2024 Reading Challenge

2024 Reading Challenge
Jill Elizabeth has read 1 book toward her goal of 285 books.
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2023 Reading Challenge

2023 Reading Challenge
Jill Elizabeth has read 5 books toward her goal of 265 books.
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Guest Book Review: Imagine Harmony: How to Evolve From Stress to Gratitude by Dale R. Duvall

Another guest book review courtesy of Sharon – today, focusing on internal evolution and a triumph over the effects of stress on our minds and bodies. In the book, Duvall “offers an enjoyable stress management program that begins with an explanation of stress, its devastating effects, and progresses through a series of six lessons beginning with relaxation and culminating in conscious control of physiological and psychological responses to daily life without the risks associated with pharmaceuticals.” Enjoy!

I love the idea of “Perfect health, Happiness, Vitality, Longevity.” I have been in Health Care for almost 50 years. In the beginning the focus was science, science, science – but as the years went by, the science idea weakened a little every year. This lead me to my own internal repositioning, expanding my concept of health to incorporate happiness and harmony of mind and body.

Mr. Duvall, the author, has described a stress management program that, to my mind, is the ideal. It combines so many facets of the world of science and spirituality and serves us a strong reminder of the body-mind connection. I especially enjoyed his introducing the idea of “Medimaginosis”. To quote the author, “Medimaginosis is an omni-denominational meditation/imagery/wisdom driven wellness practice that directs the mind, body, and soul to manifest harmony and to evolve as one cohesive, synergistic unit with perfect health, happiness, vitality, and a life expectancy far in excess of the current concept of POSSIBLE…It is the power source that supplies the energy to act on imagined concepts. The practice is based on the results of scientific research and the documented physiological responses to over two thousand years of meditative practice. It begins with the familiar relaxation and attitude awareness that has been promulgated for decades but seldom executed effectively, illuminates the path to physical, mental, emotional, financial, and spiritual harmony, and gradually evolves into conscious control of gene expression.”

The author gives credit to many experts in self-help for the advances that we’ve been able to make in thinking about our own inner improvement. The ideology and altering gene expression was a new concept for me – delving into the “basement of life” as the key to perfect health, happiness, vitality longevity and harmony.

This is a difficult read. It is has a textbook like flow with terminology, glossary, and similar academic-feeling organization. Chapters introduce new ideas and companion “do it your self” materials, which require a break in reading. The author does ensure a continuation of instruction of every new idea presented though, repeating theories and concepts into new chapters. This helps.

I recently met with a psychologist speaking on the topic of pain and depression. I mentioned the author/this book and and subsequent learnings from him, and was surprised that the professional I was speaking with was suggesting many of the very same things Mr. Duvall was introducing in the book. The correlation was surprising and reinforced the merits of the book in my eyes.

I am a fan of self–help books. The “ideal” often referred to in these types of books seems to me to be unattainable; there is still value in the idea though, as I think that every little bit and piece that a reader can salvage from these ideas represents a win and a
feather in the relevant author’s hat. Perhaps that’s the true value of self-help books…

My review copy was graciously provided by the author via Author Marketing Experts, Inc.
***

About the Author
Born in 1947, Dale R. Duvall began teaching music at a local music store in Davenport, Iowa while still attending high school. He earned a commercial pilot’s license while serving in the US Air Force and served one year in Viet Nam. He left the military to become a licensed real estate agent, and then a highly competitive, high strung, irritable, hard driving, Type-A stock market analyst and broker. He earned the highest license attainable in the stock options field and was promoted to the position of associate vice president of a prestigious brokerage firm. After experiencing multiple debilitating stress related health problems and a quasar burnout, he “dropped out” and set upon a 30-year quest to study, understand, and conquer the devastating effects of stress on the human body, and to find peace and happiness. He studied integrative medicine, psychophysiology and mind/body communication at the cellular level, psychoneuroimmunology and epigenetics as it relates to gene expression, energy healing, EFT and NLP, Eastern and Western religious and spiritual philosophies, metaphysics, stress management, guided imagery, the quantum physics of chi, tai chi, yoga, and multiple forms of meditation and hypnosis. Although he is now a Certified Stress Management Consultant specializing in PTSD and Therapeutic Imagery, a Reiki Master, Certified Meditation Instructor, and holds several other titles and degrees, he refuses to clutter his name with superfluous labels and initials. He wants his words and teachings to be appreciated for their efficacy, content, and meaning, not their academic origin. He wants people to use their own natural wisdom to evaluate their world. He wants us to know that human beings can not only fly and walk around on the moon, but we can take control of our health, happiness, vitality, longevity, and lifestyle with our Conscious mind. He wants to teach us to Imagine Harmony and to understand that life is not an emergency: it is a fun adventure, experienced in the present moment with curiosity and wonder, that existence is a universal symphony of dynamic pulsating energy, and that we can create our own song.

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