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Book Review of 29 Gifts: How a Month of Giving Can Change Your Life

29 Gifts: How a Month of Giving Can Change Your Life
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I can understand how some would find this book flaky or a tad goody-goody. Some of the reviews I read prior to reading the book said precisely that. However, I think your enjoyment of the book will all depend on your approach--not only to the book itself--but towards life as a whole.

If you are skeptical of alternative medicines or therapies, unwilling to try meditation or apply something as simple as cognitive gratitude or humble free-form prayer to your day even when all else has failed, then this book is not for you.
Most likely eyes will roll and you'll become annoyed. However, just a slightly more open-minded approach might help readers benefit from what this book is offering.

I enjoyed it. Cami Walker was desperate in her search to learn how to live with a terrible MS diagnosis, especially as she grew weaker and weaker and her young body betrayed her. A healer suggested she try giving "29 gifts in 29 days". It didn't matter what the gifts were, only that they were given mindfully, and without expectation of getting anything in return. She went into this "prescription" hesitantly and skeptically. She felt (as many of us do) that she had nothing of valuable to give. But she took a chance, and gave small things in small ways. Thereafter she found, first, her outlook improving, and then gradually her health as well. The power of positive thinking put to the task.

I struggle with gratitude some days, and it really takes a willful adjustment of my thinking to turn that around. So, the stories that the author shares in this book were inspiring to me in their sheer simplicity. Maybe you will agree. It will depend on your approach.

*** 1/2 Three and a half stars!