Those interested in reflecting on their personal paths could benefit from completing the insightful lessons in this workbook.
A debut guide urges readers to transform their lives and better understand themselves through a series of straightforward writing exercises.
At age 29, the author discovered the process of life writing—a way of using the written word to interpret and understand your own life story—as she was going through a divorce. She found the act of writing about her past gave her “a new sense of self-possession,” and over the subsequent 25 years, the university professor and narrative psychologist has refined the process she used and shared it with others. One advantage of life writing, according to Aihi, is that it can be largely self-directed, though she wisely suggests that readers identify mental health professionals they can contact if working through past issues becomes too difficult to deal with alone. Most people should simply be able to follow the eight life-writing exercises included in this book, all designed to help them come to terms with “a certain set of unresolved life experiences.” The exercises instruct readers to reflect on their names, relationships with their fathers and mothers, childhood homes, and certain significant past events, among other topics. The emphasis is not so much on recounting facts but rather on identifying the specific emotions those recollections spark. By returning to the past, life writing “allows the younger-you to express herself or himself in ways she or he could not at the time.” Easy-to-follow instructions for each exercise are delivered in a friendly, supportive style. Because the process is personal, there is no pressure to share the work that results with others, which should make the technique accessible to nonwriters. The goal is not necessarily to produce a clear narrative of a life or a publishable story but instead to achieve a kind of inner peace and overall sense of well-being. Those who complete all the exercises should “feel lighter, more relaxed, and more present.”
Those interested in reflecting on their personal paths could benefit from completing the insightful lessons in this workbook.Pub Date: Aug. 20, 2015
ISBN: 978-1-5043-3662-8
Page Count: 148
Publisher: BalboaPress
Review Posted Online: Aug. 30, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2019
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A very welcome instance of philosophy that can help readers live a good life.
A teacher and scholar of Buddhism offers a formally varied account of the available rewards of solitude.
“As Mother Ayahuasca takes me in her arms, I realize that last night I vomited up my attachment to Buddhism. In passing out, I died. In coming to, I was, so to speak, reborn. I no longer have to fight these battles, I repeat to myself. I am no longer a combatant in the dharma wars. It feels as if the course of my life has shifted onto another vector, like a train shunted off its familiar track onto a new trajectory.” Readers of Batchelor’s previous books (Secular Buddhism: Imagining the Dharma in an Uncertain World, 2017, etc.) will recognize in this passage the culmination of his decadeslong shift away from the religious commitments of Buddhism toward an ecumenical and homegrown philosophy of life. Writing in a variety of modes—memoir, history, collage, essay, biography, and meditation instruction—the author doesn’t argue for his approach to solitude as much as offer it for contemplation. Essentially, Batchelor implies that if you read what Buddha said here and what Montaigne said there, and if you consider something the author has noticed, and if you reflect on your own experience, you have the possibility to improve the quality of your life. For introspective readers, it’s easy to hear in this approach a direct response to Pascal’s claim that “all of humanity's problems stem from man's inability to sit quietly in a room alone.” Batchelor wants to relieve us of this inability by offering his example of how to do just that. “Solitude is an art. Mental training is needed to refine and stabilize it,” he writes. “When you practice solitude, you dedicate yourself to the care of the soul.” Whatever a soul is, the author goes a long way toward soothing it.
A very welcome instance of philosophy that can help readers live a good life.Pub Date: Feb. 18, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-300-25093-0
Page Count: 200
Publisher: Yale Univ.
Review Posted Online: Nov. 24, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2019
BOOK REVIEW
A moving, heartfelt account of a hospice veteran.
Lessons about life from those preparing to die.
A longtime hospice chaplain, Egan (Fumbling: A Pilgrimage Tale of Love, Grief, and Spiritual Renewal on the Camino de Santiago, 2004) shares what she has learned through the stories of those nearing death. She notices that for every life, there are shared stories of heartbreak, pain, guilt, fear, and regret. “Every one of us will go through things that destroy our inner compass and pull meaning out from under us,” she writes. “Everyone who does not die young will go through some sort of spiritual crisis.” The author is also straightforward in noting that through her experiences with the brokenness of others, and in trying to assist in that brokenness, she has found healing for herself. Several years ago, during a C-section, Egan suffered a bad reaction to the anesthesia, leading to months of psychotic disorders and years of recovery. The experience left her with tremendous emotional pain and latent feelings of shame, regret, and anger. However, with each patient she helped, the author found herself better understanding her own past. Despite her role as a chaplain, Egan notes that she rarely discussed God or religious subjects with her patients. Mainly, when people could talk at all, they discussed their families, “because that is how we talk about God. That is how we talk about the meaning of our lives.” It is through families, Egan began to realize, that “we find meaning, and this is where our purpose becomes clear.” The author’s anecdotes are often thought-provoking combinations of sublime humor and tragic pathos. She is not afraid to point out times where she made mistakes, even downright failures, in the course of her work. However, the nature of her work means “living in the gray,” where right and wrong answers are often hard to identify.
A moving, heartfelt account of a hospice veteran.Pub Date: Oct. 25, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-59463-481-9
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Riverhead
Review Posted Online: Aug. 2, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2016
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