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MINDFUL FRAMING

Name: MINDFUL FRAMING
Author: Oscar Segurado, MD, PhD
ISBN: 978-0-692-05098-9

TRANSFORM YOUR ANXIETY INTO VITAL ENERGY

by Oscar Segurado, MD, PhD ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 25, 2018

A successful, enriching work about anxiety, mindfulness, and positive perspective.

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This debut work of self-improvement uses imagination and illustrative thinking to help readers “transform” their anxiety into confidence.

Segurado, a medical doctor, offers a lively, colorfully illustrated guide to meditations that serve to reimagine stress and anxiety, rather than just calm it, which sets it apart from similar meditation and self-help titles. Rather than delving deeply into the psyche, the author suggests “mindful framing,” which he asserts could transform one’s life while only taking up 15 minutes of one’s morning. Reframing stressful and anxious thoughts into calm, positive visions is the key to “a balanced and healthy life,” he says. He provides full-color illustrations to help with visualizations, and his website provides videos and audio to supplement the book’s material, with the goal of “training” the reader to become a master at positive meditation. Specifically, Segurado suggests that readers learn to use their imagination, or “mind’s eye,” in order to figure out what’s causing frustrations and what needs to be done to overcome them. Then he offers a visualization in which the reader imagines boarding an “anxiety bus,” in which all the passengers represent sources of anxiety. Knowing these sources, the author explains, helps a person understand and deflate his or her difficulties. At the end of the visualization, the reader steps off the bus and watches it drive away—symbolizing that stresses are external and don’t have to rule one’s mind. This and other tools, which help one engage the five senses and develop various rituals, may make this book a useful resource for people who struggle with anxious thinking. Overall, it’s an engaging and creative unique approach to meditation and wellness that could be taught to children and adults alike.

A successful, enriching work about anxiety, mindfulness, and positive perspective.

Pub Date: March 25, 2018

ISBN: 978-0-692-05098-9

Page Count: 86

Publisher: NEO Chi Institute

Review Posted Online: May 14, 2018

Review Program: Kirkus Indie

Categories:

GENERAL NONFICTION

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NUTCRACKER

by E.T.A. Hoffmann ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 28, 1996

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This is not the Nutcracker sweet, as passed on by Tchaikovsky and Marius Petipa. No, this is the original Hoffmann tale of 1816, in which the froth of Christmas revelry occasionally parts to let the dark underside of childhood fantasies and fears peek through. The boundaries between dream and reality fade, just as Godfather Drosselmeier, the Nutcracker's creator, is seen as alternately sinister and jolly. And Italian artist Roberto Innocenti gives an errily realistic air to Marie's dreams, in richly detailed illustrations touched by a mysterious light. A beautiful version of this classic tale, which will captivate adults and children alike. (Nutcracker; $35.00; Oct. 28, 1996; 136 pp.; 0-15-100227-4)

Pub Date: Oct. 28, 1996

ISBN: 0-15-100227-4

Page Count: 136

Publisher: Harcourt

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 1996

Categories:

GENERAL NONFICTION

- BOOK REVIEW
THE NUTCRACKER AND THE MOUSE KING
by E.T.A. Hoffmann ; adapted by Natalie Andrewson ; illustrated by Natalie Andrewson

- BOOK REVIEW
THE NUTCRACKER
by E.T.A. Hoffmann & illustrated by Julie Paschkis

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TO THE ONE I LOVE THE BEST

EPISODES FROM THE LIFE OF LADY MENDL (ELSIE DE WOLFE)

by Ludwig Bemelmans ‧ RELEASE DATE: Feb. 23, 1955

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An extravaganza in Bemelmans' inimitable vein, but written almost dead pan, with sly, amusing, sometimes biting undertones, breaking through. For Bemelmans was "the man who came to cocktails". And his hostess was Lady Mendl (Elsie de Wolfe), arbiter of American decorating taste over a generation. Lady Mendl was an incredible person,- self-made in proper American tradition on the one hand, for she had been haunted by the poverty of her childhood, and the years of struggle up from its ugliness,- until she became synonymous with the exotic, exquisite, worshipper at beauty's whrine. Bemelmans draws a portrait in extremes, through apt descriptions, through hilarious anecdote, through surprisingly sympathetic and understanding bits of appreciation. The scene shifts from Hollywood to the home she loved the best in Versailles. One meets in passing a vast roster of famous figures of the international and artistic set. And always one feels Bemelmans, slightly offstage, observing, recording, commenting, illustrated.