SOS - Review by Ann-Katrin Todd

WARNING: If you read this book, you might end up crunching up your facial muscles, exercising your naught toes, thumping like a gorilla, or even doing some transcendental chuckling.

DISCLAIMER: The reviewer of this book does not accept responsibility for any unexpected changes brought about in the reader's mind, body or soul.

It's not that I didn't warn you!

Reading all the books on stress-management in the self-help section of your bookstore would indeed be counter productive as there are simply too many. So why read this one? Because it's different. Because it's funny. Because it's sound.

Jane Revell has a reputation for using a holistic approach towards education and personal development in her workshops and publications. And this latest book of hers follows that tradition. It is not dogmatic at all but refreshingly pragmatic, drawing upon several sources of information and ways of thinking. You will encounter findings and methods from the fields of NLP (Neuro-Linguistic Programming), kinesiology, neural and nutritional sciences, and others.

Success over Stress - the title of the book - is also its motto. It is in fact a guided walk over the hill of stress, presenting seven strategies to the readers along the way.

The letters stand for: Stretch; Unwind and Unbend; Cut the Criticism; Counter Conflicts; Eat for Extra Energy; Stimulate your System; Smile and Accentuate the Positive.

Each chapter is divided into a theoretical introduction, followed by helpful advice, which is then topped by a "Putting it into Practice" section in which the author talks about her own experience, thus adding a personal touch. A cartoon-like mind-mapped page rounds off the chapter "at a glance".

Success over Stress is an interactive book, asking the reader to try out the physical exercises and guided visualisations to explore his/her own situation.

I tremendously enjoyed this witty book because it offered me so much on so many different levels. I was again reminded that stress is really just a phenomenon on the surface of our lives. What needs attention (and often also some immediate action) is the under-water section of the ice-berg; our internal criticism, our attitudes, our set ways of interaction when dealing with people, work, time, and last but not least, our inadequacies which make us so human and so vulnerable.

You can't help but smile when you read this book. And, believe it or not, smiling is the best way of coping with stress. So, why don't you give your own radiant living a chance with the help of Jane Revell's book?

Reviewed by Ann-Katrin Todd ELTAF Newsletter, Summer 2001

(ELTAF is the English Language Teachers' Association Frankfurt / Rhine-Main-Neckar e.V.)