50 Ways to Feel Great Today-Book Review
When I was asked to review 50 Ways to Feel Great Today, I jumped at the opportunity to seek solutions to the common winter blues. In fact, a few members of my family suffer from Seasonal Affective Disorder and any ideas to lift their mood is greatly appreciated. I received an advance copy of this book from Revell Books, and the very first idea peaked my interest-the Love Alphabet.
I sat with my youngest daughter, age eight, and we created our Love Alphabet, using her name. She giggled and laughed, making up sentences and thinking of silly words to complete the game. She has so much fun, at the conclusion of letter Z, she wanted to start all over, using her name again. Then the names of other family members, her pets, etc. The Love Alphabet Game then lasted two hours as we giggled and teased…and watched the winter blues fade away.
While I enjoyed the first suggestion in the book 50 Ways to Feel Great Today, I set my expectations too high. Many of the other methods suggested are excellent, yet very common and simple methods that are repeated over and over by many experts in the field of overcoming depression. Common solutions to depression or the blues were recommended, such as listening to music, getting a massage, aromatherapy and more. The author’s intent is to list 50 things that are common, affordable and effective for beating stress, worry and the blues.
I think the book can be helpful to some, especially parents and grandparents of young toddlers. While reading the book, I realize that many of the activities mentioned were events that I did when my children were small. Having a copy of this book is a good map for these parents, with suggestions on activities to enrich the lives of the parents and the kids. It would be fun to take each idea, and do one-per-day, then record your results in a blog or journal format. If you have the free time, I recommend it as a good activity.
The book 50 Ways to Feel Great Today by David Biebel DMin, James Dill MD and Bobbie Dill RN is available from your favorite bookstore. For more information about the book visit Revell Books online.
PS-As for the Seasonal Affective Disorder, the family members are under a physicians care for treatment of this illness. We’re also using full spectrum lighting and found a fantastic light therapy recommended by the doctors! More on this later. We bought our “sunlamp” from Costco.com and everyone loves using it during the dark winter weather. Light therapy is recommended by the doctors and it does work.
