Breaking up With Busy: Real-Life Solutions
for Overscheduled Women
By Yvonne Tally
New World Library, 2018, $18.95
Being busy has become a status symbol
these days. Author Yvonne Tally compares
busyness to fake designer clothing. “It looks
really good from the outside, but on the inside the structure
is uneven, details are missing, and only the wearer knows
that what others see is an illusion,” she writes.
As a lifestyle coach, Tally had spent more than two
decades helping others live healthier lives. But ironically,
her packed schedule left her with little time for her own
self-care, resulting in a full-blown panic attack. When she
shared this story with others, Tally was astonished by how
many “highly motivated and successful women” related
similar experiences.
Breaking up With Busy helps women determine what
type of OSW (overscheduled woman) they are and gives
advice for resetting their approaches. Tally includes practices
for increasing mindfulness and setting boundaries, busy-busting solutions, and a busy-free playbook. “Together, we
can change the paradigm of what having it all means,” Tally
writes, “and in the process, establish a juggernaut of change,
so that every woman finds herself to be enough.”
The Blind Spot Effect: How to Stop Missing
What’s Right in Front of You
By Kelly Boys
Sounds True, 2018, $16.95
While working with inmates, yoga and
meditation coach Kelly Boys discovered
that most of the actions that brought them
to prison happened in an instant. “When I asked a large
circle of men to add up the length of their sentences, it
totaled hundreds of years,” she writes. “The crimes that got
them there? The total was minutes.”
Boys calls unconscious, impulsive, emotion-fueled
behaviors like these “blind spots.” We all have them, she
says, but throughout time, such behaviors create patterns
that damage our self-image and relationships. Through
mindfulness, we can learn to recognize our blind spots
and challenge the “coherent stories” we tell ourselves. She
provides exercises for honing self-awareness and deliberate
thinking. “Blind spots can make messes of our lives,” she
writes, “yet they also reveal important messages if we are
open to examining them.”
The Art of Limitless Living: The Joy,
Possibility, and Power of Living a Heart-
Centered Life
By Melissa Joy Jonsson
New Page Books, 2018, $15.99
We often look to the past to help make
sense of the present. “Yet, rigid adherence
to stories keeps us shackled to the perceived experiences as
though they are happening now,” writes intuitive coach and
holistic practitioner Melissa Joy Jonsson. “We are not our
stories.” Instead of following our limiting narratives, Jonsson
encourages us to live fully from our hearts and minds.
Jonsson developed a system of teachings called M-Joy,
designed to “close the gap between your perceived
limitations and your innate limitless potential.” She offers
tools for creating new maps leading to joy, fulfillment,
and authentic power, along with Practical Play exercises
for putting self-love and integrity into action. “It is not so
much that we need to change into something different to
experience self-love,” she writes. “Instead, we simply need to
stop not allowing love to exist from within us.”
Your Holiness: Discover the Light Within
By Debbie Ford
HarperOne, 2018, $22.99
Debbie Ford was well-known for writing
books about self-help and spirituality. After
her transition in 2013, medium James Van
Praagh delivered a message to Ford’s sister,
Arielle, that Debbie wanted to cowrite a
prayer book with her. Soon after, Ford’s family found an
unpublished manuscript by the best-selling author.
In her younger days, Debbie Ford bounced in and out
of drug treatment programs. At her fourth facility, while
sitting in a filthy bathroom, something finally clicked.
Ford humbly sought God’s help, and she found the will to
complete her rehab. “I knew in every cell of my being that
I needed to further explore, understand, and devote myself
to finding and knowing God,” she writes. Her collection of
prayers fulfills this mission, guiding readers to discover their
holiness, heal their hearts, and reclaim their light.
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New and notable spiritual books, music, and other media
FOUR TO EXPLORE
JULIE REHM IS A FREELANCE WRITER AND
EDITOR IN KANSAS CITY, MISSOURI. FOR MANY
YEARS, SHE WORKED IN THE NEWSPAPER
INDUSTRY; NOW SHE PRODUCES PUBLICATIONS
FOR A NONPROFIT ORGANIZATION THAT SERVES
WOMEN EDUCATORS.
Busy No More