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Summary: How to lead a more fulfilling life!
Review: America is a land of overworked,overstressed people who believethat the more they do,the more successful they will become.But the truth is just the opposite,according to the author of The Art of Effortless Living.Ingrid Bacci shows readers how to stop being compulsive performers and start leading lives of creativity,fulfillment and health.This book, written by someone who overcame crippling illness,attained radiant health,and is sharing her hard-won knowledge with others,is full of simple, do-able and pleasurable techniques for finding an easier,more meaningful and more successful lifestyle. The writing style is among the clearest that I have ever read,and the anecdotes are wonderfully descriptive.
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Summary: Stands Out
Review: Among the many emotional, spiritual and healing self-help books available today "The Art of Effortless Living" stands out from others I've read because Ingrid Bacci combines all three with a fresh, experienced and knowledable approach. Since this book is eminently readable I would strongly recommend it not only to those interested in a practical program for healing and personal growth but also as an interesting, thought provoking addition to anyone's reading experience.
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Summary: Relaxation: the key to successful living
Review: Blending scientific research and case histories from hundreds of clients she has helped, Dr. Bacci shows that the best way to handle stress, frustration and creative blocks is by focusing on relaxing mind and body. The prescription is so simple that you may be tempted to dismiss it--until you try it for yourself and discover that it works. Dr. Bacci makes a very convincing case that by doing less--by focusing on becoming peaceful and calm--you can actually achieve more, whether at work, in sports or in your personal relationships. You can become more effective and more productive while putting out less effort. It seems magical, however there are some very sound scientific principles at work. This is the first book I've come across that explains the science in clear, accessible language. The Art of Effortless Living is an important, inspiring and practical book, with easy-to-follow techniques listed at the end of every chapter. I read it at a time when I was working hard and feeling anxious and frustrated; overnight, with the help of Dr. Bacci's techniques, I learned a new, healthier and far more effective and pleasant way to handle life's challenges.
Rating: 
Summary: Recommended.
Review: I'll admit I'm a tough audience when it comes to popular self-help books. The themes are predictable, repetitious, derivative. So the value of the text largely comes down to a question of the author's rhetoric.Though a practitioner of the Alexander technique, Bacci is open to numerous complementary systems, most particularly those Eastern views of self that emphasize "being" over "doing," that locate success and failure in personal consciousness, not in individual performance or in the products of the Western Puritanical work ethic. Through numerous engaging examples, illustrations, explanations she manages to be an effective and inspirational "coach-teacher." While making it clear that living effortlessly requires the effort of concentration and practice, she makes the goal seem both worth while and accessible. Besides stressing and suggesting ways of heightening personal consciousness, Professor Bacci incorporates many elements from what used to be called "transactional analysis." Once we stop trying to prove our worth through our accomplishments, we can began to approach human relationships from a more mature, less exasperating perspective. More often than not, her points strike home. And when she comes up with an occasional lame illustration, she almost invariably follows it up with a real "zinger." I can attest that I felt energized and empowered after reading some of the chapters. While Professor Bacci's approach strikes me as a valuable counterbalance to the present-day obsession with measuring success and failure in the materialist terms of society at large, the reader may at the same time feel compelled to qualify some of her own positions as extreme. For example, focusing on what we feel in the moment can certainly lead to heightened consciousness and increased self-awareness. At the same time, happiness is as likely to be a by-product of the pursuit of a goal external to the self as the object of pursuit itself. Also, while it is true that confronting, or "being with," the experience of pain can paradoxically release constricted nerve centers in the body (here Bacci sounds a bit like an Eastern-trained massage therapist discussing "chi"), there are other situations where being pain's silent witness does not necessarily assure its removal (think of an exploding bladder or acute gastric distress). Finally, the reader should not lose sight of the "effort" preceding Bacci's own discovery of effortless living. Sensing that being an academic and a wife forced her to live "roles" at odds with her authentic self, as manifested in crippling physical illnesses, the author simply abandoned both roles in favor of the genuine, healthy person she now is. Others may not find a change this radical either so practical or so effective as the author apparently did.
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Summary: Author Extends a Helping Hand
Review: Ingrid Bacci is a generous and talented writer. There is profound wisdom on every page, and it is delivered with the down to earth style of talking across the kitchen table, touching hands over coffee. Her journey from being a professionally successful academic to a loving healer - traveled on the road of a long and painful illness, divorce, and the ultimate need to find safe haven for her troubled soul and body, is an odyssey we can all share on any number of levels in our own lives. Pick a page, a chapter; there are revelations and loving guidance for yourself and everyone you know, illustrated with personal experience. Read this book - you'll want to buy a copy for everyone else in your life as well.
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Summary: Effortless Living: A Loving Guide & Companion
Review: Ingrid Bacci is a generous and talented writer. There is profound wisdom on every page, and it is delivered with the down to earth style of talking across the kitchen table, touching hands over coffee. Her journey from being a professionally successful academic to a loving healer - traveled on the road of a long and painful illness, divorce, and the ultimate need to find safe haven for her troubled soul and body, is an odyssey we can all share on any number of levels in our own lives. Pick a page, a chapter; there are revelations and loving guidance for yourself and everyone you know, illustrated with personal experience. Read this book - you'll want to buy a copy for everyone else in your life as well.
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Summary: All the good stuff in life always was effortless.
Review: My life had the usual struggles at work and with relationships from family to the clerk at the Motor Vehicle Department. Those struggles began to change as I read Effortless Living. I began to look at my relationship to the issues that I struggled with. I found that what I was doing that wasn't working was being generated by who I was being. If I was being fearful then I my words or behavior were skewed by the fear that was partnering my experience. Ingrid's book isn't a "how to change" book - rather it's an invitation to become present to what is happening. The awareness that has grown in me during my reading of Effortless Living has transformed my ability to wake up to my repetitive behaviors, see who I'm being and allow transformation to enter my life. The most positive outcome has been letting go of a successful career in New York and moving to Maui to begin a new life that is in line with who I (and my family have grown to be). Like all great teachers, Dr. Bacci doesn't tell us how to be - she leads us to the threshold of our own mind.
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Summary: This book has been like a big sister to me.
Review: There are only a handful of books in my whole life that have made a significant difference-- causing a major shift - a growth spurt. A kind of book that as I read it and even after Im finished I must keep it with me at all times. THE ART OF EFFORTLESS LIVING is that kind of book. It addressses Fear and identifies how we allow it to paralyze us in so many aspects of our life - work, relationships, health, etc. Dr. Bacci explains the significance of making friends with our Fear rather than having it be our enemy. Thus using Fear to our benefit - to live our lives effortlessly and to its fullest. Dr. Bacci provides various exericises and techniques that actually result in the releasing of one's fears, thus living a life filled with energy and passion -- not anxiety. Dr. Bacci's personal experience is incredibly inspiring in itself. As I reader - I feel fortunate she choose to share it. This book has made a major contribution to my life and to those who I have shared it with.
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Summary: This is a Breakthrough book
Review: There are only a handful of books in my whole life that have made a significant difference-- causing a major shift - a growth spurt. A kind of book that as I read it and even after Im finished I must keep it with me at all times. THE ART OF EFFORTLESS LIVING is that kind of book. It addressses Fear and identifies how we allow it to paralyze us in so many aspects of our life - work, relationships, health, etc. Dr. Bacci explains the significance of making friends with our Fear rather than having it be our enemy. Thus using Fear to our benefit - to live our lives effortlessly and to its fullest. Dr. Bacci provides various exericises and techniques that actually result in the releasing of one's fears, thus living a life filled with energy and passion -- not anxiety. Dr. Bacci's personal experience is incredibly inspiring in itself. As I reader - I feel fortunate she choose to share it. This book has made a major contribution to my life and to those who I have shared it with.
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Summary: Wow Living Can be Fun, Folks
Review: There is a lot of power in knowing how to let go of stress and all the gabberwocky. Phew! Good Book! Good Deal on the price!
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