Review: The Rushing Woman's Syndrome

I have a habit of rushing through life and wanted to slow things down. I tried meditation, supplements, deep breathing... when I heard about this book through a women's magazine, I thought it sounded like something I could benefit from. 

Dr Libby Weaver has a phD in health science, majoring in nutrition. So, a lot of what this book is about is about the stress hormone, cortisol, and its effect on weight gain. While I haven't read her first book, Accidentally Overweight, which is a bestseller, I do believe that this is in most ways, its sequel. 

While there are a lot of things in this book that I agree with, most of which should be practised anyway, such as chewing your food slowly, reducing your caffeine and alcohol intake, not over exercising, etc, she does occasionally make some slightly weird assumptions, like Rushing Women (a term that she coined) have more masculine qualities. To sit and deep breathe is apparently a feminine quality... to be competitive at work is a masculine quality. In some ways, this takes me back to that Elephant Journal article that I was griping about. What are the defining qualities of feminity and masculinity? 

Another unsupported claim she makes is that Rushing Women tend to have daddy issues. It would have been nice to have seen some evidence, but it looked as if she made it just purely on her observations of her clients and her own personal experience. 

She includes a lot of snippets for magazines that she had written over the years. A lot of it repeats itself, so I felt the book could have been condensed to half its size. There are some practical advice at the end, although not much of it were things I didn't already know. 

In a nutshell this is more of a book for weight loss, rather than to slow yourself down. Buy this if you're wondering why you are not losing that extra pound, but don't buy this if you think it will help ground you more. 

To purchase: I have not seen this book stocked at my local bookstore because it has been independently published. I purchased mine off her official website, it's AUD$29.95 before postage. 

Patience and Compassion

In a world where we rush to complete and achieve everything, I found clarity in this well-written and thought provoking article in the Yoga Journal. 

As a "Rushing Woman", I'm always in a hurry. Having always been blessed with the ability to learn things quickly, it grates on me if I find it harder than normal to pick up a particular skill (painting my nails for example...). I'm always too impatient, and I lack compassion for myself.

I am a product of this world, where I want results instantaneously, or I become bored or demotivated.

Definitely something for me to bear in mind in the future.

The Meditation Quickie

I've been trying to meditate.

I have to say it's definitely a lot harder than it looks. I can barely do it for 10 minutes. Most times I find that my mind wanders off and I start thinking about things in the future, or in the past. And then I worry that I'm not concentrating. The little voice inside my head just refuses to be silenced. Even when I redirect my focus to the music or my breath, my mind wanders after 30 seconds.

And that's a huge part of me though. That's almost exactly how I am with everything in life. Even while killing Diablo in Diablo III. My mind just could not focus for the 5 minute boss battle. I like everything fast, and I do everything fast. Meditation hopefully will slow me down, and help me to simply just be.

Much easier said than done though. I've purchased the Rushing Woman's Syndrome by Dr Libby Weaver. Haven't gotten to reading it yet, there are too many books on my to-read shelf, but seeing as how personal development is currently on the agenda, I may look to reading it after I'm done with Diablo III.