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It is time for a FIRST Wild Card Tour book review! If you wish to join the FIRST blog alliance, just click the button. We are a group of reviewers who tour Christian books. A Wild Card post includes a brief bio of the author and a full chapter from each book toured. The reason it is called a FIRST Wild Card Tour is that you never know if the book will be fiction, non~fiction, for young, or for old...or for somewhere in between! Enjoy your free peek into the book!You never know when I might play a wild card on you!
Today's Wild Card author is:
and the book:
Siloam (June 7, 2011)
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Mike Ronsisvalle, PsyD, is a licensed psychologist and the president of the Florida Counseling Centers, a psychological services agency that serves Central and South Florida. Dr. Mike earned both a master of arts and a doctor of psychology in clinical psychology from Wheaton College. Prior to his graduate studies in psychology, he completed seminary training at Samford University’s Beeson Divinity School, where he received a master of theological studies.Visit the author's website.
SHORT BOOK DESCRIPTION:
Is stress taking over your life?If you feel like stress is controlling your life, you are not alone. Life is more complicated than ever before, and people are overwhelmed and overstressed. Chronic stress dramatically affects relationships, our physical health, our financial health, and our faith.
It’s not supposed to be this way!
In Stress Relief for Life, Dr. Mike Ronsisvalle helps you identify the sources of your stress and gives you the tools you need to de-stress your life. With a few simple strategies and an easy-to-follow 21-day program, he helps you build a personalized system you can implement in any stressful situation, relationship, or environment. You will discover:
The connection between your thoughts and feelings of stressLifestyle changes you can make that insulate you from stress
How to build relationships that will help you de-stress
How to control your body’s response to stress and improve your mental, physical, and spiritual health
Product Details:
List Price: $14.99
Paperback: 256 pages
Publisher: Siloam (June 7, 2011)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1616383577
ISBN-13: 978-1616383572
AND NOW...THE FIRST CHAPTER:
The signs are all around us, in the chatter you’ll hear in almost any living room, office, classroom, or coffeehouse:
• “I can’t believe it’s 6:30 p.m. already, and I’m not done with this proposal.”
• “Would you just shut up and listen to me? I’m not going to sit here and argue with you all night.”
• “Honey, I think Jenny is having sex with her boyfriend. I found birth control pills in her closet.”
• “I’ve got mail…again?”
• “Twelve more American soldiers were killed today at the hands of a suicide bomber…”
• “Mom, I am not too young to wear a miniskirt!”
• “The baby is up again, and I’ve got to make a presentation tomorrow morning.”
• “I just can’t take it anymore!”
Life is more complicated than ever before, and people are overwhelmed and overstressed. Just look around. People are pulsating in the pressure cooker of unbridled expectations at work and at home. Companies now pride themselves on their ability to do more with less manpower. They call it downsizing; everyone else calls it torture. And we can’t find a respite at home because the simplicity of family life has been replaced with what can be described only as chaotic over-scheduling. Children are juggling soccer games, dance classes, church activities, and tutoring—all in the same day.
Despite its modern advancements, the twenty-first century has made our lives more complex. Family configurations are morphing rapidly, and technology is only adding to the stress it was supposed to eliminate. Twenty-four-hour, five-hundred channel TV access; unlimited cell phone service; and ever present wireless Internet connections make life exciting but extremely exhausting. As a society, we are literally coming apart at the seams as we become victims of our own impossible schedules and chronically disconnected relationships. And it seems as if there is no end in sight.
During my training as a clinical psychologist, I was encouraged to look for the underlying issues behind a person’s “presenting problem” of stress. Was it a troubled childhood? How about some significant trauma suffered earlier in life or a current interpersonal crisis? As it turns out, much of my practical experience in counseling tells me that the presenting problem underneath stress often is difficulty managing what we consider normal, everyday life.
It’s Not Supposed to Be This Way!
One of my graduate school professors at Wheaton College, Dr. Mark McMinn, had a very practical way of explaining why so many people get chronically stressed. I’ll paraphrase his understanding of the root cause of stress with this illustration from the 1991 film Grand Canyon.
In the movie, a young white man played by Kevin Kline drives down a crowded interstate in Los Angeles. As he surveys what seems like miles of brake lights ahead of him, he makes a snap decision to pull off the highway and take the back roads to avoid the congestion. After some time, it becomes apparent that he is lost. He finds himself driving his late-model BMW through the slums of LA when the unthinkable happens: he has car trouble. His Beamer creeps to a stop on the side of the road, and he immediately picks up his cell phone and calls for a tow truck.
Before long his car is surrounded by what looks like a group of gang members, and what the man fears begins to unfold. The gang members pull him from his car and start to beat him up. The situation doesn’t look good at all for the young driver until his tow truck arrives. Out from the cab jumps a strapping driver played by Danny Glover, who promptly pulls the gang leader aside.
Glover’s character looks this young gang leader in the eyes and says something along these lines: “Look, I’m here to do my job. I’m just a tow truck driver, and my job is to help this guy get his car back home. And this guy”—Glover points to the driver of the BMW—”he’s just trying to get home. But here we are, and you guys are about to beat the fool out of this guy. This isn’t right. It’s just not supposed to be this way.”
It’s not supposed to be this way. Every time I watch Grand Canyon I’m shocked at how profound this statement is. Amazingly, it carries great theological weight. We are not supposed to be so stressed. Life shouldn’t feel so chaotic for so many people. God never intended this, but our world is just broken. What Danny Glover’s character confronts that day in Los Angeles and what we experience every day in our stress filled lives is a result of the brokenness of our world.
Our world is characterized by pain, marred by sin, and in many ways we are broken people. The question is, What are we to do with our brokenness? Do we embrace it? Do we live with our stress and make the best of it? I don’t think so! God has a plan to heal the brokenness of our lives in general and the brokenness of our own personal world in particular. He hasn’t left us hanging in the balance, and He has indeed provided strategies
that can help us overcome chronic stress and experience a life filled with peace.
That’s where Stress Relief for Life comes in. This program is designed to take you from the brokenness of stress to the beauty of a peace that passes all understanding. For the next twenty-one days you will be exposed to information about how to live a less-stressed life, but more importantly, you will learn practical skills that you can implement in any situation to get relief from the pressure cooker of your life.
This program is not a dissertation on the theoretical underpinnings of stress in general. Instead we will focus on what to do in the unique and specific situations that create chronic stress in your life. Each day you will be given homework assignments
that will help you identify the sources of your stress and discover new ways to respond to those triggers.
The Stress Relief for Life program is simple, practical, and based on solid research regarding the most effective techniques for managing stress. The plan works, but only if you take the time to implement it. I realize that if you had a lot of time on your hands, you probably wouldn’t be stressed. But if you are motivated to spend thirty minutes each day reading the material, completing the homework, and implementing the stress-management skills in your life, you will be considerably less stressed in twenty-one days.
It is important to note that this program will not eliminate stress from your life. It’s unrealistic to think that you can live without stress because we all need a little stress to help motivate us in life. However, it is realistic to eradicate your chronic stress and begin to live a life that feels totally different. You can experience the kind of life God intended—one that is filled with His peace even in the midst of the most stressful situations.
So, are you ready to begin?
• “I can’t believe it’s 6:30 p.m. already, and I’m not done with this proposal.”
• “Would you just shut up and listen to me? I’m not going to sit here and argue with you all night.”
• “Honey, I think Jenny is having sex with her boyfriend. I found birth control pills in her closet.”
• “I’ve got mail…again?”
• “Twelve more American soldiers were killed today at the hands of a suicide bomber…”
• “Mom, I am not too young to wear a miniskirt!”
• “The baby is up again, and I’ve got to make a presentation tomorrow morning.”
• “I just can’t take it anymore!”
Life is more complicated than ever before, and people are overwhelmed and overstressed. Just look around. People are pulsating in the pressure cooker of unbridled expectations at work and at home. Companies now pride themselves on their ability to do more with less manpower. They call it downsizing; everyone else calls it torture. And we can’t find a respite at home because the simplicity of family life has been replaced with what can be described only as chaotic over-scheduling. Children are juggling soccer games, dance classes, church activities, and tutoring—all in the same day.
Despite its modern advancements, the twenty-first century has made our lives more complex. Family configurations are morphing rapidly, and technology is only adding to the stress it was supposed to eliminate. Twenty-four-hour, five-hundred channel TV access; unlimited cell phone service; and ever present wireless Internet connections make life exciting but extremely exhausting. As a society, we are literally coming apart at the seams as we become victims of our own impossible schedules and chronically disconnected relationships. And it seems as if there is no end in sight.
During my training as a clinical psychologist, I was encouraged to look for the underlying issues behind a person’s “presenting problem” of stress. Was it a troubled childhood? How about some significant trauma suffered earlier in life or a current interpersonal crisis? As it turns out, much of my practical experience in counseling tells me that the presenting problem underneath stress often is difficulty managing what we consider normal, everyday life.
It’s Not Supposed to Be This Way!
One of my graduate school professors at Wheaton College, Dr. Mark McMinn, had a very practical way of explaining why so many people get chronically stressed. I’ll paraphrase his understanding of the root cause of stress with this illustration from the 1991 film Grand Canyon.
In the movie, a young white man played by Kevin Kline drives down a crowded interstate in Los Angeles. As he surveys what seems like miles of brake lights ahead of him, he makes a snap decision to pull off the highway and take the back roads to avoid the congestion. After some time, it becomes apparent that he is lost. He finds himself driving his late-model BMW through the slums of LA when the unthinkable happens: he has car trouble. His Beamer creeps to a stop on the side of the road, and he immediately picks up his cell phone and calls for a tow truck.
Before long his car is surrounded by what looks like a group of gang members, and what the man fears begins to unfold. The gang members pull him from his car and start to beat him up. The situation doesn’t look good at all for the young driver until his tow truck arrives. Out from the cab jumps a strapping driver played by Danny Glover, who promptly pulls the gang leader aside.
Glover’s character looks this young gang leader in the eyes and says something along these lines: “Look, I’m here to do my job. I’m just a tow truck driver, and my job is to help this guy get his car back home. And this guy”—Glover points to the driver of the BMW—”he’s just trying to get home. But here we are, and you guys are about to beat the fool out of this guy. This isn’t right. It’s just not supposed to be this way.”
It’s not supposed to be this way. Every time I watch Grand Canyon I’m shocked at how profound this statement is. Amazingly, it carries great theological weight. We are not supposed to be so stressed. Life shouldn’t feel so chaotic for so many people. God never intended this, but our world is just broken. What Danny Glover’s character confronts that day in Los Angeles and what we experience every day in our stress filled lives is a result of the brokenness of our world.
Our world is characterized by pain, marred by sin, and in many ways we are broken people. The question is, What are we to do with our brokenness? Do we embrace it? Do we live with our stress and make the best of it? I don’t think so! God has a plan to heal the brokenness of our lives in general and the brokenness of our own personal world in particular. He hasn’t left us hanging in the balance, and He has indeed provided strategies
that can help us overcome chronic stress and experience a life filled with peace.
That’s where Stress Relief for Life comes in. This program is designed to take you from the brokenness of stress to the beauty of a peace that passes all understanding. For the next twenty-one days you will be exposed to information about how to live a less-stressed life, but more importantly, you will learn practical skills that you can implement in any situation to get relief from the pressure cooker of your life.
This program is not a dissertation on the theoretical underpinnings of stress in general. Instead we will focus on what to do in the unique and specific situations that create chronic stress in your life. Each day you will be given homework assignments
that will help you identify the sources of your stress and discover new ways to respond to those triggers.
The Stress Relief for Life program is simple, practical, and based on solid research regarding the most effective techniques for managing stress. The plan works, but only if you take the time to implement it. I realize that if you had a lot of time on your hands, you probably wouldn’t be stressed. But if you are motivated to spend thirty minutes each day reading the material, completing the homework, and implementing the stress-management skills in your life, you will be considerably less stressed in twenty-one days.
It is important to note that this program will not eliminate stress from your life. It’s unrealistic to think that you can live without stress because we all need a little stress to help motivate us in life. However, it is realistic to eradicate your chronic stress and begin to live a life that feels totally different. You can experience the kind of life God intended—one that is filled with His peace even in the midst of the most stressful situations.
So, are you ready to begin?
3 comments:
Scheduled to post, review will be up soon. I'm almost done :-)
Review has been added.
I like your post..
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