The Art of Loving Life

by Sandra Thebaud
4 Stars
Nonfiction: Self Help
78 pages
Published 2011

Ellie's Review
I am someone who is constantly stressed out.  Though I purposefully keep a very busy life, I hate the anguish and sore shoulders caused by stress.  I have read another stress management book that was good to learn about techniques such as deep breathing and visualization.  I felt better while I read it but was soon caught up in my life, forgetting about using my diaphragm to inhale.  The Art of Loving Life crossed my path, and I decided to give stress management a try again to see how it could improve my sore muscles and help me enjoy life a bit more.

While this book did discuss several stress management techniques, it started out by teaching us that to better manage the stress in our lives, we first have to understand what stress is, what causes our personal stress, and how we react to stress.  I had a notepad I used to write down my own definitions of ideas and different types stress in my personal life, as I was instructed.  Then Thebaud helped me understand things differently than before.  

One example is while I focus on the major stressors in my life, my energy is used up in small stressors that I ignore and fail to manage/decrease.  She told of being frustrated at all the laundry she did every day when potty training her son; it was a small thing, but when she purchased more pairs of pants and underwear, her stress level greatly decreased.  I had similar little things in my life I was ignoring even though they caused me anguish.    

Thebaud realizes that most of us do not have extra hours we can daily dedicate to meditation, etc.  She has reasonable suggestions such as practicing deep breathing every time we are stopped at a red light - I can do that!  

I was not a fan of the writing style, but I have noticed a big difference in how relaxed I am and how much I'm enjoying my daily life.  The message is realistic enough for me that I'll keep this book on hand as a reference.  

Book Summary

Life can be difficult and unpredictable.  Sometimes you feel like no one understands what you're going through.  You want a life that you love, but stress can make that seem impossible.

Unlike other stress management books that talk about techniques out of the context of real life, this book approaches life from an emotional standpoint and uses proven techniques to show you how to improve your life, not just deal with stress.  Tried and true techniques have been tweaked to make them easy to practice and more effective.