4 out of 4 stars
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Balancing all that life requires can be challenging. Do you sacrifice taking care of yourself to meet the needs of others? Do you realize that all the stress that you continually experience and perhaps put up with as normal can result in poor physical health? In her book, Healthy Living for Women, author Indie F. Jones, M.D. gives her professional advice on how to put yourself first to ward against disease and possibly early death.
Within this helpful guide, the author emphasizes that if you don't look out for your well being, there will eventually be a price to be paid by having a despondent outlook on life or a manifestation of physical sickness. By using written exercises to engage your awareness, the author has readers write down their thoughts and feelings to begin the examination of what they are dwelling on and how this is affecting them. She wants women to realize that toxic thoughts can lead to weight gain by overeating, abusive relationships, and dysfunction in the body.
There is no condemnation or shame associated with what you are thinking, but she emphasizes that to live in freedom, you must rid yourself of worn out mindsets that are working against you. If you choose to ignore your thoughts, this can lead to a physical and emotional breakdown. This portion of the book reminded me of this famous line: "Which of you, by being anxious, can add one moment to his (her) lifespan?" Some of us think we are problem-solving if we stay up all night and analyze a situation to death. When in reality, we are not allowing ourselves proper rest, and this can impact our good health. The author has you take a close up view to the destructive thought patterns and behaviors that are making life more difficult.
Working in conjunction with the mind and body, she also has readers explore the spiritual side of themselves which is just as important. She writes about how prayer and her relationship with God have been necessary and vital pieces for her walk through a troubled marriage and finding herself in the profession she knew she was called to at an early age. The author shows how the three components work together, and if used correctly, can produce healthy relationships, effective communication and the feeling of fulfillment. Her goal is to see women reach this pinnacle where life is enjoyed to the fullest.
I liked the comforting style that this author used. While she is a practicing physician, she kept the language simplistic and didn't speak in high lofty medical terms that would lose some reader's attention. Also, she lets the audience know that making mistakes is human and that we all need to forgive ourselves and turn away from the past to move forward. To set a new goal, we have to start with a clean board, and she uses her own experiences to model how this can be done. She seems to recognize that in each woman resides a divine inner strength and that nothing is impossible to change or achieve if you are willing to do so.
Surprisingly with all of its powerful information, this book is short. I appreciated that aspect of it because the author's goal is to get her readers to work on themselves immediately, and she knows that we are not laying around with a lot of leisure time. For those who do not like self-help material, this book would not be for you, but for those who enjoy concise, relevant teaching, you will find this to your liking.
I found no errors in the entire manuscript, and the writing was excellent. I am rating this a 4 out of 4 stars for its sound prescription of encouragement to assist women to get on the right track physically, mentally and spiritually.
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Healthy Living for Women
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