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Articles from John AOV | Selfgrowth.com
- Book Review: Working on Yourself Doesn't Work: A Book About Instantaneous Transformation - by Submitted on May 11, 2009 from John AOVAmazon.com Review Instant gratification junkies seeking self-awareness are bound to find the title of Ariel and Shya Kane's book extremely attractive. And seductive it is: who wouldn't like to discover enlightenment in a moment? The key, explain the Kanes, is getting to the moment: being fully ...
Views: 906 - Book Review: Comfortable with Uncertainty: 108 Teachings - by Submitted on May 10, 2009 from John AOVAmazon.com Review Comfortable with Uncertainty reads like a perfect companion guide to the traditional 108-day Buddhist retreat. In a day-by-day format, author Pema Chödrön dives into the soothing wisdom of Tibetan Buddhism, reminding us that groundlessness is the only ground we have to stand ...
Views: 904 - Book Review: How to Meditate - by Submitted on May 07, 2009 from John AOVAmazon.com Review Meditation "is an ageless human experience that has been discovered and explored and used in every period and every culture that we know about," writes Lawrence LeShan, a psychotherapist and scholar. LeShan discusses the psychological and physiological effects of meditation, ...
Views: 893 - Book Review: Emotional Alchemy : How the Mind Can Heal the Heart - by Submitted on May 07, 2009 from John AOVAmazon.com Review According to ancient legends, alchemists use a magical philosopher's stone to transmute lead into gold. In Emotional Alchemy, Tara Bennett-Goleman shows readers how they can use this alchemist metaphor to transform emotional confusion (lead) into insightful clarity (gold). And ...
Views: 891 - Book Review: Kitchen Table Wisdom: Stories That Heal - by Submitted on May 07, 2009 from John AOVAmazon.com Review "Sitting around the table telling stories is not just a way of passing time," writes Rachel Naomi Remen in her introduction to Kitchen Table Wisdom. "It is the way wisdom gets passed along. The stuff that helps us live a life worth remembering." Remen, a physician, therapist, ...
Views: 888 - Book Review: You Can Heal Your Life - by Submitted on May 10, 2009 from John AOVAmazon.com Review If you haven't seen Hay House's Lifestyles series of gorgeous gift books, there is no better way to acquaint yourself than with publisher/author Louise Hay's You Can Heal Your Life. A bestseller for many years, You Can Heal Your Life has been republished with bright, ...
Views: 884(4 votes) - Book Review: How to Think Like Leonardo da Vinci: Seven Steps to Genius Every Day - by Submitted on May 11, 2009 from John AOVAmazon.com Review Here's a personal growth guidebook that's won the admiration and recommendation of Ted Hughes, Poet Laureate of England. He calls this "a brilliant, practical guide to awakening and training our vast, unused resources of intelligence and ability." Author Michael Gelb, founder ...
Views: 878 - Book Review: Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion - by Submitted on May 10, 2009 from John AOVAmazon.com Review Arguably the best book ever on what is increasingly becoming the science of persuasion. Whether you're a mere consumer or someone weaving the web of persuasion to urge others to buy or vote for your product, this is an essential book for understanding the psychological ...
Views: 872 - Book Review: Learn to Relax : A Practical Guide to Easing Tension and Conquering Stress - by Submitted on May 10, 2009 from John AOVAmazon.com Review While the idea that relaxation is a skill that needs to be learned may strike some as odd, the fact remains that with today's demanding schedules and hectic paces, most people don't dedicate the time necessary to maintain their own mental well-being. Daily we abuse our bodies ...
Views: 865 - Book Review: There Is A Spiritual Solution To Every Problem - by Submitted on May 07, 2009 from John AOVAmazon.com Review With his usual mix of enthusiasm, optimism, and anecdote, Dr. Wayne Dyer is back again to emphasize that we are in control of our life experiences. Quoting everything from the Bible to The Tao of Pooh, he returns continually to his central point: with truth and self-awareness, ...
Views: 863(4 votes) - Book Review: Your Best Life Now - by Submitted on May 11, 2009 from John AOVAmazon.com Review Houston televangelist Joel Osteen is well qualified to write this book, having used the seven principles he shares to achieve his own "rags-to-riches" story. At the heart of Osteen’s message is that achieving a successful, prosperous life of fulfillment can only occur when we ...
Views: 859 - Book Review: If Life Is a Game, These are the Rules - by Submitted on May 07, 2009 from John AOVAmazon.com Review Before Cherie Carter-Scott discovered her true calling as a writer of inspirational books, she worked as a teacher. As she reads, her experience and talents as an instructor are evident. She carefully outlines her rules and lessons, frequently slowing her cadence to verbally ...
Views: 842 - Book Review: Stages of Meditation - by Submitted on May 10, 2009 from John AOVAmazon.com Review Stages of Meditation is a commentary by the Dalai Lama on a rare text by ninth-century Indian Buddhist scholar Kamalashila, written in Tibet to correct some Chinese misinterpretations of Buddhism that were influential at the time. Kamalashila's short work is not widely known ...
Views: 832 - Book Review: Women & Anxiety: A Step-by-Step Program for Managing Anxiety and Depression - by Submitted on May 10, 2009 from John AOVAmazon.com Review Women and Anxiety: A Step-by-Step Program for Managing Anxiety and Depression is a "self-help guide for recovery of your well-being," designed to empower you to take control "in a new, hopeful way, rather than with old, hurtful patterns." This book aims to help you understand ...
Views: 826 - Book Review: Until Today!: Devotions For Spiritual Growth And Peace Of Mind - by Submitted on May 07, 2009 from John AOVAmazon.com Review This book of 365 daily devotionals supports the time-honored adage, "Why put off until tomorrow what you can do today?" The charismatic spiritual leader Iyanla Vanzant knows how easy it is to stay stuck in "old sentiments, resentments, beliefs, decisions, agreements, ...
Views: 822 - Book Review: Loving What Is: Four Questions That Can Change Your Life - by Submitted on May 10, 2009 from John AOVAmazon.com Review Remember the phrase "question authority"? Loving What Is is a workbook on questioning authority--but in this case, what is in question is the authority of our own fundamental beliefs about our relationships. Known simply as "The Work," Byron Katie's methods are clean and ...
Views: 818 - Book Review: The Last Lecture - by Submitted on May 10, 2009 from John AOVAmazon.com Review “We cannot change the cards we are dealt, just how we play the hand." --Randy Pausch A lot of professors give talks titled "The Last Lecture." Professors are asked to consider their demise and to ruminate on what matters most to them. And while they speak, audiences can't ...
Views: 817 - Book Review: Yoga for Stress Relief: A Simple and Unique Three-Month Program for De-Stressing and Stress Prevention - by Submitted on May 10, 2009 from John AOVAmazon.com Review Filled with beautifully clear illustrations of asanas (stretching poses) and pranayamas (breathing exercises), Yoga for Stress Relief should prove effective enough to dissolve the tension out of your body, no matter how frazzled you may feel. Perfect for yoga novices, this ...
Views: 810 - Book Review: Chicken Soup for the Soul - by Submitted on May 11, 2009 from John AOVAmazon.com Review It's like homemade chicken soup that warms the chill and heals the ill. This collection of 101 stories is based on the belief that true testimonies of goodness and loving transformations can nourish us to the bone and heal the cynicism in our hearts. Indeed, most every story ...
Views: 809 - Book Review: Your Anxious Child: How Parents and Teachers Can Relieve Anxiety in Children - by Submitted on May 10, 2009 from John AOVAmazon.com Review Concerned about the patterns of anxious behavior exhibited by your child? From simple, specific phobias to general anxiety, these problems can start early and cause tremendous stress for families. Your Anxious Child presents a thoroughly mapped-out program called COPE to deal ...
Views: 807 - Book Review: My Secret: A PostSecret Book - by Submitted on May 11, 2009 from John AOVAmazon.com Review At the beginning of 2005, Frank Warren launched a new blog called PostSecret as an experiment in community art, inviting strangers to mail him anonymous postcards that made art out of their innermost secrets and then posting a selection of the cards every week on his blog. ...
Views: 802 - Book Review: Stop Screaming at the Microwave: How to Connect Your Disconnected Life - by Submitted on May 10, 2009 from John AOVAmazon.com Review While many self-help books focus on how to organize, prioritize, and manage your time in order to operate at top efficiency, Stop Screaming at the Microwave takes a refreshingly different tack--slow down, start connecting with people, and learn how to feel good. This short ...
Views: 797 - Book Review: The GOOD BOOK: READING THE BIBLE WITH MIND AND HEART CASSETTE: Reading the Bible with Mind and Heart - by Submitted on May 07, 2009 from John AOVAmazon.com Review Biblical studies have historically been consigned to theological schools and church groups. In The Good Book, Peter Gomes, pastor of Harvard University's Memorial Church and a professor of theology, has written a vivid, common sense and wise analysis of what the Bible means ...
Views: 797 - Book Review: A Lifetime of Secrets: A PostSecret Book - by Submitted on May 11, 2009 from John AOVAmazon.com Review The award-winning PostSecret project's most profound and stunning postcards to date For the past three years Frank Warren has invited people of all backgrounds and nationalities to send him creatively decorated postcards bearing secrets they have never before revealed. He ...
Views: 796 - Book Review: Turning to One Another: Simple Conversations to Restore Hope to the Future - by Submitted on May 11, 2009 from John AOVAmazon.com Review It is impossible to read Turning to One Another in the wake of the devastating attack on New York City's World Trade Center and not marvel at the book's eerie and moving prescience. Of course Margaret Wheatley has already earned herself a (deserved and legit) reputation as ...
Views: 795 - Book Review: Going On Being: Buddhism and the Way of Change--A Positive Psychology for the West - by Submitted on May 10, 2009 from John AOVAmazon.com Review Can you remember the childhood feeling of living happily moment to moment, without intrusive aims or fears? Psychoanalyst D.W. Winnicott called it the state of "going on being." Bestselling author Mark Epstein sees a similarity with the Buddhist practice of mindfulness, of ...
Views: 793 - Book Review: Contemplative Prayer - by Submitted on May 07, 2009 from John AOVAmazon.com Review This little gem of a book, newly issued with a foreword from the great Vietnamese Zen teacher Thich Nhat Hanh (who knew Merton in the 1960s) beautifully distills Merton's own reading and long experience with contemplation. Written close to the end of Merton's life, this book ...
Views: 789 - Book Review: Creative Visualization: The Complete Book on Tape - by Submitted on May 07, 2009 from John AOVAmazon.com Review When it comes to creating the life you want, Shakti Gawain literally wrote the book. Now considered a classic, Creative Visualization teaches readers how to use their imaginations to manifest their deepest desires. In a straight-talking narrative, Gawain uses the first part to ...
Views: 786 - Book Review: Body for Life: 12 Weeks to Mental and Physical Strength - by Submitted on May 10, 2009 from John AOVAmazon.com Review Bill Phillips had been publishing bodybuilding magazines and marketing nutritional supplements for years when he had a weird revelation at a trade show: many of the most loyal and enthusiastic readers he had were totally out of shape. From that uncomfortable realization came ...
Views: 782 - Book Review: Teachings on Love - by Submitted on May 10, 2009 from John AOVAmazon.com Review For venerated Vietnamese Zen master Thich Nhat Hanh, love is more than an emotion. Drawing on millennia of Buddhist wisdom and his own therapeutic methods, Teachings on Love further develops his practical notion of interbeing in terms of love. If all things are interrelated, ...
Views: 775 - Book Review: The Invitation - by Submitted on May 07, 2009 from John AOVAmazon.com Review One night, after an unsatisfying evening at a party, author Oriah Mountain Dreamer wrote the start of The Invitation. By the light of her streetlight, she began, "It doesn't interest me what you do for a living. I want to know what you ache for, and if you dare to dream of ...
Views: 770 - Book Review: Slowing Down to the Speed of Life: How To Create A More Peaceful, Simpler Life From the Inside Out - by Submitted on May 07, 2009 from John AOVAmazon.com Review This is the book for you if you've ever had the urge to tell off your boss, quit your job, hurl your Palm Pilot into the trash, and move to a farm. Written by bestselling stress consultant and psychotherapist Dr. Richard Carlson Don't Sweat the Small Stuff, it advocates the ...
Views: 765 - Book Review: The Path to Tranquility: Daily Meditations - by Submitted on May 07, 2009 from John AOVAmazon.com Review Wouldn't it be nice to have a handy collection of highlights from the Dalai Lama's writings and teachings? Renuka Singh, a student and friend of the Dalai Lama, brings together a sampling of his words for each day of the year in The Path to Tranquility. In her selections you ...
Views: 758(3 votes) - Book Review: Who Moved My Cheese?: An Amazing Way to Deal with Change in Your Work and in Your Life - by Submitted on May 07, 2009 from John AOVAmazon.com Review Change can be a blessing or a curse, depending on your perspective. The message of Who Moved My Cheese? is that all can come to see it as a blessing, if they understand the nature of cheese and the role it plays in their lives. Who Moved My Cheese? is a parable that takes ...
Views: 747 - Book Review: The Highly Sensitive Person: How to Thrive When the World Overwhelms You - by Submitted on May 11, 2009 from John AOVAmazon.com Review Are you an HSP? Are you easily overwhelmed by stimuli? Affected by other people's moods? Easily startled? Do you need to withdraw during busy times to a private, quiet place? Do you get nervous or shaky if someone is observing you or competing with you? HSP, shorthand for ...
Views: 746 - Book Review: Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity - by Submitted on May 07, 2009 from John AOVAmazon.com Review With first-chapter allusions to martial arts, "flow," "mind like water," and other concepts borrowed from the East (and usually mangled), you'd almost think this self-helper from David Allen should have been called Zen and the Art of Schedule Maintenance. Not quite. Yes, ...
Views: 739 - Book Review: Working With Emotional Intelligence - by Submitted on May 11, 2009 from John AOVAmazon.com Review Working With Emotional Intelligence takes the concepts from Daniel Goleman's bestseller, Emotional Intelligence, into the workplace. Business leaders and outstanding performers are not defined by their IQs or even their job skills, but by their "emotional intelligence": a set ...
Views: 737 - Book Review: Healing Mind, Healthy Woman: Using the Mind-Body Connection to Manage Stress and Take Control of Your Life - by Submitted on May 10, 2009 from John AOVAmazon.com Review Women are infected with negative self images and stereotypes which can wreak havoc on their ability to stay well and recover from illness. Dr. Domar discusses the connection between psychological suffering, physical illness and healing. Her book contains a section on general ...
Views: 733 - Book Review: Health Journeys: A Meditation To Promote General Wellness - by Submitted on May 10, 2009 from John AOVAmazon.com Review There is no one right way to go with Belleruth Naparstek on a journey, no one right way to "visualize." That may sound too basic a directive, but Naparstek encourages listeners to linger over any given image or rearrange her words and phrases into something that works more ...
Views: 730 - Book Review: What now? - by Submitted on May 11, 2009 from John AOVAmazon.com Review Based on her lauded commencement address at Sarah Lawrence College, this stirring essay by bestselling author Ann Patchett offers hope and inspiration for anyone at a crossroads, whether graduating, changing careers, or transitioning from one life stage to another. With wit ...
Views: 718 - Book Review: Unleashing the Ideavirus - by Submitted on May 07, 2009 from John AOVAmazon.com Review Treat a product or service like a human or computer virus, contends online promotion specialist Seth Godin, and it just might become one. In Unleashing the Ideavirus, Godin describes ways to set any viable commercial concept loose among those who are most likely to catch ...
Views: 713 - Book Review: The Art of Doing Nothing: Simple Ways to Make Time for Yourself - by Submitted on May 10, 2009 from John AOVAmazon.com Review Much more than merely a book about nothing, this is a concentrated guide to cultivating a sense of serenity. Simple living expert Sarah Ban Breathnach calls it a "charming prescription for harried hearts and overwrought minds" that's "filled with persuasive reminders that we ...
Views: 706 - Book Review: The Comfort Queen's Guide to Life: Create All That You Need with Just What You've Got - by Submitted on May 10, 2009 from John AOVAmazon.com Review Forget the life of perfect balance--according to the fairy godmother of self-nurturing, Jennifer Louden, it only exists in magazine articles. Instead of emphasizing balance in The Comfort Queen's Guide to Life, Louden shows readers how to get a life of meaning. In a flight of ...
Views: 695 - Book Review: The One-Minute Meditator : Releiving Stress and Finding Meaning in Everyday Life - by Submitted on May 10, 2009 from John AOVAmazon.com Review In an age when everyone is pressed for time and completely stressed out to boot, finding inner peace in just one minute is the type of self-help concept that should quickly find an eager audience. In their new guide on how to meditate in short periods, authors David Nichol ...
Views: 695 - Book Review: Fight Fat After Forty: The Revolutionary Three-Pronged Approach That Will Break Your Stress-Fat Cycle and Make You - by Submitted on May 07, 2009 from John AOVAmazon.com Review If you're a woman over 40, you are undergoing physical and emotional changes, declining metabolism, fat deposits at your waistline, decreased energy, mood swings, food cravings--do we need to continue this list? Now pile on chronic, long-term stress (which the author terms ...
Views: 694 - Book Review: The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People - by Submitted on May 10, 2009 from John AOVAmazon.com Review Anyone who thinks the audiocassette adaptation of Stephen Covey's bestseller, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, is a shortcut to reading the book has another thing coming. As a preview, the cassette is worth every one of its 90 minutes; as a substitute for the ...
Views: 689 - Book Review: Traveling Light Releasing The Burdens You Were Never Intended To Bear - by Submitted on May 07, 2009 from John AOVAmazon.com Review From beloved award-winning author Max Lucado comes Traveling Light, refreshing words wrapped around the biblical passages of the 23rd Psalm to reenergize weary spiritual travelers. In his inimitable, pastoral voice that both soothes and exhorts, Lucado gently unpacks the ...
Views: 689 - Book Review: Worry - by Submitted on May 10, 2009 from John AOVAmazon.com Review As far as we know, plants and animals don't do it. Worry is a human "skill." And it comes in different forms. Some kinds indicate diagnosable conditions, such as depression, or Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD). Others, such as shyness, are built in from birth, and some seem ...
Views: 688 - Book Review: Gift from the Sea: 50th Anniversary Edition - by Submitted on May 11, 2009 from John AOVAmazon.com Review I found a 1955 printing of this book in an old waterfront cabin and was struck by the care with which the previous owner had read it. Eve (the name inscribed inside the front cover and then again above the heading for chapter 3) made pencil marks on nearly every paragraph of ...
Views: 685 - Book Review: The Purpose Driven Life: What on Earth Am I Here For? - by Submitted on May 10, 2009 from John AOVAmazon.com Review The spiritual premise in The Purpose-Driven Life is that there are no accidents---God planned everything and everyone. Therefore, every human has a divine purpose, according to God's master plan. Like a twist on John F. Kennedy's famous inaugural address, this book could be ...
Views: 685