self help – Aussie Reviews

Brave Heart, by Brett & Hayley S. Kirk

First of all, let me start out by saying that this book isn’t just about me. I know that’s probably not what you’re expecting, and some of you might even be thinking that I’ve had one too many knocks on the head during my AFL career, but I truly mean it. This book is written for you and about you.

You might think of me as a confident, strong leader who can communicate well and someone who has lived his ultimate dream. But I have not always been the person you kow today. My evolution as a person, of which I am proud, has been the result of a culmination of life experiences, events, failures, connections, mistakes, lessons, love and heartbreak – it is an ongoing process.

Brett Kirk, former Sydney Swans player and captain has written this ‘Brave Heart’ with his wife, author Hayley S. Kirk. It is the story of his life, his club, his career. It is also a book about life, with support and strategy for taking charge of your own life and making it what you want it to be. ‘Brave Heart’ is divided into chapters. It begins with his country childhood and ends with looking forward to the future. In between there are chapters on self-discipline, perseverance, spirit and communication emotion, as well as many more. Each chapter delves a bit further into his life including on- and off-field challenges and then introduces strategies for achieving life goals. There are quotes from others and excerpts from Brett’s journal. There are photos throughout, both on- and off-field.

Brave Heart is a book to read from cover to cover. It’s also a book to dip into at times of need. Brett and Hayley Kirk have produced a very readable and informative book. Brett has modelled his life lessons on lessons he has encountered, making it both intensely personal and universal. Young football players will benefit from Brett’s experience, but anyone, sportsperson or not, can discover strategies for living a worthwhile life, and achieving personal goals. Young boys, particularly Swans fans will lap up the game and locker room stories and photos. Recommended for secondary readers, particularly Swans fans.

Brave Heart: Lessons Learnt from Life, Brett & Hayley S. Kirk Allen & Unwin 2012 ISBN: 9781742753256

review by Claire Saxby, Children’s Author

www.clairesaxby.com

The Little Book of Anxiety, by Kerri Sackville

‘But I can’t sleep, I shrieked. What if this is a horrible mistake? What if I can’t think of any times I’ve been anxious? What if I haven’t been anxious enough to write a book about anxiety?'<br>T propped himself up on one elbow, rolled his eyes and gave me a pitying smile. ‘Kerri, if there is one thing I know for certain, you are anxious enough to write a book about anxiety. Now go to sleep!'<br>I didn’t sleep, of course.

Kerrie Sackville is a mother, wife, successful author, columnist and blogger. And she suffers anxiety. She doesn’t get just a little bit anxious – she suffers crippling anxiety, which hampers her daily life severely, even though she manages to hide it from many people. Her fingernails are well bitten, her husband dies on an almost daily basis (in her fretful imagination) and she becomes hysterical in lifts – among other places.

In The Little Book of Anxiety: Confessions from a Worried Life Sackville shares her experiences with a highly readable blend of honesty, humour and practical information. A wonderful help for anyone who has suffered anxiety, and a tool for anyone who wants to understand the condition, The Little Book of Anxiety: Confessions from a Worried Life is also simply an entertaining, highly accessible read.

The Little Book of Anxiety: Confessions from a Worried Life, by Kerri Sackville
Ebury Press, 2012
ISBN 9781742755366

This book is available from good bookstores or online from Fishpond.

Quiet the Mind, by Matthew Johnstone

For anyone new to meditation, or who has perhaps been put off by difficult mystical concepts, this is an excellent starting point.

Although this book offers many visual analogies to consider, the most important thing to remember in meditation is your nose and the breath that flows in and out of it.
Think of your nose as a lighthouse from which you take all your meditative bearings.
If you get lost in a sea of thought, think of your lighthouse and ome back to your breath.
If you hear a dog bark, come back to your breath.
If you feel uncomfortable, move gently and come back to your breath.
Breathing in and out, nice and slow and steady.

Every day our mind processes up to 70, 000 thoughts, even when we sleep – roughly one thought every 1.2 seconds. With so many ideas buzzing round our heads, it’s no wonder that we need to stop and try to quiet the mind. However, it is difficult to find a way to still our thoughts, when we are constantly stimulated by the world around us – television, the Internet, music, mobile phones and more, keep our minds constantly busy. Quiet the Mind offers a simple way to counter all that activity – through meditation.

Using simple text and cartoon-style illustrations, the author (who has previously written two successful books about depression) first explains why meditation is important and how it can help, before giving a simple step by step rpocess to meditate. There is no mumbo-jumbo, and nothing confronting in terms fo spirituality or religion, making it accessible to people of all beliefs and backgrounds.

For anyone new to meditation, or who has perhaps been put off by difficult mystical concepts, this is an excellent starting point.

Quiet the Mind, by Matthew Johnstone
Pan Macmillan 2012
ISBN 9781742610733

This book is available in good bookstores or online from Fishpond. Buying through this link supports Aussiereviews.

Just Like That! How to Get Anything You Want, by Janet Poole

Author Janet Poole shares the findings of her 20 years of research into life and human nature in an accessible, chatty format which is easy to digest and even to accept. Her focus is on how our thoughts and actions shape who we are and what we achieve – and on how readers can reshape their thoughts in order to achieve whatever they want, from relationships, family, career and possessions, to good health and inner peace…

Be gentle with yourself on this path, as there is no right or wrong way to live your life. Each way you choose merely supplies feedback for you, only learning. The life experience that each of us requires is unique. there are many different paths you can take, and you are entitled to those choices.
The biggest blessing you can give someone is to accept them for who they are. Start by accepting yourself and go with what resonates for you.

I came to this book with a little trepidation. I’ve read lots of self-help books, and have read quite a bit about the Law of Attraction, and I wondered if this might be a rehash of what I’d heard before. I was also a little daunted by the dense layout of the book, which I could see packed a lot into its pages. However, I was pleasantly surprised by its content, and managed to read and absorb it comfortably over the course of a day.

Whilst the layout does take some getting used to, the content is valuable and the inspirational quotes – from literature, world leaders, and great thinkers – are a real delight. The overarching message of the book – that you control your destiny – is a good one.

Just Like That! How to Get Anything You Want, by Janet Poole
Mountain View Publishing, 2011

ISBN 9780980877502

This book is available from the author or from Fishpond.

I Love Me, by Bev Aisbett

Do you feel that life has left you out in the cold?
Do you feel unloved, unwanted or overlooked?
Do you reach out to others for support only to find that they leave you disappointed or dissatisfied?

Every person has times in his or her life when it seems no one is on their side. When you feel this way it is easy to also feel angry, hurt or depressed. But, says Bev Aisbett, author of I Love Me, there is one person you can always trust and rely on: yourself.

I Love Me is a simple guide to becoming your own best friend. Using cartoon style illustration and large, minimal text, the book is quick to read and easy to absorb. there are no lengthy sermons or detailed reflections – just no-nonsense talk aimed at helping readers forgive and love themselves.

From the author of Living With IT this is a helpful, uplifting offering.

I Love Me: A Guide to Being Your Own Best Friend, by Bev Aisbett
Harper Collins, 2010

This book can be purchased online from Fishpond. Buying through this link supports Aussiereviews.

The Feel Good Body, by Jennifer Fleming & Anna-Louise Bouvier

I ask if a lifetime of body wobbles and poor posture means it too late to correct any problems. ‘It’s never too late. Like anything, the earlier you start the better, because there’s less wear and tear. But every aspect of your muscle system can be activated and improved at any age.’

If your back is bent, your belly is spreading, or you suffer from recurring headaches, you may feel that you are never going to get on top of these niggles. But this little offering is, as the title suggests, a guide to feeling – and looking – great.

The Feel Good Body offers a seven step program to easing aches and looking great. Putting it into place is relatively easy – though it does require some focus on making one change to the way you do things every three days. Including changes to the way you walk, sit, stand and more, each change is aimed at helping your body function at its optimum.

Supporting the program is straight forward background to why it was developed and why it will work, along with anecdotes and tips to motivate and keep on track. From the co-author of Spotless, Jennifer Fleming, and physiotherapist Anna-Louise Bouvier, this straight forward guide is accessible and inspiring.

The Feel Good Body: 7 Steps to Easing Aches and Looking Great, by Jennifer Fleming & Anna-Louise Bouvier
Harper Collins, 2010

This book can be purchased online from Fishpond. Buying through this link supports Aussiereviews.

Positive, by Sally Collings

When someone starts walking the cancer path, the changes start in their body even before their mind is aware of it. But from the instant the word ‘cancer’ is uttered in the doctor’s surgery, people’s thoughts are racing, trying to catch all of the implications, outcomes, impacts, possibilities.

When Sally Collings mother died from cancer, soon after the birth of her granddaughter , she saw nothing positive in the experience. So she was amazed to learn that two out of three cancer survivors and their families considered that something good had come out of their experiences. What could be good about living through or with cancer? Collings decided to explore further the positive side of cancer, and so embarked on a journey, talking to, listening to and getting to know people who had encountered cancer, either as a sufferer or as a supporter.

Positive tells the stories of these people – people who have seen (and felt) cancer bring them closer to loved ones, people who have experienced the outpouring of support, love and prayers, and people who have learnt to look deeper into themselves and into life itself.

Positive is, as the title suggests, an uplifting book – though it is not all about stories of survival. Rather it explores stories of a range of experiences and outcomes, focussing on the range of positives which different contributors have found. It may be of help to people who are on the cancer journey, but is also inspiring for any reader.

Positive: Finding Life in the Midst of Cancer, by Sally Collings
Harper Collins, 2009

This book can be purchased online at Fishpond. Buying through this link supports Aussiereviews.

How to Balance Your life, by James O'Loghlin

No one has enough time. Almost everyone agrees that achieving a better work/life balance is worth striving for. Yet hardly anyone does anything about it. Why? Because it all seems too hard. How do you find more time for the things that really matter when you have to pay the mortgage, battle peak hour and earn enough money to support yourself and your family?

James O’Loghlin is the presenter of The New Inventors, on ABC TV and also worked as a stand up comedian, radio presenter and author. In How to Balance Your Life he gives practical steps to achieving a balanced life. O’Loghlin speaks from experience, having given up his radio job in 2007 so that he could spend more time with his family.

Aspects covered include how to balance your life without reducing income, how to negotiate with employers to change the way you work, how to deal with a workplace culture that doesn’t embrace work/life balance, how to achieve work/life balance if you are self-employed and more.

There are lots of practical suggestions for achieving work/life balance, taking into consideration different situations, both in the workplace and at home. This is a useful guide for anyone aware of the need to balance their life, but unsure how to achieve this balance.

How to Balance Your Life: Practical Ways to Achieve Work/Life Balance, by James O’Loghlin
Allen & Unwin, 2009

The Uses of Sadness, by Karen Masman

Everyone feels sad now and again. Being sad doesn’t mean you are depressed. Sadness can help you be happy!

Being sad is a natural state – everyone feels sad sometimes. Yet most of us have been conditioned to fight feelings of sadness – or at least to hide them behind a brave face and keep soldiering on. But counsellor and author Karen Masman explains that sadness is a natural part of life and is actually a healthy and important emotion. It is through allowing ourselves to follow the cycle of sadness that we learn how to enrich our lives and, therefore, to be happier.

This practical book explores the differences between sadness and depressing, and elaborates on the seven stages of sadness, from longing through to offering. There are practical exercises for exploring sadness and making choices, and many personal stories from participants in Masman’s workshops. The reader is encouraged to work through the book, becoming intimately aware of each of the seven stages so that episodes of sadness can be more readily accepted, and become enriching experiences.

This is an absorbing and gently educational book.

The Uses of Sadness, by Karen Masman
Allen & Unwin, 2009

This book can be purchased online from Fishpond. Buying through this link supports Aussiereviews.

I Had a Black Dog, by Matthew Johnstone

There are many different breeds of Black Dog affecting millions of people from all walks of life. The Black Dog is an equal opportunity mongrel.

Since Winston Churchill coined the phrase Black Dog to describe his own struggle with depression, the term has been a popular metaphor for the affliction. Clinical depression affects one in four women and one in six men during their lifetime. It affected author Matthew Johnstone and inspired him to write a book about it.

This is no ordinary book. Johnstone uses a format more familiar to readers of comic books or picture books, with large, cartoon-style illustrations and limited text. However, the tone is not light, as Johnstone explores the effects of depression and the ways it can be overcome. Throughout the book depression is characterised as a black dog, who appears in every picture impacting on the male character. When Johnstone talks about depression impacting on his relationships, taking my love and burying my intimacy, the black dog is there, in the middle of the bed between the character and his wife. When the character sits at a bar, drinking, the black dog is there perched on the next stool. Even when the character brings depression under control, the black dog is still there – but kept firmly on a leash.

This book will speak to all those who have been affected by depression – either first-hand, or through knowing a sufferer. Its appeal is in it simplicity – it is a quick read, but deeply effective.

A wonderful addition to library, health service offices and, of course, home collections.

I Had a Black Dog, written and illustrated by Matthew Johnstone
Pan, 2005