Pam Vredevelt

This book is so relevant to women (and men) and the issues we face every day. The entire book can be applied to many areas in my life. In fact, I was so impressed with the amount of information covered in this short book, I found myself wondering which of my friends to lend it to first!

We all have stress in our lives and sometimes life seems so overwhelming that it’s hard to know how to start dealing with our tension. Here are just a few of the topics Jean Lush covers in this book: anger, grief, job stress, unmet needs, low self-esteem, hormones, and the list goes on. This book gives examples of real life cases from the author’s practice and from her own life. You won’t find out how to raise your children the “correct” way or fix all the problems in your marriage but it will make you understand why you handle problems in the ways that you do and will make you think about how you could handle them a little differently.

Even though the author uses religion as a basis for peace, this book is not preachy. Many people use religion, or some sort of meditative/spiritual practice, for stress management. Jean Lush doesn’t insist that you become religious in order to deal with stress, she illustrates how she uses religious beliefs to give her comfort and hope in times of despair. However, religion is a large part of this book and for those who are not believers this could be a turn off.

I particularly liked the chapter on empathy. It seems that we are so wrapped up in our own lives that we forget to see how situations impact others. Empathy can allow us to take a step back and think about why other people react to things in the ways they do. Using this technique, we can change the way we react to others. I hope I can actively practice being a little more empathetic!

Jean Lush is very insightful…in fact, if she were alive, it would be wonderful to be able to discuss some of my stress issues with her!… (altro)