MSI Press Blog

  Today's book excerpt comes from When You're Shoved from the Right, Look to the Left   by Omar Imady . THE SHEEP THAT NEVER LOST HOPE There once was a sheep who dreamed of walking in the very front row of her flock, but each time she tried to move towards the front, she was pushed back by her strong and mighty sisters and brothers. “Know your place, sheep,” they would whisper. “Even the very last row is too much for you.” Day after day the sheep would try to move towards the front row, and day after day she was pushed back with sarcasm. A dawn arrived when the shepherd, after having directed his flock towards the usual northern pasture field, suddenly stopped and decided he would try out a pasture field to the south which he had heard about from one of his friends. With his rod, he gestured to his flock to turn towards the opposite direction and suddenly the sheep, who had never lost hope, found herself in the very front row. For more posts by and about Omar and ...

  CHANGE OF HEART “I will give you a new heart and place a new spirit within you, taking from your bodies your stony hearts and giving you natural hearts.” --Ezekiel 36: 26   “I hate change!” If I received a dollar for every time a patient said that to me, I could work for free.   They often add, “Change replaces the familiar with the unknown. The unknown scares me.” In response, I remind my anxious patients, “If there is no change, you are dead. The future is always unknown, of course, because it does not yet exist. You are now in the process of creating your own future.” I also ask them,”Why are you here meeting with me, except to change?” They tell me how miserable they feel and powerless to do anything about it. Frightening change is the price of relief. Therapy is for healing and growth. Some of my patients imagine that their trying life circumstances cause their distress. In our work together they learn that only changing their minds and hearts, their ...

  Now, how could we have missed this? A while back, Gewanda Parker, author of It Only Hurts When I Can't Run , was identified as a symbol of hope and healing by a publication, Florida's Fabulous Writers .  The paperback edition of Gwanda's book is currently on sale at half price at the MSI Press webstore . For more posts about Gewanda and her book, click HERE .                                    Sign up for the MSI Press LLC newsletter Follow MSI Press on  Twitter ,  Face Book , and  Instagram .   Interested in publishing with MSI Press LLC? Check out information on  how to submit a proposal . Interested in receiving a free copy of this or any MSI Press LLC book  in exchange for  reviewing  a current or forthcoming MSI Press LLC book? Contact editor@msipress.com. Want an  author-signed copy  of this book? Purchase the book a...

  In anticipation of the increasing sunniness of spring and the hope that such weather brings, we include here an excerpt from Dr. Dennis Ortman's book, The Pandemic and Hope . BREAKING BAD, MAKING GOOD How can we overcome the grip of our fears and let our natural light shine? It is a matter of breaking a bad habit of negative thinking and acting. Just as an alcoholic can have urges and still not drink, we can have anxious reactions and not indulge them. We have a choice to live with unavoidable anxiety or depression. If we refuse to change and grow, we will become depressed with a sense of a wasted life. If we want to mature, we will move out of our comfort zone and inevitably feel anxious. But in taking the risk and succeeding, we will grow in self-confidence, creating a larger comfort zone. So we choose our poison: growth-inhibiting depression or life-enhancing anxiety. Overcoming the bad habit of an anxiety-driven life involves four steps, requiring insight, courage, and persev...

  Weekly Soul by Frederic Craigie, Ph.D.  is a collection of 52 meditations on meaningful, joyful and peaceful living. The meditations begin with thought-provoking quotations from a range of people--writers, journalists, theologians, musicians and artists, activists--and touch on themes of Miracles, Aliveness, Purpose, Laughter and Joy, Presence/Mindfulness, Activism, Acceptance, Gratitude, Forgiveness, Creativity, Civility, and Hope. Each meditation also others Dr. Craigie's stories and commentary, questions for individual and group reflection, suggestions for daily follow-up, and biographical background on the quotation authors. In  Weekly Soul , readers will find a year's worth of affirmation and engaging exploration of wholeness and well-being. Endorsement: There is nothing usual or ordinary about Fred Craigie's rich, compelling invitation to explore who we are and what matters to us. It's insanely readable, this beautifully organized mashup of poetry, philosophy, p...

Alone with Ourselves  In therapy sessions, I have been asking my patients how they are coping with the confinement, loneliness, and fear. Regarding their quarantine, I ask if they experience it more as a prison or retreat. Almost all have told me that it feels mostly like a retreat. Perhaps my encouraging them to relax and observe themselves is paying some dividends. For example, one insight patient, commenting on the lock down, said, “If we allow fear to take over, we’re exchanging prisons and giving ourselves a life sentence.” However, as the quarantine drags on for weeks, I suspect they may change their tunes. Surprisingly, my most emotionally fragile patients struggle little with the virus fear. They do not sweat the big stuff, only the small stuff. For example, they may agonize for years about a rude comment. My patients also complain about so much closeness with restless, bickering kids and bored partners that, they say jokingly, it will eventually lead to the do...

Proudly announcing the release of The Pandemic and Hope , the first book in our pandemic series -- a set of books dedicated to helping people make it safely (mentally and physically) through the pandemic. These books are written by experts in their fields, who are also authors by their own right of other MSI Press books, and  information about new books to be released in this series can be found on the MSI Press home page . Dr. Ortman has authored three hig hly respected, beloved, and extremely well reviewed MSI Press books related to various forms of addiction--all relevant to these times: Anger Anonymous Anxiety Anonymous Depression Anonymous   Find more posts about and by Dr. Ortman HERE . Find more posts about the pandemic (quarantine) HERE . And take the precautions needed to STAY WELL!

The following guest post by Dr. Dennis Ortman, psychologist, former priest, and MSI Press author, will form the basis of a forthcoming book on coping with pandemic conditions, called The Pandemic and Hope . POST-PANDEMIC STR ESS DISORDER  By Dennis Ortman, Ph.D.     I have a fantasy. President Trump will eventually announce victory over the Coronavirus. He will declare, “We have won the war. We have shown our greatness as a nation in working together to defeat this invisible enemy.” He will then express gratitude to all the healthcare workers, who risked their lives, those who supported all the essential services, and the entire nation. He will also report remarkable progress on a vaccine and treatment. American ingenuity again triumphs. Hopefully, this day will come sooner than later.  However, while the war may be won on one front, another remains, the inner battle against fear. We cannot rest on our laurels. Many have aptly comp...