Thursday, April 21, 2016

The Art of Calm

The Art of Calm: Photographs and Wisdom to Balance Your Life
by Rebecca Ascher-Walsh
National Geographic Society: 3/29/16
hardcover; 215 pages
ISBN-13: 9781426216374

The Art of Calm: Photographs and Wisdom to Balance Your Life by Rebecca Ascher-Walsh is a highly recommended book with a perfect balance of photographs and inspirational quotes, good advice, and even recipes. This is the kind of book you would give a good female friend, using the ribbon page marker to mark an especially pertinent quote or tip for her, to let her know you understand, value, and treasure her.

Actually, I'd have to make many more ribbon page markers beyond the one affixed to the spine of the book. There were so many good quotes and wonderful advice.

I love: "Women need real moments of solitude and self-reflection to balance out how much of ourselves we give away." Barbara De Angelis (pg. 21)
I could mark the quote: "When you feel overwhelmed repeat this to yourself until you remember that it is true: You'll get it all done. You always have."(pg. 46)
I especially love: "After all those years as a woman hearing 'not thin enough, not pretty enough, not smart enough, not this enough, not that enough' almost overnight I woke up one morning and thought, 'I'm enough.' "  Anna Quindlen (pg. 184)
Or I'd  marked for myself that peace is found in forgiveness, or celebrating what people accomplish rather than finding fault, or how I'm are not responsible for other adults emotional lives or...
You get the idea.

But I'd likely put that one affixed ribbon marker where it is now: "Start with this thought, every morning, even when your alarm goes off too early: Every day is a gift." (pg. 202)

There are also included wonderful little tidbits of goodness, like recipes included for a facial, and bath salts, and vanilla milk, and tips about what you should have on your bookshelf or in your closet or stocked in your pantry for a quick pasta dinner. There are several pages that give supportive advice to working women and mothers with children.  Or maybe I'd mark the page letting my friend know that sometimes it is okay to eat chocolate chip cookies.

Let's not forget the photographs either. They simply exude serenity and help encourage a calm, peaceful, soothing demeanor. They are gorgeous and compliment the text that accompanies them splendidly. 
The Art of Calm would be a sublime gift for others - or yourself! (And it's paperback sized, so it would easily slip into a bag to take with you!)

I'll leave you with this advice that made me laugh with delight: "Make a playlist of your favorite songs from high school and sing along at the top of your lungs while you remember what it was like the have real problems." (pg 207) Yes!


Disclosure: My Kindle edition was courtesy of
 Rebecca Ascher-Walsh for review purposes.

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1 comment:

Heather J @ TLC Book Tours said...

Ha! That last quote is fabulous! How fun!

Thanks for being a part of the tour.