MSI Press Blog

Happy Mother's Day! It is always important and gratifying to find a reason for joy in the midst of troubled times! And, if you have some reading time, here are some books written especially for mothers: 108 Yoga and Self-Care Practices for Busy Mama s by Julie Gentile Mama, do you find yourself too busy to take good care of yourself? Whatever your situation, you deserve spectacular health and wellness. With Julie M. Gentile as your personal wellness mentor, this book coaches you along your own authentic self-care path. Using 108 writing prompts and self-care practices, including yoga poses, meditations, and breathing exercises, Julie shows you practical ways to live well that only a mama modern would understand. Become the self-care goddess you truly want to be—you’re worth it! How to Be a Good Mother When You're Sick: A Guide to Motherhood with Chronic Illness by Dr. Emily Graves Soon after receiving her Bachelor’s Degree, Emily Graves was diagnosed w...

Julia Aziz Julia Aziz is a licensed clinical social worker and a mother of three children. She is also an accomplished speaker on topics such as “The Soul of Service,” “Holding Intention While Jugging It All,” and “Motherself,” a monthly mother’s group. In addition to this personal and professional experience in working through motherhood transitions, she has also written for and served as general editor for  Dovetail Journal  for interfaith families. She shares her motherhood observations, both professional and personal, in her book,  Lessons of Labor: One Woman’s Self-Discovery through Birth and Motherhood . Read Julia's posts and information about Julia on this blog. Click HERE .

  We do have books that make great Mother's Day gifts. Here are some of them: Girl, You've Got This! Transitioning to motherhood is hard. Along with it comes a lot of fear, anxiety and responsibility. You want to provide everything for your new child, and it is all too easy to let other things – like self-care – slide. How do new moms stay on top of finances, a healthy diet, housework, a fitness routine, work, and other personal needs? Combining her expertise as a personal trainer and successful entrepreneur with her life as a wife and mother who is pregnant with her second child, Brittany Renz helps readers find balance as new moms by preparing and establishing routines throughout the nine months of pregnancy. She encourages expectant mothers to set themselves up for success as mothers, spouses and working professionals – and she knows what she is talking about. How to Be a Good Mommy When You're Sick Soon after receiving her Bachelor’s Degree, Emily Graves was diagnosed w...

From MidWest Book Review: Synopsis: "Girl, You Got This!: A Fitness Trainer's Personal Strategies for Success Transitioning into Motherhood" by Brittany Renz is a complete guide to setting yourself up for success while transitioning to motherhood. The 'real world practical' and experience based advice comes from an expert as Brittany is a wife, mother of one and a half kids (a three-year-old girl and soon-to-be born baby boy), entrepreneur, and personal trainer. In "Girl, You Got This!, Brittany deftly and accessibly shares her knowledge and experience to walk her readers through all of the phases of pregnancy, from before conception to delivery -- and ways to stay fit during each phase. Critique: A perfect gift book for expectant mothers, "Girl, You Got This!: A Fitness Trainer's Personal Strategies for Success Transitioning into Motherhood" features color photograph illustrations and is unreservedly endorsed and recommended for pers...

  excerpt from Girl, You've Got Thi s by Brittany Renz -  Introduction   I have a 24-hour cancellation policy.   When I first started my work as a personal trainer, I was single and had two clients I would meet up with at a local park because I didn’t have a studio space. Cancellations at that point weren’t such a big deal. “Oh, you can’t make it today? What about tomorrow around 3? Great, see you then!”   In the past four years, that’s changed. I am married with one kid and another on the way, and I am booked. When I say ‘booked,’ I mean I am still a one-person team (unless you count my two-year-old daughter as my assistant), and I have 76 clients. I work seven days a week from 6 a.m. to as late as 9 p.m. Now when someone cancels last minute, it means:   1) It isn’t easy to reschedule, and 2) Another client could have filled that spot, and        now I won’t make that money.   So, what do I do w...

  Another oldie but goodie, that we somehow missed posting/sharing when it happens. Never too late to listen, though. Here is Julia Aziz, author of Lessons of Labor , talking about reclaiming the self in motherhood, a topic that never dies, on Mom Talk Radio. Link to the video HERE . Read posts about Julia and her book HERE .                                  Sign up for the MSI Press LLC newsletter                           Follow MSI Press on  Twitter ,  Face Book , and  Instagram .

  Today's daily excerpt comes from  How to Be a Good Mommy When You're Sick  by Emily Graves. Introduction: My Story   When women with Rheumatoid Arthritis (RA) get pregnant, their RA goes into remission. At least, that’s what my doctor told my husband, Robert, and me when we went in to discuss the possibility of having a baby. At that time, we both were professors with busy careers. I was 28, and according to my doctors, my RA was on “cruise control”. Thus, we were given a big “thumbs up” from the medical community to get pregnant. I would not trade our son for the world, but, boy, were they wrong! There was no remission for me, not unless remission means running head first into kidney failure and an abrupt pause in my career. After many months of discussions with baffled doctors, biopsies, and blood tests, I was diagnosed with Essential Mixed Cryoglobulinemia Type II—a complication of my RA that was causing kidney failure. I was officially the complicated, rare cas...

  From the author of  Lessons of Labor: One Woman's Self-Discovery through Birth , Julia Aziz - Lessons of Labor  was conceived a few hours after my first child was born. Battered, bleeding, and still in shock over what childbirth had really been like, one thing was clear to me: I had to write everything down, and I had better do it soon, before I forgot. My birth experience was not particularly unusual in any way, but my internal process felt like a long meditation retreat I had done some years earlier: every personal demon I had ever struggled with had somehow come to face me in the past twenty-four hours, and I was reeling from the experience.  Of course in the months to come, I came to see that giving birth, which I had given quite a bit of thought and preparation to, was actually easier than postpartum anxiety, insomnia, hormonal changes, and newborn care. As I began to inexpertly stumble along the path of motherhood, I noticed those personal demo...

Excerpt from Girl, You Got This!  I have a 24-hour cancellation policy. When I first started my work as a personal trainer, I was single and had two clients I would meet up with at a local park because I didn’t have a studio space. Cancellations at that point weren’t such a big deal. “Oh, you can’t make it today? What about tomorrow around 3? Great, see you then!”  In the past four years, that’s changed. I am married with one kid and another on the way, and I am booked. When I say ‘booked,’ I mean I am still a one-person team (unless you count my two-year-old daughter as my assistant), and I have 76 clients. I work seven days a week from 6 a.m. to as late as 9 p.m. Now when someone cancels last minute, it means: 1) It isn’t easy to reschedule, and 2) Another client could have filled that spot, and   3) now I won’t make that money. So, what do I do when I get that last-minute text or call?  Nothing. I don’t charge them or scold them. If they are sick, I tell them I h...