MSI Press Blog

  This week, Jews around the world gathered to celebrate Rosh Hashanah, and are now turning to preparations for the rest of the fall holidays: Yom Kippur, Sukkot, Simchat Torah, and Shemini Atzeret.  To say that the fall is busy for Jews would be an understatement, particularly for Jews who are adjusting to a new school year (or helping kids do the same).  Rosh Hashanah is the Jewish New Year. Instead of celebrating with fireworks and champagne toasts, Jews bring in the New Year with round loaves of challah, apples dipped in honey, and the sharp cry of the shofar (a ram’s horn that is blown in the month leading up to the holiday to “wake us up” to the new year and day of judgment ahead).  Although the mood of the “high holidays” Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur are supposed to be serious and reflective, since we are focused on evaluating a year’s worth of behavior and our destiny for the year ahead, Rosh Hashanah tends to be a more light-hearted event for family and delicious food.  Yom Ki

  A NEW YEAR “May it be done to me according to your word.” --Luke 1: 38     A new year begins. The transition between the past and the coming year invites reflection. We all look back and then forward. Commentators review the best and worst of everything, attempt to discern trends, and make predictions for the coming year. Will it be a  good or bad year--the best of times or the worst of times? Who really knows? Nevertheless, commentators make their prognostications, sometimes with great confidence. Of course, their opinions vary. Many are diametrically opposed, as if they are looking at different universes. I suspect their imagined futures are really a projection of their own idiosyncratic views of themselves and the world. After all, we see others as we are.  As we begin a new year, of course, we take a personal look at our lives. We look back at our regrets and celebrations. Inevitably, our lives have been a mixed bag. We then look to the next year and entertain expectations about

  Today's book excerpt comes from Widow: How to Survive (and Thrive!) in Your 2nd, 3rd, and 4th Years  by Joanna Romer. Year Two Carving Out a Place for Yourself Nothing in my previous experience prepared me for being a widow, not my 40 years of job experience, ranging from Cosmopolitan Magazine to St. John’s University; not my 25 years of marriage to my beloved husband, Jack; not even my five years of worrying about Jack as he slowly become fatally ill. The widow experience is, as I’m sure you’ll agree, unprecedented. We can’t sugarcoat being a widow. After a year of widowhood, you’ve probably figured that out. It’s hard, it’s a struggle, it’s not something that goes away like the flu. And, unless you get married again, you’re going to be a widow from now on. Yet, believe it or not, you can get used to it. I feel pretty good about my widow status now, although it’s taken me awhile the reach that plateau---4 ½ years. The first year was a killer, wasn’t it? The depression, the pain

HAPPY NEW YEAR ! Every time I get the urge to exercise, I lie down until it passes. Mark Twain   New Years!   The Times Square ball, confetti, Guy Lombardo (for people of my vintage) and… New Year’s resolutions!   Most of us make some kind of resolution for the New Year. It’s a good opportunity for a fresh start. Change isn’t easy, though, and lapsed New Year’s resolutions are certainly part of the common lore of our culture.   There is no lack of advice out there about how best to manage the resolutions we set for the year to come. Set clear goals (I prefer the word, “intentions,” by the way). Write them down. Check in regularly about how you’re doing. Enlist the caring and support of somebody else.   These are perfectly fine ideas that I’m sure you have heard before. I want to share with you, though, three ideas that get less press, that arise from some combination of empirical literature and my own experience working with people for a long time.   1.       Reme

Too much holiday food? Gained some weight? Need to move on from overeating in general? New Year's Resolution weighing you down?  Take some advice from Christina Fisanick, author of The Optimistic Food Addict? Ending the Tyranny of Day One:  Stop Starting Over and Start Living Your Life in Recovery by Christina Fisanick “I will start day one again on Monday.”  “I blew it! It’s back to day one tomorrow.”  “I am ready to get back to eating healthy. Day one starts today!” I hear those words often in recovery circles, especially at this time of year when overeating during the holidays and then dieting in the new year are the “norm.” Even people without disordered eating struggle with guilt for eating too many high calories foods and abandoning their exercise routines. However, for people who suffer from an eating disorder (and people for whom dieting is a way of life) continuously starting over and over and over again can actually hamper recovery and overall heal

  With cancer, it does happen. Many stories do not have happy endings, and some endings come sooner than we would like. MSI Press has published several books on bereavement. Broader in scope than the experiences of those who have lost loved ones to cancer, they share many, if not most, of the emotions of those who have grieve for those medical science could not save -- and they give hope and a wide range of options of how to go on and LIVE.  Harnessing the Power of Grief (Julie Potter) get the book or ebook In this book, Julie Potter traces back decades the research on understanding and coping with grief, which she describes as a natural human response to loss. Pulling from the work of Worden, the author prescribes four tasks for those in grief to use in managing their grief. She also walks the reader through special situations like tragic loss without warning. A book for those who are grieving and those who are walking with grievers. Read more posts about Julie and her book HERE . Lif