Every once in a while I get the happy “I-can-die-now”
feeling, and I honestly feel like if I died in the next few minutes I would be
satisfied with life. Other times, death—even a late, natural death—sounds like
an insult and even a crime against me and all of humanity. I want that first
feeling as much as I can in life, rather than feeling that sick feeling like
life is speeding by way too fast and there’s nothing I can do to stop it. It’s
not that I want to die before my time, but I want to get my fill of it and have
a grateful feeling for life, and not one of resentment towards God, nature, or,
worse, myself.
I want to live, as Thoreau put it,
“…deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life,
and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die,
discover that I had not lived. I did not wish to live what was not life, living
is so dear; nor did I wish to practice resignation, unless it was quite
necessary. I wanted to live deep and suck out all the marrow of life, to live
so sturdily and Spartan-like as to put to rout all that was not life, to cut a
broad swath and shave close, to drive life into a corner, and reduce it to its
lowest terms.”
I know by now that I have to grow used to the music of life
flowing on, forever on, and appreciate the change as much as I appreciate the
beauty. The change is a part of the beauty! But is there anything we can do to
help us soak in every minute and fully appreciate and experience all there is
in this short life to experience? Have I been missing out of anything that
could potentially have made my life more fully of love, happiness, adventure,
and beauty? Can I feel ‘finished’ or at least ‘full’ by the end of life so I
don’t have to feel like I have anything left to do? Obviously these questions
can’t be answered by a single book, but this is one of the best attempts I’ve
seen any author make of cataloging those human needs and desires that must not
go unheeded, and making a herculean effort to answer questions and suggest
solutions that can help us live the best life we can. While this book looks on
the cover to be the latest self-help book with generic information and
platitudes about a happy life, I can assure you that there is some real muscle
here for the more serious of ‘optimal-life’ connoisseurs.
Wilkinson has researched and solicited advice from the top
experts in their fields to provide hard-core information for her readers. That
is not to say that I was surprised by everything I read, but if I wasn’t
surprised to learn something, it was because I already read about it in other
books or health/brain magazines. It’s all legit, and it provides the latest
research in all fields. Also, I was very surprised to find it so balanced:
hardly anything was emphasized more than it ought to have been, and everything
was touched on that I felt needed to be touched on. In other words, nearly all
my questions going in were answered! When does that ever happen? And I trusted
the advice from Wilkinson and her experts, which is another thing jaded victims
of magazine-culture and self-help commercialism have a hard time coming to
terms with regarding these types of books.
The “127” in the title was nonsense as a specific number,
but it is poking fun at the fact that there are always more things that
so-called experts are telling us we need, and this book is hoping to be the
apex of up-to-date compendiums for body-mind-soul health…for now. The book is
broken into the following sections and topics:
1. Body (food, sleep, exercise, overall wellness, clothing,
and shelter and safety.
2. Mind (love and connection, a sense of control,
mindfulness and acceptance, authenticity, and mental exercise)
3. Spirit (oneness and connection, reflection, awe and
wander, sense of purpose, meaningful ritual)
I honestly can’t think of an area of growth and happiness
that was neglected, and it was interesting to read the whole way through.
However, as engaging as it was, it may help readers, like it did me, to take
the book in piecemeal to better absorb the information. There’s a lot here that
could change your life…you don’t want to rush it. Matter of fact, I would go as
far as to say that if you truly work at applying what you learn from this book,
I don’t see any reason in the world why you wouldn’t be a stronger, happier,
more fulfilled person. This stuff works. But don’t take my word for it. Wait,
yes, take my word for it. I’m living it.
A word of caution: there is a slant in the last
book—Spiritual Health—towards spiritualism, but it quickly generalizes into
spiritual health practices for any value/religious system and doesn’t get to
metaphysical. Other than that, a specifically spiritual-religious emphasis
throughout the book seems to be either non-existent or appropriately subtle.
I have no doubt in my mind that Donna Wilkinson is a very
intelligent and happy author who genuinely cares about others and wants to help
improve the quality of life of those around her. As a frequent reader of
psychology and philosophy, I can tell you that this is really good stuff on a
relatively low shelf for readers of all kinds. It’s essential for anyone
wanting to better their life, especially for those struggling with negativity,
anxiety, or depression.
You know how there’s no ‘owner’s manual’ on life waiting for
you when you pop out your mama’s uterus? Well, this might be the closest thing
to it.
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