Elevate Difference

Reviews tagged inspirational

The Creative Life: True Tales of Inspiration

If you haven’t heard of Julia Cameron, you’re probably familiar with her best-selling book, The Artist’s Way: A Spiritual Path to Creativity. This seminal book has helped many recovering and blocked creatives find their way back to a place that is nourishing and healing while giving them the tools they need to unblock their creativity.

A Woman's Agenda 2011: Celebrating Movers and Shakers

Whenever I walk into an office supply store, my heart bursts into song. Traipsing rapturously down the aisles of Staples or Office Depot, it's all I can do not to spin like Julie Andrews in The Sound of Music.

Are You My Guru? How Medicine, Meditation, and Madonna Saved my Life

Are You My Guru: How Medicine, Meditation, and Madonna Saved My Life is Wendy Shanker’s follow-up to The Fat Girl’s Guide to Life. It is a hilarious and inspiring account of Shanker’s battle with Wegener’s disease, a rare autoimmune disease that results in inflammation of blood vessels in various organs.

Tattoos on the Heart: The Power of Boundless Compassion

At times, I could almost hear my heart breaking as I read Tattoos on the Heart by Father Gregory Boyle, a Jesuit priest who works with hardened gang members in Los Angeles and assists with reintegrating them back into society through his organization Homeboy Industries.

Elizabeth Gilbert (01/25/2010)

I fell in love with Elizabeth Gilbert’s smart, poetic, humorous and utterly authentic voice while reading Eat, Pray, Love.

It’s Never too Late to Be What You Might Have Been

The title of this book is drawn from an adage that is sometimes lost on the young. Youth is often painted as an open road with endless paths leading to infinite dreams. The challenge that we face as we get older is maintaining the attitude that life still holds an abundance of opportunities and that we are up to the task of conquering them.

Living Life as a Thank You: The Transformative Power of Daily Gratitude

The most wonderful part about the idea of practicing daily gratitude is that any person can do it. Unlike many concepts, like faith or prayer, which tend to be examined via certain religions or spiritualities, thankfulness is pretty universal.

She's Shameless: Women Write About Growing Up, Rocking Out, and Fighting Back

Shameless is the magazine I needed as a teen. Instead, I relied on zines picked up from all-ages shows and record shops, with Ms. to fill in the gaps. Zines and Ms. have their place, but it’s heartening to see a need being met so well. In Shameless, young women have a chance to read (and write) about issues of real importance.

My Mom is My Hero

If you're searching for a warm, soothing bowl of soup for the soul, look no further. This collection of lovely essays on the importance of mothers is sure to strike a chord with every reader. Each of the fifty authors of My Mom is My Hero has contributed a very personal piece, describing key events, special memories, or extraordinary displays of love from Mom.

A Survival Guide for Landlocked Mermaids

Margot Datz’s A Survival Guide for Landlocked Mermaids is a wonderfully colorful picture book for adults - the kind of book that should come with matching postcards, a calendar, and refrigerator magnets. Datz is both writer and illustrator, and she does a delightful job with both. The focus of the book is how women can experience life to the fullest by living like mermaids.

Art Cards

Fun and spirit cheering: I love these cards so much that I don’t want to give them away! They totally rock. Not only because the art design on one of the cards – a bird perched under a tree – is cute and effective, but also because its simplicity evokes a kind of ethereality. The art feels like a poem on a page.

Hip Tranquil Chick: A Guide to Life On and Off the Yoga Mat

I don’t know about you, but for me, being a girl today is hard work. The stress of relationships, working, trying to stay healthy, managing a meager financial budget and just trying to figure out what to do with the rest of your life is strenuous and draining work for the body, mind and spirit. Luckily, Kimberly Wilson’s Hip Tranquil Chick is the modern girl’s guide to feeling strong, chic and ready to take on the world. In this book, Wilson breaks down the philosophy of yoga and how it can be applied to enrich your everyday life—on and off the mat.

On My Own: The Art of Being a Woman Alone

In today’s society, there’s no shortage of dialogue from women about the downfalls and loneliness of being single. Romance and the stability and reciprocal affection it brings is arguably one of the most fundamental desires for many. On My Own reconstructs what is means to be a woman alone, and emphasizes the value of solitude.

Regaining Control: When Love Becomes a Prison

Sad to say, I wasn’t really too surprised by Tami Brady’s intended bombshell statistic that only 1% of the world’s assets are in the name of women. It has been my personal experience that I’ve met very few women who aren’t either overt or covert aggressive, control freaks, or - at the other end of the extreme - fearful and dependent. Both types are insecure.

There’s Always Tomorrow

When I opened [There’s Always Tomorrow], I was first taken with the layout and colors of the cover and inner jacket. The boldness of the red and the muted blue really complimented each other and gave the sense of class and distinction. I also thought Alison could be a model if this singing thing doesn’t work out. With a slender build and long, flowing reddish brown hair, she is quite striking. When I slipped the CD into my player, I was almost immediately hit by the tone of the singer. To me she sounds a little bit like Cyndi Lauper, who I grew up listening to.

Grandmothers Counsel the World: Women Elders Offer Their Vision for Our Planet

The year is 2007. We can still see the impressive footsteps of Betty Friedman, Margaret Sanger, and Gloria Steinem in the sands of time, yet women, as a whole, seem more concerned with which pop icon has fallen from grace, or how their Coach bag stands up against the other soccer moms' Gucci one. I don't carry a handbag, and I don't watch much TV, yet this book was a sobering and gentle call to action.

Zaatar Days, Henna Nights: Adventures, Dreams, and Destinations across the Middle East

Pakistani-American Maliha Masood needed a change in her life. She resigns from her lackluster job, cashes in her savings and books a one-way ticket to Paris. While in Europe, her strong desire for adventure and self-discovery propels her to hop on a flight to Cairo, Egypt, but the journey does not stop there.

Firstlight

When I read the introduction of Firstlight, Sue Monk Kidd’s new book, I was disappointed. I neglected to read the flap in the bookstore. After all, this was Sue Monk Kidd, author of The Secret Life of Bees, one of my all time favorite novels.

Bare Hands and Wooden Limbs: Healing, Recovery and Reconciliation in Cambodia

The documentary is a shocking, consciousness-raising and eyes-opening movie. It is the true story of people living in post-war Cambodia, who try to re-build their country after years of dictatorship and fear. It is shows how they prepare the land to build new houses, how they clean the ground from millions of landmines and, finally, how they managed to make both ends meet. The viewer sees how the people learn new professions to survive and earn the living – some learn how to deal with livestock, some learn how to plough and others make tools.

Hello, Cruel World: 101 Alternatives to Suicide for Teens, Freaks and Other Outlaws

Kate Bornstein has for two decades inspired fans and readers by mixing feminist sensibility, queer theory, performance art and personal experience. That Hello, Cruel World is heart-felt and friendly reflects parentage by Lutheran minister and 1939’s Miss Betty Crocker.

The Complete Being: Finding and Living the Real You

The Dalai Lama once said, “Happiness is not something ready made. It comes from your own actions.” In her book, The Complete Being, Tami Brady echoes this mantra. Approaching the subject from an anthropological perspective, Brady adeptly ties our present identity crisis to the gradual loss of a cultural identity. In her examination, she discusses four aspects required to become a “complete being”: mental, spiritual, emotional, and physical.

If You Want to Write: A Book about Art, Independence and Spirit

As a writer, I was excited about reading and reviewing Brenda Ueland’s book, If You Want to Write. I thought that it would give me helpful tips on honing my craft. The book is full of tips, but not the kind I had expected. Subtitled “A Book about Art, Independence and Spirit,” the book is more philosophical than anything else.
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