility for people suffering from depression. There are much better books on the subject that are much more constructive and STILL focus on the needs of those who are dealing with depressed loved ones.

5 comments about The Heart of Addiction: A New Approach to Understanding and Managing Alcoholism and Other Addictive Behaviors.

1. A respectable service to addiction by questioning tradition thoughts and treatments. Without trashing other systems, the author transers years of insight and research from his own practice into a framework that is logical, consistent and practical. He deftly removes the overtones of religion, shame and isolation that can (and has) resulted in what I call 'orphaned addicts'. His content inspires rethinking of the addictive process and yields to constructive self-examination without 'preachiness'. A safe-read for anyone who may be questioning their own addictive behavior and a must-read for those familiar with traditional addiction methods.



2. The field of addiction counseling has struggled with how to understand and treat addiction for decades. For some, addiction is best understood as a disease that can respond to the standardized treatment of detox, group work and self-help programs, AA in particular, that focus primarily on addictive behavior. For others, addiction is a behavior driven by underlying conflicts and issues that need to be addressed in a treatment process designed for each individual, one that addresses his/her specific underlying psychological dynamics. This book is a comprehensive presentation of that second perspective. It is a thorough discussion of the psychology of addiction. Whether one agrees fully with the perspecitve is less important than the importance of understanding what it contributes to efforts to develop effective intervention with persons struggling with addictive disease. This book does provides the reader with an opportunity to make that assessment.



3. I don't usually buy books of this nature but it was recommended to me by a friend. Even if you don't have an issue of addiction this book will help you understand and cope with others that do in your life. I have a degree in Applied Behavior and I can say this is one of the most useful books I've ever read. The examples of real people and reasoning is extremely sound.



4. I am licensed as a therapist specializing in chemical dependency and have worked in the field of addiction for many years and have treated hundreds of people and thousands of family members. I read about addiction constantly, review all research and I must say that although this book is very well written is fraught with the same misconceptions and twists of logic that have been around and answered for many years. This is just a more stylish manner of refuting redundant research and twisting logic by lumping terms together and holding out the hope that if an addict or alcoholic can address their inner demons they can use in moderation. The book equates compulsive obsessive behaviors such as sex addiction with alcoholism. It tries to convince you that apples are the same as oranges. It suggests that problems cause addiction when the opposite is true. This book would be totally refuted if openly subject to scientific review alone. It doesn't even address AA. They book is written by a therapist who wants to "treat" you for your "addictions" that are caused by your own supposed "inability to cope". Although this may be true of sexual compulsivity or hand washing, it simply does not fit with known and documented bio genetic predispositional properties and cellular bio mechanical attributes of chemical dependency. Ask a responsible therapist if individual counseling works on addicts. It almost always ends in failure. Why not address AA? Perhaps because it does not entirely jive with the premise of this book; That people can "learn" or be "therapized" into wellness from drug and alcohol addiction, which is not only irresponsible, but potentially hazardous to the alcoholic who is desperate to learn how to drink "normally". I guess, if not for the intentional misinformation, it could be an entertaining read for someone with OCD issues. The book perpetuates ignorance and false hopes about chemical addiction. A better read can be found in Milam and Ketcham's milestone book "Under The Influence."



5. I found this book refreshing and very insightful regarding the issue of addiction. Anyone could use the insight contained here, whether or not you are an addict. I would encourage friends and family members of addicts to read this to get a better understanding of the real heart issues behind addiction.
   
   It's time for the mental health community to recognize that treatment must get to the root of the problem - the heart, or drive, behind the negative behavior. Meds and meetings won't solve the issue; they just control the 'symptoms' of a broken heart.
   
   If you are suffering from an addiction, read the book and start journaling as though you are talking to a therapist like the author (if you currently don't have a therapist like him). Ask for truth to be revealed as you do this. It may be that you can find the point of helplessness that drives you to your addiction. It's worth a try. The main message of the book is very powerful. A must read for students of addiction.

5 comments about FAITH IN THE VALLEY : Lessons for Women on the Journey to Peace.

1. Each time my spirt is down, or I'm going through a situation, I turn to this book. I hold the book in my right hand by its spine, fan the pages with my left hand to stop at randum. The passages I've read, I have felt its deep spirtual feeling and I understand its meaning. Then I reflect on my situation and the passage fits. It helps me to understanding whats going on. It uplifts my spirit to deal with my situation. It give me insight to view my problem from a different angle. It also assures me that what I am currently going through will end. I will get through it. In my view, its a powerfull book. I have read several other books by Iyanla, even watched her talk show (sorry that went off the air), but like the bible, I keep Faith In The Valley near by.



2. I can not express how insightful and helpful this book is! It really makes you look deep into the reason(s) why you thought you needed a book of affirmations in the first place. This book is perfect for those "why me" and "I really can't take any more" moments when you feel like life, and everything in it, needs to give you a break. If you're a woman experiencing a lot of change in your life and it seems like you just can't handle another crisis (or is it a crisis afterall?), this is the book for you. I carry it in my purse!



3. This is my FAVORITE book by Iyanla Vanzant because of: It's size(small enough for your tiny purse), its lack of preach-i-ness and how the index is organized by subject. I feel its a synopsis of all the subjects covered in her other books. I also feel the book is applicable to women of ALL cultures. You can use it as a daily guide or you can use the index to find a subject for which you could use guidance.



4. this book has been so helpful at valuable to me so many tough times like i'm going through now. the messages are short but powerful. this book will certainly help you restore your peace. like another poster said mine is getting worn out.



5. In. My. Purse.
   
   All. The. Time.
   
   Seriously ---- This book is amazing. It has a permanent home in my purse... (it's not too small, not too big - just right) And I use it almost daily....or at least a few times per week. Sometimes I'm in a bad place and need a quick inspirational message, and sometimes I just feel like feeling better about something....Whatever the reason, you will LOVE THIS BOOK. I ordered 5 more after I got it to give to friends and family...that's how much I love it. I know when some open it they will think "ummm....ok..?" at first....but they end up thanking me later.
   
   GET THIS BOOK you wont be sorry!

5 comments about The Lord Is My Shepherd.

1. If you believe in God from a Christian or Jew perspective, you can be enlightened and delighted with this thorough explanation of the psalm and benefit from taking the posture the psalmist(s) had when writing it. I have listened to this psalm throughout my whole life and never had the opportunity to fully see all that may be found in its deep meaning. It is amazing all can be expanded from these simple phrases.
   I usually love Harold Kushner's way of explaining spiritual material (Must read: "When Bad Things Happen to Good People", "Living a Life that Matters" and "How Good do We Have to Be") because, although his main point of view is a religious one, even if you don't believe or don't even want to think about these points of view, you can still get the full message, get a wise vision of life, adversity, the laws of nature, reality, joy, ethics, reaching for self fulfillment and integrity, etc. But, I must repeat, in order to enjoy and benefit from this book, I think you must believe in God because this one is much more religious than the other books I mentioned from the same author. If you want to understand what may be in the depths of the psalm and don't really care about feeling peace or living according to it, go ahead and read the book because it gives an interesting way of understanding what religion may provide or wants to give.



2. This is a beautiful and thought-provoking work by Harold Kushner. I've recommended it to many people and have given it as gifts to others. Well worth the money and something you will probably want to read more than once. The book on cd is great also.



3. Good book to read - good for a book discussion group.



4. This book gives so much depth and daily application to a prayer that almost everyone has heard at one time or another. I used to think this was the prayer for funerals and death but it is very much for the living every day. Rabbi Kushner is a phenomenal author that I find incredibly easy to read and so meaningful.



5. This book takes a very difficult topic and gives it an encouraging side. Even though life can be tough, even wrenching, sometimes (Kushner's analysis applies well beyond the topic of death that we associate with this psalm), finding the comfort in Psalm 23 means not being alone in your plight. The author puts a much greater understanding around some very abstract language that allowed me to get much more than just reading the words and taking them at face value only. This is a must-read for many of us.

No comments about Change Your Thoughts - Change Your Life Perpetual Flip: A Calendar to Use Year After Year (Calendar 2009).