Decoding the Spiritual Messages of Everyday Life
Dr. Paul Debell, MD
Sterling Ethos
Decoding the Spiritual Messages of Everyday Life: Dr. Paul Debell, MD
We’ve all experienced climatic life situations that feel as though they’ve been orchestrated by a higher power. We could call them destiny, fate, chance or dumb luck; psychologist Dr. Paul Debell calls them spiritual messages. In Decoding Spiritual Messages of Everyday Life, Dr. Debell provides tools to recognize and understand divinely-guided messages, with a modern approach that emphasizes balance and cautions against what he calls ‘Spiritual ADD,’ (losing focus on our spiritual life so we can’t consistently apply ourselves to the lessons).
The heart of Decoding’s message is simple: we are constantly receiving information yet not opening ourselves up to see it as inspiration. It’s our human nature to organize feelings, thoughts, memories, and knowledge creating a limited and subjective view, otherwise known as “world according to me.” To counteract this, Decoding outlines a way to get to know and understand what Dr. Debell calls ‘our Soul’s mind’ and ‘our Brain’s mind.’ By tapping into each, Decoding makes sense of life’s events from material and spiritual perspectives, guiding us to a more perceptive consciousness.
Decoding offers an in-depth opportunity it offers to find meaning to your life. With a summary and reflection questions at the end of each chapter, Decoding is an ode to our school days when we had to work, contemplate and develop our thoughts and values to come up with our unique understanding. In addition, Dr. Debell provides an online community for readers to share their stories. Like the classes that challenge us most, Decoding the Spiritual Messages of Everyday Life can open you up to a new reality and aid in your development of mind, heart and soul.
Reviewed by Vanessa M. Harris, who recently graduated from Pepperdine University and returned from India and is now uncovering LA’s hidden treasures and decoding her own everyday life. Vanessa.m.harris33@gmail.com.
Yeah Dave’s Guide to Livin’ the Moment
David Romanelli
Broadway Books
Yeah Dave?s Guide to Livin? the Moment: David Romanelli
There were many moments, when I would look up from reading Yeah Dave’s Guide to Livin’ the Moment and say, “Is he for real?” Moments when I cringed, thinking, “No, that’s not really happening, is it?” Moments when I’m sure my face contorted into some funny shape, in one of those visages your mother told you not to make otherwise you might be wearing it forever. Not long after I finished the book, I asked the chocolate and wine-pusher Yeah Dave (who calls his email newsletter The Schtick) if the stories were really true. Unsurprisingly, I got a cryptic answer.
After all, this is all part of Yeah Dave’s appeal – the abject humor. What matters is that it makes us stop and think. Sometimes Yoga practitioners take themselves very seriously, but Yeah Dave certainly can’t be accused of being overly serious. If anything, there may be a few instances of some TMI reveals throughout the book, but then those are the moments that make us laugh the most – the ones when someone is willing to be vulnerable and ridiculous and endearing and allow us to see a Yoga retreat or a simple hug in a new and delightful way.
The book begins with a poignant and painful story about how Dave and his dad missed one of the great moments in a winning Dodgers game because they were trying to beat traffic. It’s a fitting opening, since the essays and Yeah Dave’s entire schtick center on not trying to beat traffic, but being in the here and now. Many people know him because he travels around getting people to taste chocolate on their Yoga mat and take the time to appreciate the experience, so that they fall in love with the chocolate. In this book it is obvious that Dave has fallen in love with life, hard, and he wants to laugh about it loudly.
–– Reviewed by Felicia M. Tomasko, RN
