MSI Press Blog

  Excerpt from  108 Yoga and Self-Care Practices for Busy Mamas  by Julie Gentile -   How to Use This Wellness Guide  This book was designed by a working mama to inspire other modern mamas to live well in this high-speed world. So many mothers are rush ing through life, looking down at their phones, stressed, worried, anxious, pressed for time, and trying to do it all—to be a good mama, a good part ner, a good employee, a good friend, and more. Too many mamas are sac rificing self-care. I lived this life, too. Something had to give, so I gave to myself. I took charge of my self-care and so can you. In this book, each topic has a Write about it section, to record your thoughts, and a Practice it section, so you can practice a yoga pose or se quence, an Ayurvedic practice, meditation, a breathing exercise, or anoth er wellness practice related to the topic in order to help you live a vibrant life. These beautiful, life-changing practices don’t take time; they give you time. Discov

   Excerpt from  100 Tips and Tools for Managing Chronic Illness  (Charnas) -- Tip #1. CALL ME DADDY   When I visit New York City, I usually stop by Levain Bakery on West 74 th street to buy their amazing chocolate chip cookies. The storefront is down a flight of steps and occupies a space the size of two coffins. Previously, this had never been an issue. But when visiting the city last October, every time I passed the bakery I saw people lined up for ten yards outside. On my last day of the trip, despite the cold weather and long lines, I decided to buy a couple of cookies. Several middle-aged women wearing transit uniforms stood in front of me in line. I asked them why the store suddenly had such long waits, and they explained that it now had a Facebook page.    The three transit workers and I chatted briefly as we tried to stay warm in the frigid air. One of the ladies, Darlene, had never eaten a cookie from the bakery before. Fed up with the wait, she declared to her friend,

  Excerpt from  57 Steps to Paradise  by Patricia Lorenz-- INTRODUCTION   You’re probably wondering why a woman on Social Security and Medicare even entertained the idea of writing a book about men. I may be middle-aged or even stumbling toward old, but I’m not dead. I like men. Men have been walking, sliding, galloping, and slithering in and out of my life for over 50 years.   We women of the biggest generation in America, the Baby Boomers, are in the majority. We outlive men. I have already outlived my second husband who left me for an older woman, married her the day of our divorce, and then died two years later in 1989.   I have no idea if I’ll outlive my first husband. He’s seven years older than I am, and in the years since 1975 when I left him and moved out of state after seven tortuous years together, he never remarried. If he had, perhaps he’d look younger and have a healthier lifestyle. In the years since we divorced, he’s had some tough medical problems so who kn

  Today's book excerpt comes from 10 Quick Homework Tips by Alder & Trombly . Introduction            Have you ever felt frustrated with your child and his homework?  If so, know that you are not alone.  In our 40 combined years of teaching, we don’t think we’ve ever met a parent who hasn’t felt frustrated, overwhelmed, or just plain confused about how to end homework battles at one time or another.                In our previous book, 365 Teacher Secrets for Parents: Fun Ways to Help Your Child Succeed in Elementary School , we offered some homework tips scattered throughout the themed chapters.  It is our hope, here, to gather the 10 most helpful strategies, all in one convenient place for you. Overall, we have discovered that the main reasons for family stress about homework seem to come from two things: # 1.       When and where to do the homework and # 2.       What to do when your child doesn’t know how to do it           To help you conquer these problems, we have put

  Today's book excerpt comes from Working with Advanced Foreign Language Students by Boris Shekhtman . Some Characteristics of Advanced Langauge Learners  SOME CHARACTERISTICS OF ADVANCED STUDENTS    Student-Teacher Relations  Although students may be world-renown politicians, this social function of theirs is muted once they turn to a teacher in order to study a foreign language, for between student and teacher there springs up a special, unique, specific relationship that is characteristic only of the teacher-student relationship. There are several reasons for this.  First, students generally believe in teachers; they trust what teachers will be doing with them. The student, for his or her part, is in the position of a person who is teaching no one, who should himself be taught, who should be listening to someone else.  Second, the student has fallen under the total control of the teacher (whereas only an hour earlier, in some cases, he or she had been giving a dressing down to

  Today's book excerpt comes from Women, We're Only Old Once by Bertha Cooper. INTRODUCTION   I stood at the door to my old age, somewhat reluctant to enter. Since I was only partially committed to the inevitable, I took a cautious first look at this new territory and came up with more questions than answers. What should I wear? What must I plan? What must I pack? What do I leave behind? What does it matter? I embarked on writing Women, We’re Only Old Once!: Keep What You Can, Let Go of What You Can’t, Enjoy What You Have when I was 66 years old and found myself asking even more questions. I knew that I was not alone. I would write from a woman’s point of view. Women, We’re Only Old Once! would be a book for women. I knew that I wanted to share my journey with other women and that I wanted to invite women to share their journeys with me. Aging doesn’t start at 50, 55, 60, or 65. It starts at birth. Aging doesn’t get a bad name until accompanied by wrinkles, arthriti