Be Restored to Health: How to Manage Stress, Heal Your Self, & Be Whole Again

Ruth Kennedy was a librarian and fitness instructor in Islington, Ontario.

Coffey-Lewis is eminently qualified to clarify the often confused areas of stress and holistic medicine, with this excellent jargon-free book. Because of her background in nursing, adult education, business, and as president of the human resources consulting firm the Lewis Group, where she specializes in lifestyle and stress management, the reader will have confidence in her instructions.

Most stress and much illness, anxiety, hate, guilt, fear, conflict, and frustration can be cured by gradually learning to change your thoughts and ways of thinking. None of these problems can be cured quickly or easily; much effort is needed and the process can take years. Coffey-Lewis carefully guides you through the necessary steps with clear directions. You learn that you are meant to be well, to care for and love yourself, and, most important, to alter old patterns and stay with the new skills. How to deal with negative emotions such as worry, fear, and dread and to replace them with positive ones is very difficult and takes constant effort. When this is accomplished there will be greatly improved mental and physical health. Meditation is examined; what to expect from it, how to do it and where, and how it can be used to lessen stress.

Included are personal questionnaires, relaxation and breathing exercises, a healing lifestyle wheel, plus an extensive bibliography for further reading. The foreword is by Hans Selye, whose work is often quoted.

With so many often overlapping methods in vogue at the moment, and so many books, periodical and newspaper articles, and courses advocating these various methods, people are often understandably confused. Coffey-Lewis has incorporated the most recent research in the scientific fields of disease, holistic health, stress, and self-healing. The well-organized format and the clear writing are of great assistance in deciding what is the best method for an individual.

Only a very few people attempting to work on their own will have the patience and desire to persevere long enough to change their lives.