Everyday Magic [Hardcover]

Vivien Singer Schapera (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 2002

Everyday Magic will strike you in a spiritual sweet spot you probably didn’t know you had. At its core, Schapera’s second book is an elegant memoir that traces the lines from an outwardly quiet girlhood in stricken South Africa to the novvelty of raising a family around the turn of the millennium in the US. Flowing through that simple fame come waves of self-discovery syncopating the rhythms of spiritual progress. The result is a concise and pleasing guide to the terrain of everyday magic, which yields fresh insights upon each rereading.

The author provides us with launch points to further study a variety of disciplines that she has integrated into a seamless and coherent whole. With the Alexander Technique at the core, Schapera shares her discoveries about nutrition, crystals, healing, shamanism, and other paths, and shows us how they all, in the end, share the common message: magic is within your reach and mine, every day. Allow it to happen.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"I couldn’t put this book down -- a wonderful, inspiring account of personal healing and transformation." -- Christine Horner, MD FACS, Plastic Surgeon. Host of the nationally syndicated TV segment Inside Natural Health.

Everyday Magic is a must read. Vivien has a delightful writing style; she’s an excellent teacher and a true healer -- Melody, author of Love is In The Earth series

Vivien’s insights will help people struggling with issues of body and spirit. Her healing words will ripple right through you -- Jim Borgman, Pulitzer Prize Winning Editorial cartoonist for the Cincinnati Enquirer

About the Author

Schapera is certified in Psychology, Alexander Technique, Crystal Healing, Past-Life Regression, Medical Intuition and is a Third Degree Black Belt. She shares this knowledge through her private practice as a teacher and healer, and by training others as Alexander teachers, healers and martial arts instructors. She lives in Cincinnati, with her husband, Neil, her two sons, and hundreds of crystals.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 272 pages
• Publisher: Fourwinds Pr Llc (June 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0970980922
• ISBN-13: 978-0970980922
• Product Dimensions: 9.7 x 6.6 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.5 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,498,510 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars No "Smoke and Mirrors" here., March 17, 2003

By 

Tom Sloyer (Fountain Hills, Az. U.S.A.) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Everyday Magic (Hardcover)

Viviens book is a wonderful account of her life to this point and her determination to explore and understand the "true" magic that we all have within ourselves. She has worked long and hard to understand this magic and teach others how to find their own magic within.
Her writing style is very quick and to the point when it needs to be. At other times it's very detailed and makes you feel as if you were right there with her. Her sense of memory is astounding. Conversations she's had with people throughout her life are remembered time and again as if she'd been taking notes all her life. Her book has no hard, complicated plot to follow.It is a book about the tragedies, hardships, and successes of a very gifted woman trying to learn and understand the forces that are around and within us all, and use it to help anyone willing to question and understand their own lives and find their own "Magic" within. If you are ready, Viviens book and teachings will definitely help and inspire you.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A book to inspire you, February 28, 2003

By 

Audrey Lee "sadiedakota" (San Diego, California, United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Everyday Magic (Hardcover)

This is a wonderful book about life and faith. Vivien is a gifted writer and educator who shares her life story with us so eloquently and vulnerably. Through Vivien's life story, I curiously found my own...remembering my own desires, searchings, beliefs, and gifts. Vivien's book came at a perfect time in my life and it encouraged me to believe in myself again, and to follow my heart, knowing that I am guided and protected each step along the way.

As inspiring as Vivien's faithfulness and strength was, it was her innocence and the purity of her heart that compelled me the most. I felt a deep connection to her through her writing style, and through her honesty. As I approached the final chapters, I noticed I was reading at a slower pace than the earlier chapters, not wanting it to end. It was like saying good-bye to a long time friend.

I can't wait for her next book so we can have another visit together. I know you will feel the same way. You MUST get this book! You will love it!!

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Healing in Motion, April 1, 2003

By 

annette januzzi wick "AJW" (Cincinnati, OH) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Everyday Magic (Hardcover)

From the opening of Everyday Magic, Vivien Schapera struggles with apparent as well as inexplicable pain. That which Vivien has difficulty discovering is that which she will be inspired to teach and to motivate the reader to learn.

There are no villains in Vivien's autobiography, despite the tragedy which besets her family and what that came to stand in her homeland of South Africa. While others might have been immobilized, Vivien's experiences set her in motion.

Vivien's momentum shifts from low gear into high, in an attempt to align her inner world with her outer being. Her discovery of the Alexander Technique is one of many journeys that Vivien follows. Amidst her doubts, she remains eager, and through this eagerness. the reader accesses her knowledge as well.

The author's style is confident and succinct, punctuated with humor about Americans ironing their underwear and the insight that she pursued and brought together such diverse disciplines as the Alexander Technique, martial arts and crystals, to heal within herself, to provide healing for others within one simple structure.

Vivien acknowledges that only loss can come from unfinished business. There is no unfinished business in Vivien's novel or her life, only signs of more to come.