Email for: [email protected] Self Help Books Weekly Newsletter - Week of December 28-29, 2004 Publishers: David and Michelle Riklan - http://www.selfgrowth.com
--------------------------------------------------- If you read Self Improvement Books, this free newsletter is for you. Information on new book releases, best sellers, book reviews, excerpts, special promotions, interviews with the authors & more. This is an opt-in, by request only newsletter. Subscriber information is listed at the bottom of this email. --------------------------------------------------- Send all questions to [EMAIL PROTECTED] Phone: (732) 761-9930 In this issue: -> Sponsor of the Week -> What�s New? Self-Help NEW BOOK RELEASES � December 28-29, 2004 -> Self-Improvement Book Store -> What Are People Reading? AMAZON.com Top 5 BEST SELLERS for Self Help -> Book Excerpt: Life's Greatest Lessons: 20 Things That Matter � By Hal Urban -> Book Excerpt: The Happiest Baby on the Block: The New Way to Calm Crying and Help Your Newborn Baby Sleep Longer � By Harvey Karp, M.D. -> Book Review: Chicken Soup for the Recovering Soul: Your Personal, Portable Support Group with Stories of Healing, Hope, Love and Resilience � By Jack Canfield, Mark Victor Hansen, Robert Ackerman, Ph.D., Theresa Peluso, Gary Seidler, and Peter Vegso -> How to subscribe and unsubscribe to this newsletter -> How to recommend our newsletter to your friends --------------------------------------------------- ** SPONSOR of the WEEK ** --------------------------------------------------- ** There is a Science of Getting Rich ** Read the amazing forgotten 1910 classic that has shown people all over the world that �There is a Science of Getting Rich� and that anyone that learns and follows this science �will get rich with mathematical certainty.� Visit http://www.selfgrowth.com/products/sagr.html --------------------------------------------------- Self-Help NEW BOOK RELEASES � December 28-29, 2004 --------------------------------------------------- 1) The Best Year of Your Life: Dream It, Plan It, Live It � By Debbie Ford http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ISBN=0060723947/selfimprovemeonlA/ 2) Chicken Soup for the Recovering Soul: Your Personal, Portable Support Group with Stories of Healing, Hope, Love and Resilience � By Jack Canfield, Mark Victor Hansen, Robert Ackerman, Ph.D., Theresa Peluso, Gary Seidler, and Peter Vegso http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ISBN=0757302033/selfimprovemeonlA/ 3) Younger by the Day: 365 Ways to Rejuvenate Your Body and Revitalize Your Spirit � By Victoria Moran http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ISBN=0060730625/selfimprovemeonlA/ --------------------------------------------------- *** SELF-IMPROVEMENT BOOK STORE *** --------------------------------------------------- ** Outlaw Bodybuilder Thumbs Nose At Weight-Loss "Experts" ** Who Earn Fortunes On The Sweat And Dreams Of Young Men & Women, and Finally Reveals The Simple Proven Science of Fat Loss No One Else Will Tell You About... Visit http://www.selfgrowth.com/products/burnfat.html The Psychology of Achievement - by Brian Tracy Soar to new heights of success and achievement! This remarkable program reveals strategies to elevate your income, put your career on the fast track and accomplish more than you ever dreamed possible. Unlock the secret to doubling your brainpower and sharpening your intuition. Discover the key to erasing negative emotions. Master a foolproof 12-point formula that quadruples productivity. http://www.selfgrowth.com/products/achievement2.html * THE MOST LIFE-CHANGING BOOK I EVER READ * It is rare that the Wall Street Journal . . . New York Times best-selling authors like Larry Dossey and Marlo Morgan . . . and a producer from Touched By An Angel all agree that this little known classic book can powerfully change your life. Read it F*R'E*E at: http://www.selfgrowth.com/products/soul.html --------------------------------------------------- *** AMAZON.com Top 5 BEST SELLERS for Self Help *** --------------------------------------------------- 1) He's Just Not That Into You: The No-Excuses Truth to Understanding Guys � By Greg Behrendt and Liz Tuccillo http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ISBN=068987474X/selfimprovemeon1A/ 2) The Best Year of Your Life: Dream It, Plan It, Live It � By Debbie Ford http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ISBN=0060723947/selfimprovemeonlA/ 3) The 8th Habit: From Effectiveness to Greatness � By Stephen R. Covey http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ISBN=0684846659/selfimprovemeonlA/ 4) Falling in Love for All the Right Reasons: How to Find Your Soul Mate � By Dr. Neil Clark Warren, founder of eHarmony.com, with Ken Abraham http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ISBN=0446576859/selfimprovemeonlA/ 5) The Power of Intention: Learning to Co-Create Your World Your Way � By Dr. Wayne W. Dyer http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ISBN=1401902154/selfimprovemeonlA/ --------------------------------------------------- *** BOOK EXCERPT: Life's Greatest Lessons: 20 Things That Matter � By Hal Urban *** --------------------------------------------------- Success and Money We can't seem to make up our minds whether money is good or bad. When someone is described as successful, it usually means he or she is wealthy. So it must be good. But they say money can't buy happiness. So it must be bad. Wealthy people contribute billions of dollars each year to worthy causes. So, it's good. But haven't we heard that money is the root of all evil? Now it's bad again. People who aren't rich criticize those who are, but would love to be rich themselves. So, which is it, good or bad? It's neither. But because we live in a society which so often equates money with success, it needs to be examined. Some of the myths about it need to be clarified, and it needs to be placed in a proper perspective. There are two points I'd like to make about money: 1. Money is not bad Does it really say in the Bible that money is the root of all evil? No. It says the love of money is the root of all evil. That's quite a difference. There's nothing wrong with money. There's nothing wrong with wanting it, and there's nothing wrong with having it, even in large amounts. The keys are how we earn it and what we do with it. Honestly acquired and well spent, money can be a resource for much good. Can it buy happiness? Whoever said that it can't probably didn't have enough. Actually, it'll buy a lot more happiness than poverty will. I think Pearl Bailey best described it when she said, "Honey, I been poor, and I been rich. And let me tell you, rich is better." It probably is better in most cases. There's nothing illegal or immoral about being rich, but it isn't everything. 2. Money isn't all there is to being successful During the 1980s, we constantly read and heard about how many people were becoming millionaires...and how many millionaires were becoming billionaires. Some of the most celebrated among them went to prison. Ivan Boesky, one of the financial wizards of the day, even went so far as to say, "Greed is good." He said it a few months before being indicted by a federal grand jury. He was willing to say in public what many were feeling in private: success and wealth are synonymous. Now we look back on the quest for wealth in the 1980s as being somewhat mild. That was just a warm-up for the dot-com and stock-market meteors of the 1990s. We learned on an almost daily basis who the new "instant billionaires" were, and countless people were risking their health, relationships, and resources to join the ranks. And all too often, ethics and some of our most cherished values took a backseat to wealth and the accompanying lifestyle. The corporate scandals, still unfolding as I write -- at Enron, Arthur Andersen, Tyco, Xerox, WorldCom, and others -- are perfect examples. At Enron, for instance, the company and its executives were on top of the world. But they were toppled because of the way they got there. Their empire now lies in ruins. And because of what Newsweek magazine called "executive avarice" and the "greedy, go-for-broke ethos" of the corporate world, thousands of innocent employees and investors lost their jobs and much of their life savings. This is what happens when we lose perspective on money. Life gets distorted. It wasn't just those who went to prison in the 1980s or went bankrupt in the 1990s and the early 2000s who lost themselves in the pursuit of the almighty dollar. Many of those who made large amounts of money legally and managed to hold on to it were still coming up empty. The Tom Peters Group conducted extensive interviews with thousands of business executives during this period. Almost half of them said that despite years spent striving to achieve their financial goals, their lives seemed "empty and meaningless." Sixty-eight percent of the senior executives interviewed said they had neglected their family lives to pursue professional goals. These are people who had money, property, power, and status. Why weren't they happy? Because having those things is not the same as being successful. They'd lost sight of what was essential. They got addicted, becoming slaves to big money and the things that go with it. In the process, they damaged their own lives as well as the lives of others. Success is more than making money. To overemphasize its importance is to cheat ourselves out of the other things that make life so much more interesting, meaningful, and rewarding. The list price for this book is $13.00. To purchase it for $9.75 at a 25% discount from Amazon.com, go directly to http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ISBN=074323782X/selfimprovemeonlA/ --------------------------------------------------- *** BOOK EXCERPT: The Happiest Baby on the Block: The New Way to Calm Crying and Help Your Newborn Baby Sleep Longer � By Harvey Karp, M.D. *** --------------------------------------------------- The Missing Fourth Trimester-Many Babies Cry Because They're Born Three Months Too Soon! Did you ever see a baby horse or a baby cow? These newborn animals can walk, even run, on their very first day of life. In fact, they must be able to run-their survival depends upon it. By comparison, our newborns are quite immature. They can't run, walk, or even roll over. One British mum told me her new daughter seemed so unready for the world she and her husband affectionately nicknamed her "The Little Creature." They're not alone in seeing babies that way; the Spanish use the word criatura, meaning creature, to describe babies. In many ways your new baby is more a fetus than an infant, spending most of her time sleeping and being fed. Had you delayed your delivery just three more months, your baby would have been born with the ability to smile, coo, and flirt. (Who wouldn't want that on their baby's first day of life!) However, I've never been able to talk a woman into keeping her infant inside for a fourth trimester . . . and for good reason. It's already a tight squeeze getting a baby's head out after nine months of pregnancy; by twelve months it would be impossible. Why are our babies so immature at birth? The reason is simple. Unlike baby horses whose survival depends on their big strong bodies, a human baby's survival depends on big smart brains. In fact, our babies' brains are so huge we have to "evict" fetuses from the womb well before they're fully ready for the world to keep their heads from getting stuck in the birth canal. Newborns have some abilities that demonstrate their readiness to be in the world, but these notwithstanding, for the first three months, our babies are so immature they would really benefit if they could hop back inside whenever they get overwhelmed. However, since we're not kangaroos, the least we can do as loving, compassionate parents is to make our little criaturas feel at home by surrounding them with the comforting sensations they enjoyed twenty-four hours a day in the womb. However, in order to give babies a fourth trimester, parents need to answer one important question: What exactly was it like in there? In your womb, your baby was packed tight into the fetal position enveloped by the warm wall of the uterus and rocked and jiggled for much of the day. She was also surrounded by a constant shushing sound a little louder than a vacuum cleaner. For thousands of years, parents have known that mimicking conditions in the uterus comforts newborns. That's why almost every traditional baby-calming technique around the world imitates the sensations of the womb. From swaddling to swings to shushing, these methods return babies to a cuddly, rhythmic, womblike world until they are ready to coo, smile, and join the family. As helpful as this fourth-trimester experience is for calm babies, it is essential for fussy ones. Most parents assume that this imitation soothes their baby simply by making her feel "back home." Actually, these experiences trigger a profound neurological response never before recognized or reported-until today. This ancient and very powerful baby reflex is the calming reflex. The Calming Reflex: Nature's Brilliant Off-Switch for Your Baby's Crying This automatic reset switch stills a baby's crying and is truly a baby's (and parent's) best friend. Why did nature choose imitating the uterus as the trigger for this blessed reflex? The reason is clear but unexpected: As important as it was for our ancestors to be able to quiet their babies, it was triply important for them to be able to quiet their fetuses! Just imagine what it would feel like if your fetus threw a temper tantrum inside you. Not only could pounding fists and kicking feet make you sore, they could damage the fragile placenta or rip the umbilical cord, causing a fatal hemorrhage. Perhaps even more deadly than the risk of accidental injury was the chance that a squirming baby might get stuck in a bad position in the uterus and be unable to slide out, thus killing herself and her mother. I'm convinced that the survival of our fetuses, and perhaps even the survival of our species, depended on this ancient calming reflex. Over millions of years, fetuses who became entranced by the sensations inside the uterus didn't thrash about and thus were most likely to stay alive. Our babies today are direct descendants of those "Zen" fetuses who were so easily pacified by the womb. The 5 "S's": Five Steps to Turn On Your Baby's Calming Reflex How is a vacuum cleaner like a lullaby? How is a Volvo like a flannel blanket? They all help switch on your baby's calming reflex by imitating some quality of your womb. Although our ancient ancestors intuitively understood how to turn off their baby's crying and turn on their baby's calming, recognition of the calming reflex itself remained completely overlooked until I identified it during the mid-1990s while studying the characteristics of hundreds of crying babies in my practice. I was struck by the fact that many traditional baby-calming methods failed to work unless they were done exactly right. I realized that, similar to a doctor setting off a knee reflex with a precise whack of a little hammer, the calming reflex could only be triggered by certain very specific actions. When presented correctly, however, the sounds and feelings of the womb had such a powerful effect that they could carry an infant from tears to tranquility, sometimes even in mid-cry. Parents and grandparents traditionally have used five different characteristics of the womb to soothe their babies. I refer to these time-honored "ingredients" of calm as the 5 "S's": Swaddling - tight wrapping Side/Stomach - lying a baby on her side or stomach Shushing - loud white noise Swinging - rhythmic, jiggly motion Sucking - sucking on anything from your nipple or finger to a pacifier These five methods are extremely effective but only when performed exactly right. When done without the right technique and vigor, they do nothing. (Detailed descriptions of how to perform each "S" are in chapters 8 through 12.) The Cuddle Cure: Combining the 5 "S's" into a Perfect Recipe for Your Baby's Bliss You don't have to be a rocket scientist to be a terrific parent, but there are some little tricks that can help you do your job better. Most infant-care books list these calming tips, but that's as unhelpful as listing the ingredients of a recipe without giving the instructions for how to combine and cook them. Each individual "S" may be effective for soothing a mildly fussy baby. Your "easy" baby may only need to suck or to be danced around the room in order to be calmed. However, doing all five together can switch on the calming reflex so strongly that, for many babies, they become an irresistibly soothing force for even the most frantic newborn. This layering of one "S" on top of another is so successful at making unhappy babies feel cozy and calm that one of my patients dubbed it "the Cuddle Cure." The list price for this book is $13.95. To purchase it for $10.46 at a 25% discount from Amazon.com, go directly to http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ISBN=0553381466/selfimprovemeonlA/ --------------------------------------------------- *** BOOK REVIEW: Chicken Soup for the Recovering Soul: Your Personal, Portable Support Group with Stories of Healing, Hope, Love and Resilience � By Jack Canfield, Mark Victor Hansen, Robert Ackerman, Ph.D., Theresa Peluso, Gary Seidler, and Peter Vegso *** --------------------------------------------------- Although most of the stories in this inspiring, well-organized contribution to the bestselling series deal with drug and alcohol abuse, other topics are discussed, such as diabetes, eating disorders, the trauma of mourning, as well as spousal and parental abuse. The personal anecdotes include the story of Perry, who had undergone four failed attempts at rehab to overcome alcohol dependence. After a two-week bender he speculated on "whether I would be better to my family alive or dead." Deciding he wasn't ready to die, he became sober, addressed the causes of his depression and eventually became a professional counselor. Another contributor, Elizabeth, was obsessed with cutting herself from childhood until she entered college. When she finally spoke with others about her self-destructive behavior, Elizabeth found the assistance of religious convictions, caring parents and a supportive fianc� and friends helped her to stop cutting. Also included are accounts from those who love and care for addicts, like Ann. By attending meetings for families of alcoholics, she found the strength to take care of herself first: sad but determined, she left her husband when it became clear that he would not overcome his drinking habit. Because it deals with recovery in its varied forms, this is one of the most important, arguably the most important, of all the Chicken Soup books. Copyright � Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. The list price for this book is $12.95. To purchase it for $10.36 at a 20% discount from Amazon.com, go directly to http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ISBN=0757302033/selfimprovemeonlA/ --------------------------------------------------- *** HOW TO SUBSCRIBE and BE REMOVED FROM THIS NEWSLETTER*** To subscribe to our newsletter, please go to our Subscriptions Page at http://www.selfimprovementnewsletters.com To be removed from this newsletter, send a blank email to unknown lmsubst tag argument: '' or for many emails programs just click below: mailto:unknown lmsubst tag argument: '' --------------------------------------------------- --------------------------------------------------- *** HOW TO RECOMMEND OUR NEWSLETTER TO YOUR FRIENDS *** If you have found our free Self Improvement Newsletter inspiring, beneficial, interesting or entertaining, don't forget to recommend it to your friends. The process is quick and easy. Just go to http://www.selfgrowth.com/freegift.html <a href=http://www.selfgrowth.com/freegift.html>Click Here</a> --------------------------------------------------- DISCLAIMER The contents herein are solely the opinions of Self Improvement Online editors, and should not be considered as a form of therapy nor advice. There is no guarantee of validity or accuracy. Self Improvement Online, Inc. assumes no responsibility for injury and specifically disclaims any warranty, express or implied for any products or services mentioned. If expert assistance or counseling is needed, services of a competent professional should be sought. COPYRIGHT (C) 2003 by Self Improvement Online, Inc. 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