Ashley Davis Bush

This is an excellent book. It is very "user-friendly" for those who are dealing with grief. There are no "you should do this" statements, but rather information to help you better understand the process. It is enriched by the many vignettes throughout. One concept that really connected with me was that you never "get over" grief. You do find ways to move on but there are no timetables. I have not been facing this issue directly but have friends who are and it has helped me to understand better what they are dealing with… (más)

The aim of this book is to make the benefits of meditation available to people who don't have the time or patience to seriously embark on a meditation practice. Bush has come up with 70 short exercises designed to get you in the habit of thinking more positively and help you de-stress. To make it easier to make them habits, she has linked each exercise—the "shortcuts" of the title—to an everyday activity or experience which acts as a trigger.

For each shortcut, the author gives a suggested trigger and describes the shortcut itself. She then tells you a bit about what happened in her life that inspired her to develop that shortcut and ends by explaining its purpose. The appendices at the end of the book are really helpful, sorting the shortcuts in different ways (shortcuts to do in the car, say, or ones that are primarily verbal or that involve visualization or are good to use when you're really stressed).

The author's explanations of how to do the shortcuts and their purposes are short and to the point. The bulk of the book comes from her stories about how she came up with each shortcut. I'm glad she included these—without them, the book would just have been an instruction manual. Each story stands alone, which is good if you're just choosing shortcuts here and there to use. Since I read the book from beginning to end, I found myself wishing by page 210 that she would just assume that I knew about her divorce already. The tone of the book is a little more New-Agey than I prefer, but that's just a matter of personal taste and it doesn't change the exercises one way or another. Overall, the author has come up with an easy-to-use introduction to meditation that can work on its own or could serve as a bridge to a more intense practice.… (más)