Amazon.com Review
"Do you know what it's like to feel fully alive?" asks Robert K. Cooper. "What if you could experience your
best day
every day?" Cooper, a motivational speaker and the author of
Low-Fat Living and
Health and Fitness Excellence, aims to help you tap your inner energy reserves and perform at your peak all the time. That's a tall order when many of us feel tired and tense, but Cooper has a whole book full of practical strategies for cranking up your energy.
There are four kinds of energy, Cooper explains: calm energy (natural flow state), active energy (produced by motion), sensory energy (engaging with life through the senses), and heartfelt energy (deep drive for a meaningful life and significant relationships). Cooper describes 25 "switches"--each with a series of steps--that will turn on these different types of energy. Calm-energy switch 1 is a series of tips and exercises for tapping into calm energy within the first minutes of waking. Active-energy switch 3 is to "have a vigorous lunch," which includes physically stepping away from what you've been doing, eating a good lunch (low-fat, protein-rich, good-tasting, whole-food, with pages of tips for making good choices), getting 10 minutes of exercise, and reconnecting with the big picture before getting back to work.
None of these switches are instant fixes; rather, they comprise a multistep process for retraining your habits and attitudes. You won't be able to put them all into action at once. Each one that you can incorporate into your daily life will help you reconnect with your natural energy, become more productive, and enjoy your life more. --Joan Price
From Publishers Weekly
The promises made by the subtitle of this volume reveal a key element of Cooper's (Low-Fat Living) success as a writer and motivational speaker for the Lessons in Leadership lecture series: authority. Most of the suggestions offered are grounded in common-sense approaches to a healthy life, and Cooper's charismatic attitude is sure to be welcomed by those seeking relief from fatigue and lack of purpose. Cooper's program for accessing innate sources of energy begins by recognizing four sources of human energy: calm, active, sensory and heartfelt. According to Cooper, most people are running on the antithesis of these energy sources: tense, reserved, routine and surface energy. He explains in detail 21 "switches" to combat habits that reinforce the negative energy sources and turn on the positive ones. While exercise, relaxation techniques and a change in diet can be hard to implement, regardless of how "simple" they are made to seem, ideas drawn from neoteny, a field of research focusing on "growing young," introduce a playful sense of experimentation that is appealing. Frazzled career-aholics and those juggling the roles of breadwinner and parent may wonder if the answer to fatigue is as easy as laughing, yet Cooper forcefully makes a case for trying. Those who do may be surprised at how subtle shifts in perception and five-minute breaks can inject needed energy into their lives. (Sept.)
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.
