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A Review: Out of the Woods: Healing Lyme Disease – Body MInd and Spirit by Katina Makris

November 17, 2011 By Leave a Comment

By Irene Conlan -

Lyme disease. It sounds simple. It is not. It is a long term, debilitating assault on every aspect of your being. This is one woman’s story of her battle with this tick-related, spirochete-caused disease and it’s a story you won’t soon forget.

I didn’t want to read another book about someone’s illness – I’ve reviewed a number of them this year – and I thought that was enough. And so I procrastinated. But the radio interview with Katina Makris was just around the corner and I needed to get at it.

I read review books at breakfast and this one looked like it was worth about two weeks of oatmeal and eggs. I picked it up on Thursday and, instead of quitting when I finished eating, I stepped out of character and finished the chapter. On Friday, I read two chapters and on Saturday I moved from the breakfast table to the living room, book in hand, and read until I finished it. I couldn’t put it down. Not only does Katina Makris tell a compelling story, but she is as brilliant an artist with words as she is with a palette of paint. Her descriptions draw you in and make you a part of the experience.

A health care professional as well as a healer, she writes about the course of this incapacitating illness both as a doctor and as a patient. Sliding from a robust, healthy homeopathic physician with a very active family and busy practice, she rapidly became a bedridden woman who could barely hold her head up. As the disease progressed her life crumbled around her.

Her story could belong to any one of us who may be at the wrong place at the wrong time and come into contact with the spirochete that causes Lyme disease. The question is, could we meet it head on it with the courage, determination and grit that Makris did?  She shares it all for our benefit – the highs and the very low lows. She opens her soul for us and shares the emotions in all their “glory” – the fear, the discouragement, the exhaustion, the doubt, the feelings of abandonment and helplessness and she buoys us up with her courage, her hope for recovery and her determination to get well.

Her journey through Lyme  disease is, however, more than simply a medical one. It is also a spiritual one. Makris states,

“May my story bring help and hope to those of you who need it. Healing is a journey of the deepest order. It comes from within. By opening your heart to its whimpering, the answers will come. You will be set free. May each and every one of you be graced with the power of love. It is eternal. We are all eternal. This I know.”

Who should read this book? Anyone who has experienced a debilitating chronic illness such as Fibromyalgia, Chronic Fatigue Syndrome or Lyme disease as well as anyone whose loved one has the misfortune to have one of them. It will help you understand what is happening and give you hope that there may be an end to it sometime, somehow. Health care workers of all kinds need to hear the descriptions of the bone tiredness, the mental confusion, the aches and pains that appear and disappear so you can give the kind of informed and loving support that someone with this type of illness needs. And anyone who loves brilliant storytelling and descriptions that make everything come to life inside your mind should get this book and plan to spend some time – just you and the book  – because you probably won’t be able to put it down.

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Something Inside of Me: How to Hang on to Heaven When You’re Going Through Hell: A Review

September 1, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Something Inside of Me: How to Hang on to Heaven When You’re Going Through Hell. Chitoka Webb. 2011. Self Published.

We are in an age that is seriously in need of role models – of all kinds. Chitoka Webb is a role model for anyone who wants to be successful in business. But that’s just the beginning. Every little girl and woman can find things to model after this remarkable female. This book is her story.  It is a story of strength, drive, compassion, faith and triumph.

Something Inside of Me is a book you can’t put down. It is written with lightness and humor as it speaks of heavy burdens and difficult challenges – challenges that many readers can identify with and challenges that would make many quit in despair. Chitoka grew up in poverty, living in the projects in Nashville but she had a dream of owning her own business. Despite the obstacles, she became a successful entrepreneur who owned and operated two barbershops and two health care agencies for the mentally challenged. She seems to personify the saying, “What doesn’t kill me only makes me stronger.”

While it is not unusual for a woman to become a successful business woman, what IS unusual is way she met the obstacles along her journey to success and the spirit that compelled her to overcome them and to continue to fight for her dream. Her story is about attitude, determination, humor and “Something” within her that made all the difference..

I highly recommend this book.

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Major Dream: From Immigrant Housemaid to Harvard Ph.D. – A Review

August 18, 2011 By Leave a Comment

The astronauts are said to have “The right stuff.” If “The Right Stuff” means all the qualities necessary to achieve big things, then Jin Kyu Robertson also has “The right stuff.” This book is her story.

Her story is well told, interesting, compelling.

Life can’t be much harder than growing up in a war torn country, in poverty, with an alcoholic mother.  Not only did Jin Kyu survive – she eventually thrived.  And she wasn’t successful because people rose to the occasion to help a little girl with ambition. She was successful because she knew what she wanted and went after it with patience, hard work and endurance. She didn’t give up. Her life story brings to mind the image of someone running an obstacle course – they don’t know where or what the obstacles are until they are in front of their face. Jin had to change direction frequently, take detours, regroup, stop, make a lateral move, go back a few paces. No matter what happened, she got up and continued on, finding new ways to proceed.

This is a story that should be read by everyone having a pity party because they think their life is tough. It should be read by everyone who thinks the challenges are simply too big to tackle and the road to success and happiness too tortuous to travel.  Her journey from being a child in Korea, coming to the United States with only $100 to work as a maid, becoming an Officer in the U.S. Army and getting a Ph.D. from Harvard makes what most complainers have experienced look like child’s play.

This book should be on the required reading list in every school in the U.S., Japan and Korea. And if it is translated into more languages, it should be required reading in that country as well.

Major Dream: From Immigrant Housmaid to Harvard PhD. Dr. Jin Kyu (Suh) Robertson, 2010. 219 pages.

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The Pathway to Love – A Review

July 14, 2011 By Leave a Comment

The Pathway to Love: Create Intimacy and  Transform Your Relationship through Self Discovery.  Julie Orlov, MAOL, MSW. Larimar Publishing, Torrence, CA, 2011.

This is a little book with a gigantic message.  I say it’s “little” because it’s small enough to fit in your hands comfortably – and that’s a good thing because you won’t want to put it down.

Before you begin to read it, make a commitment to yourself to read it thoughtfully and reflectively. You will have many moments of deep self discovery and insights into why some of your relationships failed so miserably and why some lasted for a while but never really “got off the ground.” You will gain valuable insights into how to help a relationship move forward and become what Orlav describes in phase four as “Relating to your relationship as a living, breathing, life force in and of itself.”

Orlov posits that there are four phases to a relationship: Fantasy, Self Discovery, Personal Transformation and Relational Transformation. Each phase has its own issues and, while they are experienced in progression, they sometimes overlap. She demonstrates each one with a dynamic story of a couple and how they dealt with the issues of that phase – sometimes successfully and sometimes not so successfully.

You will wonder at times how she knew about you and a particular significant other because she seems to describe you and the relationship to a T. And, when you read the last page you will wish you had read it years and a number of relationships earlier.

This book should be read by everyone who wants a truly loving, lasting relationship. It should be read together by every couple planning to get married and the workbook should be completed and reviewed together – before the wedding.

I recommend this book to anyone who wants to be in a mutually satisfying and loving relationship. Doesn’t that cover all of us?

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The Art of Flourishing – a Review

July 7, 2011 By Leave a Comment

By Irene Conlan -

Jeffrey Rubin has taken the best from  the teachings of traditional psychotherapy and Buddhism and,  combining these with good old fashioned common sense, has written a book that could well be one of the most important books of our time – The Art of Flourishing: A New East-West Approach to Staying Sane and Finding Love in an Insane World.  It is an “interesting read” devoid of the psycho-babble that is often found in books dealing with human behavior – a refreshing change.

It is not a book just for Buddhists, nor is it a book just for therapists. It is a book that can inform and assist anyone seeking quality tools to help them grow as healthy, happy individuals who want a relationship that is meaningful, nurturing, passionate and fulfilling.  Rubin states, “Crucial to intimacy is the recognition that one’s partner is a separate and equivalent center of experience and initiative, a person in his or her own right, not merely an object for the other person’s use.”  He goes on to say, “The relationship is a we that cherishes both I’s.”

The book begins by building a strong foundation for the individual based on self awareness developed in meditation and a program of self care that encompasses spirituality, purpose, values and authenticity. The premise is that a strong, loving relationship has to be based on a strong, self aware, healthy  individual. It brings to mind the Latin phrase, non habit, non dabit – you can’t give what you don’t have.

The second half of the book deals with relationships using the metaphor of a garden. Rubin guides the reader through cultivating, planting, composting, weeding and harvesting the relationship to bring it to a state of flourishing. Packed with examples, “practical practices” and well thought-out explanations, the book can be a “survivor’s manual” for troubled marriages. It can also serve as a primer for pre-marital counseling with the caveat that the couple read it again sometime after the wedding. It would benefit anyone who wants to improve, to grow as a person, and to flourish as an individual.

So, what IS flourishing? Rubin states, “We flourish when we take great care of ourselves, connect with spirituality, widen our moral imaginations, cultivate ethical accountability and live authentically.”  From this position of strength we are much more able to help form an intimate relationship that flourishes as well. Don’t we all want that?

To order The Art of Flourishing:

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A Review: Life is What You Make It

May 1, 2011 By Leave a Comment

By Irene Conlan -

Life is What You Make It by Peter Buffet. N.Y.: Harmony Books, 2010. Released in paperback on May 3, 2011

Whoa! I certainly didn’t expect this book to be anything like it is. I try to keep an open mind but when the son of one of the richest men on the planet writes a book about life, my mind rushes to ask “What does he know about the life that most of us experience?” My answer: “Nothing.” I am excitedly happy to announce that I was wrong, wrong, wrong.

By the time I got through the first chapter, I couldn’t put it down and every chapter was so filled with “quotable quotes” that the book began looking like the rainbow as I put sticky markers in to be sure I didn’t lose the thought.  Usually in the course of reviewing a book, I place a half dozen stickers to show me where the “juicy parts” are. With Life is What You Make It I used something between 30 and 40. I would have to write a book about the book if I spoke to all those points.

Peter Buffet writes with an openness and honesty that is bordering on crazy innocence, laying bare his mistakes and errors in judgment to make a point so profound that you sit in stunned silence while you reflect on it. If there is anything spoiled about this “rich kid” it doesn’t show in his writing or his thinking.

The book is a down to earth – where the rubber meets the road – kind of book. At the same time it is deeply insightful. He challenges mediocrity and “luck,” and talks about what happens to people who have been “spoiled by advantages they have been born to but have not earned.” He has such passion for music that I, not being familiar with his work, went to his website and listened to his music as I read the last half of the book. It is a wonderful mix of hearing the passion and reading the words that combine in perfect synchronicity.

It is true that he has friends in high and wealthy places and people who reviewed his pre-published book have recognizable names like Clinton, Bono, Gates, Steinem and Turner. Yes, the book is for them. But the book is just as powerful for me and you, for the blue collar workers as well as middle management. It can speak to the janitor who cleans the office of top management who also should read it. It can speak to the kid in high school who is trying to figure out where his passion is and what he should be “when he grows up” as clearly as it speaks to those of us who are grandparents. It is for each of us who is trying to walk a path of authenticity, passion and generosity.

He jerks us back to the basics and makes us examine our life in terms of what we did with what we were given.  Do we live with passion? Do we treat ourselves and others with love, kindness and compassion? How do we measure success and do we consider ourselves successful by those standards?  Do we give back on a regular basis?

His last paragraph sums it up:

Your life is yours to create. Be grateful for the opportunity. Seize it with passion and boldness. Whatever you decide to do, commit to it with all your strength … and begin it now.

I highly recommend that you read this book. And, as Peter Buffett suggests, “Begin it now.”

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Whose Stuff is This? A Book Review

March 10, 2011 By 1 Comment

By Irene Conlan -

Commander Deanna Troi, Empath and Counselor on Star Trek:  The Next Generation would love this book as do I. Whose Stuff Is This? Finding Freedom From the Thoughts, Feelings and Energy of Those Around You by Yvonne Perry is a book for our time. Yes, there are people very much like Deanna Troi and Yvonne Perry is one of them.

This book not only shares her fascinating story as an empath but also talks about what it means to be an empath, giving both a scientific and psychological point of view. The “stuff” it refers to includes the emotions, the energy, the thoughts – the “stuff” of other  people – that empaths take on often unknowingly that feels like it is their own. She shares events from her own life and details how she felt and how it sometimes terrorized and traumatized her. She relates how she came to grips with it, learned to protect herself from these energies, thoughts and emotions and also learned to use it to help others.

The book is full of  stories of empaths, how they survived the traumas and even triumphed and how they turned the negative aspects of being an empath to a positive tool for good.

Perry ends the book with advice on how to determine what “stuff” is yours and what belongs to someone else. She  gives tips on how to keep your energy field clear that would be helpful to anyone on a spiritual path whether or not they are empathic.

Written in an style that is entertaining and easy to read this book brings information that anyone who is sensitive needs to hear and she avoids the “woo woo” and makes it real. Her expertise as a writer and editor shows up on every page and keeps you reading far longer than you had planned. It is complete with an extensive bibliography, and great information to lead you to a deeper understanding of what it means to be an empath. It even includes a site that has a test you can take to determine if you are an empath.

If you have mood swings that you can’t explain, become depressed when you have nothing to be depressed about, if you know what others are feeling and thinking you may be an empath. For you, this book  is a must read.  Perry states, “As empaths, our journey may be to embrace, feel, and connect, but also to thrive, celebrate, and deepen awareness, not only for ourselves, but also for others with whom we are connected.”

The book is available from Amazon.com

If  you’d like to know more, get the book AND listen to The Self Improvement Show today at 12 noon PST. Yvonne Perry is my guest and will be talking about her life as an empath, giving us the author’s inside view of the book.

Click Here to listen.

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The Skinny on Success: Why Not You?

November 4, 2009 By Leave a Comment

skinny-successBy Irene Conlan –

Jim Randel has done it again!  His newest book, The Skinny on Success: Why Not You? is now available and certainly worth reading if you are at all interested in achieving success. (And who of you reading this blog isn’t?)

Don’t let the stick figures fool you into thinking this is “light weight reading.”  They tell an essential story that makes Randel’s points absolutely clear.  From choosing the right path  to reaching your goal, Randel gives clear guidelines. If you’re one of those people who save “the best bite” for last, you’ll understand what I say when I tell you “This whole book is the best bite.”   It’s a quick read for busy people but that doesn’t mean it is lacking in substance.  It just says what it needs to say in clear, concise, to the  point language. In other words it “cuts to the chase” and doesn’t waste your time. When you finish you will have what your need to know about success.

Here’s what the publishers say about this book and I heartily agree:

“The Skinny on Success is a compilation of the best thinking on the subject of success.  Relying on thought leaders from ancient Rome to the present day, this book pulls back the curtain on success and separates the wheat from the chaff. If you want the real story, pick it up and invest one hour. It will be one of the best hours you have ever spent!!”

You can get this book in paperback or as an E-book.   You can get it directly from the “Skinny On” folks at http://theskinnyon.com/Books.aspx or from Amazon.com.

You might want to order it now.

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