Recommended Reading » Empowering Your Mind

Book Review-Activate Your Brain

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Jul 142020

You already have the best tool within you to achieve your goals. It’s your brain. It’s wired to help you succeed, but you have to know how to use it. When you learn how to activate it properly, not only will you be more successful, but you’ll feel less stressed and more in control.

By understanding the neurochemistry of your brain, you’ll discover how to motivate yourself and stay focused. This book is fill with exercises to lead you step-by-step to get started on a new pathway to getting the life you want. In addition, you’ll learn how to adjust your moods and become more positive.

This book is a delightful, easy to read manual to help you take small, steady steps to change your behavior and improve your results. The author’s mantra throughout the book is “start small, start now.” All those tiny steps will propel you to wonderful shifts in your life. Although the book is directed towards businesspeople, it can help anyone who wants to maximize their potential.

~ Linda-Ann Stewart

Book Review-Success Is Easy: Shameless No-nonsense Strategies to Win in Business by Debbie Allen

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Nov 182019

Success Is Easy: Shameless, No-nonsense Strategies to Win in Business
by Debbie Allen

Some people have a hard time succeeding and feel that it’s just a knack that others have. But success is due to your habits and mindset more than anything else. Successful people carefully choose what they let into their minds. Skills can be learned, but mindset comes first. This book empowers you to remember that your success is actually in your hands.

In a step-by-step fashion, the author leads you through the different aspects of what it takes to build a success mindset. It identifies specific areas of inquiry to identify mental blocks and what will motivate you to succeed. You’re encouraged to discover the right way for you to develop the traits for success. From becoming clear on what success means to you to new perspectives about sales and marketing, this book covers it all.

At the end of each chapter is an affirmation and actions steps to support you in your success. The book provides an overview of what it takes to build the mindset and strategies to create the success you want. Although this book title says to “win in business,” what you get from the book could help you to win in life.

~ Linda-Ann Stewart

Book Review-Feel the Fear and Do It Anyway

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Sep 182019

Feel the Fear . . . and Do It Anyway (r)
by Susan Jeffers, Ph.D.

Fear can be a paralyzing emotion. It prevents us from being all that we can be, locks us away from our truest self, and wastes energy that could move us forward. Much of the fear is outdated and false ideas that we’ve been acting on.

Fear is also a normal response to change, but it depends on how we perceive the fear. When we believe the message of it is to avoid something new, then it limits us. But when we process the fear as excitement, it propels us forward.

The author of this book experienced it for herself and developed a strategy to get beyond it. This book is based on what she learned. Dr. Jeffers believes that fear is mainly an educational problem. That we’ve been programmed to be afraid, and that through examining and changing our beliefs, we can overcome our blocks.

The step by step instructions in this book lead us to acknowledge the fear, but move through it and beyond it.

This book teaches the reader how to become a positive thinker, raise self-worth, become more assertive, connect with a higher power, and make rational decisions. Anyone who has dealt with fear holding them back should use the exercises in this book to help them grow.

~ Linda-Ann Stewart

Book Review: Creative Visualization by Shakti Gawain

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Jul 312019

Creative Visualization: Use the Power of Your Imagination to Create What You Want in Your Life
by Shakti Gawain

I got my copy of this book over thirty years ago. Since then, it’s become a classic of how to manifest the life you want. It touches on all the basics of how to use your mind to its highest potential, along with clear instructions on how to practice each one.

Starting with the basics of creative visualization, she explains the steps and what to do at each step of the way. She addresses how to write and use affirmations.

From this practical beginning, she moves deeper into more advanced areas, still giving easily understood directions on how to experience it for yourself. Subjects such as healing, prosperity, relationships, self-esteem, among others are covered.

Many people who already have a grounding in these ideas may think they have little use for this book. Although it can be considered an introduction to the power of your mind, since it covers so much ground, it also condenses the information so that it’s a wonderful reference text.

Filled with affirmations, techniques, meditations, and exercises, this book is an essential addition to the library of anyone who uses these ideas.

~ Linda-Ann Stewart

Book Review-The Science of Successful Living

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Apr 302019

The Science of Successful Living: The Spiritual Formula for a Joyous Life
by Raymond Charles Barker

The subtitle on my copy of this book reads, “Written by a successful man for people who want success.” The author was a well-known author and minister for a Religious Science church in New York City. He also co-authored a book (now out of print) with Maxwell Maltz (who wrote “Psychocybernetics”).

This book gives straight, practical, down to earth information on how to experience greater success in all areas of your life. The author takes the reader into the depths of how the Universal and creative minds work, and translates abstract concepts into concrete explanations. As you read the information in this book, your consciousness will change to increase your acceptance of abundance, health, joy and peace of mind.

My copy is old and falling apart, with many passages either underlined or highlighted. But I wouldn’t trade it for any other, more recent, book. I value it too highly.

~ Linda-Ann Stewart

Book Review-How to Be Your Own Best Friend

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Apr 032019

How to Be Your Own Best Friend
by Mildred Newman and Bernard Berkowitz

This book was originally published over forty-five years ago. Although it has been around a long time, the information and advice in it is as fresh and helpful as it was back then. Written in a question-and-answer format, the two psychoanalysts (who are married to each other) explain what is necessary for us to love and accept ourselves.

I read this book in my early twenties, and it improved the way I thought about myself and my world. We tend to be a friend to everyone but ourselves. Instead, we treat ourselves as we might an enemy. The authors explain the ideas we need to entertain to be happier and healthier human beings. For when we treat ourselves with the same appreciation, empathy and compassion that we give to our friends, our lives transform.

~ Linda-Ann Stewart

Book Review-Around the Year with Emmet Fox

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Nov 292018

Around the Year with Emmet Fox: A Book of Daily Readings
by Emmet Fox

Many people enjoy beginning their day with reading something inspirational. The author of this book was Emmet Fox, a mystic, bestselling author, lecturer, and one of the modern pioneers of metaphysics. In his clear and vivid style, he was able to explain the basics of spiritual development and get to the root of the matter. He’s one of my favorite authors and I treasure his books. His writing is as fresh and enjoyable today as it was when it was written.

This volume of daily readings was compiled from some of his published and unpublished writings. It contains an abbreviated version of many of the ideas he explores in depth in his other writings. In only a minute or two each morning, uplifted by the daily lesson, the reader will reconnect with their spiritual center. This precious time will establish a harmonious foundation for the rest of the day. These daily devotions will change the reader and their perspective on life, therefore it’s a wonderful book for the dedicated student of spiritual growth.

~ Linda-Ann Stewart

Book Review-In Tune with the Infinite

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Sep 192018

In Tune with the Infinite
by Ralph Waldo Trine

Originally written in 1908, this is a classic in spiritual and mystical literature. It’s said that this was the inspiration for Napoleon Hill’s classic, Think and Grow Rich. Starting from the basic fact that we are all one with the Universe, the author then describes how the Infinite affects every aspect of our lives.

The insights contained in this book uplift and transform the reader’s view of their life. Using stories, examples, and straight talk about awakening to the knowledge of the “real being,” the author writes that as we open ourselves to the Infinite, we experience more health, peace and prosperity.

This was among the first books I read when I began my spiritual journey, and helped to form the foundation of
my spirituality. It deeply explores the meaning of life, and gives specific direction on how to more fully
experience the goodness of the Infinite.

~ Linda-Ann Stewart

Book Review-Self-Healing Personality

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Jun 282018

The Self-Healing Personality: Why Some People Achieve Health and Others Succumb to Illness
by Dr. Howard S. Friedman

Most of us have heard that our thinking affects not only our lives, but also our health. Unfortunately, many times that concept is dealt with in a simplistic, cookbook type of way. The belief is that a certain ailment always is due to a particular thought pattern. Although the basic idea has merit, the reality is much more complicated than that.

Dr. Friedman, professor of psychology at the University of California at Riverside, has done extensive research into why one person is able to recover from a serious illness, and another isn’t. Bringing together ancient medical philosophy and modern studies, he explores the differences between people with the same disease. He has found that there is a connection between emotions, personality and how resilient a person is, and disease.

Though a person might have an illness-prone personality, this book gives hope that they can turn themselves into one that self-heals. Making practical, healthy changes in habits, as well as finding social support are a couple of ways the author has found to be useful. By learning new ways to respond to the challenges of life, a person can actually impact the way their body heals.

~ Linda-Ann Stewart

Book Review-Taming Your Gremlin

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Jun 052018

Taming Your Gremlin: A Surprisingly Simple Method for Getting Out of Your Own Way
by Rick Carson

This is a clever little book to help reduce the power your inner critic/judge has over you. The author explores the various strategies of what he calls your “gremlin.” Its purpose is to convince you to feel bad and suppress the real you. For instance, the gremlin lies to you about your nature and the nature of the world, with myths such as “You’re unlovable,” and “Worry is good.”

The book includes exercises to help identify the way your gremlin affects you, and ways to deal with it. Although the author states that the gremlin isn’t the inner critic of some psychology theories, I couldn’t tell the difference. The ways the gremlin and inner judge try to control us, and ways to deal with them are similar.

Humorously written, imaginatively presented, this book will give you the tools you need to identify and tame this self-sabotaging part of your personality. By doing so, you’ll be able to experience more of the fullness of life.

~ Linda-Ann Stewart

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