Positive Energy: 10 Extraordinary Prescriptions for Transforming Fatigue, Stress and Fear into Vibrance, Strength, and Love (Random House Large Print Nonfiction) [Large Print] [Hardcover]

Judith Orloff (Author)

Book Description

Series: Random House Large Print Nonfiction | Publication Date: April 6, 2004

Are you forever rushing around, fending off chronic exhaustion? Are you desperately overcommitted, afraid to say no? Do you have fang marks from being bled dry by energy vampires? Does the onslaught of violence in the news leave you drained? If so, you're the victim of a hidden energy crisis. To resolve it you need more than traditional solutions such as eating well, getting a good night’s sleep, and exercising. Here at last is the complete prescription to stop you from feeling constantly drained and enables you to live a more vibrant life: the Positive Energy Program created by Judith Orloff, M.D.

Dr. Orloff is the pioneer behind Energy Psychiatry, a new field that addresses the subtle energetic components of health and behavior. Energy Psychiatry blends the practice of mainstream medicine with an emerging scientific understanding of subtle energies, revered by many cross-cultural healing traditions as our life force. In Positive Energy, Dr. Orloff explains this exciting new discipline and how it led her to formulate ten essential prescriptions for boosting energy, improving relationships, and combating energy vampires. The prescriptions are:

• Awaken your intuition and rejuvenate yourself--and learn the cure for technodespair and overload from emails, computers, and phones
• Find a nurturing spiritual path that fits your own beliefs and inner stirrings
• Design an energy-aware approach to diet, exercise, and health--and learn how to avoid the "energetic overeating" that sabotages attempts to lose weight
• Generate positive emotional energy to counter negativity
• Develop a heart-centered sexuality
• Open yourself to the flow of creativity and inspiration to achieve greater joy
• Celebrate the sacredness of laughter, pampering, and the replenishment of retreat--it’s not selfish to take care of yourself
• Discover how to attract positive people and situations
• Protect yourself from energy vampires with specific
shielding techniques
• Create abundance and a continuing flow of energy

The purpose of this program is to make your life easier. Each prescription has clear instructions for practicing the simple, powerful exercises Dr. Orloff gives her patients and uses herself--plus, there’s a "Treat Yourself" section to help you relax and enjoy the program’s full benefits. Following each chapter are Dr. Orloff’s interviews with luminaries who share their personal secrets about how they use a specific prescription to generate more energy. You'll discover how Quincy Jones’s intuition opened up after brain surgery, Larry King honed his interviewing techniques, Naomi Judd recovered from hepatitis C, and Jamie Lee Curtis deals with draining people.

Dr. Orloff says, "We can't stop the negative circumstances of our time--our cell phones will keep ringing, e-mails will keep coming, people will be rude, our children will be demanding, and bad things will happen in the world. But we can learn ways to protect our energy so that we can stay centered in dealing with the stresses that arise." Positive Energy shows you how to slow down time to match your natural rhythms, allowing you to be fully present for your life. Learning this can make the difference between an exuberant life and one you're always recovering from. Filled with Dr. Orloff's warmth, humor, and compassion, Positive Energy is your tool kit for transforming fatigue, stress, and fear into an abundance of vibrance, strength, and love.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Orloff, a psychiatrist who has appeared frequently on television and written an eponymous Guide to Intuitive Healing, here provides 10 detailed prescriptions for harnessing one's "positive energy" to replace fatigue with physical and emotional vigor. Her commonsense program includes pursuing an individual spiritual path, developing "true-to-self eroticism," designing an energy-building diet and exercise plan, learning to celebrate laughter and protecting oneself from "energy vampires." Along with practice exercises for following these prescriptions, each section ends with a public figure describing the ways that he or she uses Orloff's methods. In the chapter on spirituality, Amy Gross, editor in chief of O: The Oprah Magazine, discusses how practicing deep breathing and meditation replenishes energy as she centers herself. Wavy Gravy, who warned against eating the brown acid at Woodstock, explores the way laughter has not only helped him cope with pain but also heightened his vitality level. Orloff delivers her revivification techniques in thoughtful, accessible prose that some may find an energy builder in itself.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an alternate Hardcover edition.

Review

“A ‘let me count the ways’ of [how to deal with] work, eating, sex, computers, and getting away from the human ‘energy vampires’ around us. Orloff is a serene maverick.” —USA Today

“Dr. Orloff’s book takes you on a wondrous journey through the mysteries of energy. A must-read for anyone who’s rushed, stressed, or stopped by fear.” —Deepak Chopra

“A brilliant, intriguing, and extremely practical book . . . Dr. Orloff is a true visionary.” —Caroline Myss, Ph.D., author of Sacred Contracts


From the Trade Paperback edition.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 608 pages
• Publisher: Random House Large Print (April 6, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0375433090
• ISBN-13: 978-0375433092
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 5.7 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (184 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,113,410 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

"Dr. Orloff voices the message that intuition works as a potent therapeutic force that can help us lead smarter, saner lives. She is a serene maverick." --USA Today

Transforming the face of psychiatry, Dr. Judith Orloff asserts that we are keepers of an innate intuitive intelligence so perceptive that it can tell us how to heal -- and prevent -- illness. Yet intuition and spirituality are the very aspects of our wisdom usually disenfranchised from traditional health care.

Dr. Orloff advocates "a democracy of healing," wherein every aspect of our being is granted a vote in the search for total health. It is our birthright, both as health-care givers and health-care recipients, to reclaim our intuition to build energy and well-being. In response to her work, The Los Angeles Times calls Dr. Orloff "a prominent energy-based healer."

Dr. Orloff is accomplishing for psychiatry what physicians like Dean Ornish and Mehmet Oz have done for mainstream medicine -- she is proving that the links between physical, emotional, and spiritual health can't be ignored. Dr. Orloff has spoken at medical schools, hospitals, the American Psychiatric Association, Fortune Magazine's Most Powerful Women Summit, and alternative and traditional health forums -- venues where she presents practical intuitive tools to doctors, patients, and everyday people.

As a board-certified psychiatrist and assistant professor of psychiatry at UCLA, Dr. Orloff exhibits great courage in drawing upon her own intuitive abilities, evident to her since childhood. Her struggles acknowledging and then finally embracing her gift of heightened intuition are chronicled in "Second Sight" (Warner Books). Her second book, "Dr. Judith Orloff's Guide to Intuitive Healing" (Three Rivers Press) shows how breakthroughs in healing our body, emotions, and sexuality are accomplished by listening to intuition. Her latest book "Positive Energy" (Harmony Books) completes a trilogy of books around awakening intuition and subtle energy. "Positive Energy," which has been translated into 23 languages, takes a probing look at the epidemic of exhaustion in America and how we can reverse it using specific strategies to build energy and combat draining people.

Dr. Orloff begins talks by creating a bond of warmth, trust and intimacy with participants, within which they can hear and explore her ideas. Her sincerity, humor, and joy bring everyone in the audience with her -- leaving everyone certain of their own intuitive abilities, as well as Dr. Orloff's contributions to a radically new kind of medicine.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

225 of 227 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Inspirational, Motivational, Practical, Energy-Giving, June 26, 2004

By 

O. Brown "Ms. O. Khannah-Brown" (Twopeas, WA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (TOP 50 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Positive Energy: 10 Extraordinary Prescriptions for Transforming Fatigue, Stress, and Fear into Vibrance, Strength & Love (Hardcover)

*****
This book inspired and motivated me to "get my life together" and design my lifestyle so that I can create positive energy instead of being lethargic, unmotivated, and drained all the time. For me, it provided the key to my problems---too much exposure to environments and people that drain my energy and not enough thought, planning, and assertiveness in setting things up so that I can acccomplish what I need to and want to with my life. I would recommend it highly for anyone who is anxious, depressed, tired, bored---in general, for anyone who would like a program of practical exercises to create more energy in their life.

I like the way the exercises are presented (I usually don't like exercises in self-help books and skip them). They are set off with shading, short, and not bothersome or time-consuming to do. If you are already worn out and tired the last thing you want is more "exercises" to do. Dr. Orloff's exercises are relaxing and add to your life rather than take away.

The book is enjoyable and relaxing to read. I would feel "up" and inspired after reading even a small part. This is the type of book that needs to be digested and re-read, not to grasp the information, but to remind yourself of important truths until they become a part of your life.

Dr. Orloff is an M.D., very knowledgeable, and a Buddhist as well. I found her spiritual orientation helpful and not offensive, although I am a Christian. The book discusses energy, meridians, and chakras in a practical down-to-earth way, assuming no previous exposure to these ideas and not incorporating popular New Age or woo-woo ideas as many books do. Her scientific orientation would be helpful, I would think, to people of any spiritual orientation or background.

Positive Energy provided just the information I needed at the right time. I went through the book, reviewing what I'd highlighted and came up with my own customized plan that I typed up and printed out to distill and emphasize parts that were especially helpful to me; I plan to read and follow this daily. I'd already started implementing her ideas and suggestions, though, and had already begun looking at things "energetically" to see what effect they had on my body, mind, and spirit. Her ideas work, and they really made a difference for me.

Thank you Dr. Orloff, for a truly life-changing book that helped me incredibly, and hopefully will help many others.
*****

58 of 61 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Sense and Change the Energy in Your Life, April 12, 2004

By 

Cynthia Sue Larson "www.realityshifters.com" (San Francisco bay area, CA USA) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Positive Energy: 10 Extraordinary Prescriptions for Transforming Fatigue, Stress, and Fear into Vibrance, Strength & Love (Hardcover)

Energy psychiatrist Dr. Judith Orloff shares ten heartfelt tips to help you sense and transform the energies around you in order to make better choices and improve the quality of your relationships in her book, POSITIVE ENERGY. You can learn to sense the energy fields or "vibes" surrounding you and other people, places and things -- and by doing so, gain tremendous intuitive insight, poise, and confidence in even the most difficult situations.

POSITIVE ENERGY provides clear descriptions of how various kinds of energy ranging from delightfully positive to destructively negative feel, so you can more readily decipher your own physiological and emotional reactions to people and situations. For example, when you meet someone new and notice your body experiencing sudden otherwise inexplicable aches and pains, you're picking up strong negative vibes which should not be ignored!

What I like best about POSITIVE ENERGY is the way it brings the concept of bioenergy fields into everyday life, through exercises, stories, and interviews with people from all walks of life (Jamie Lee Curtis, Eve Ensler, Wavy Gravy, Amy Gross, Quincy Jones, Naomi Judd, Larry King, Shirley MacLaine, Rosa Parks, Iyanla Vanzant). POSITIVE ENERGY shines a light into even the darkest places, and provides new techniques for healing ourselves and our world.

-- Cynthia Sue Larson
author of "Aura Advantage: How the Colors in Your Aura
Help You Attain What You Desire and Attract Success"

265 of 299 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Not helpful, May 12, 2005

By 

J. Marui (Belgrade, SCG) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Positive Energy: 10 Extraordinary Prescriptions for Transforming Fatigue, Stress, and Fear into Vibrance, Strength & Love (Hardcover)

The book is well written, but it doesn't live up to how it is advertised. It consists of a long introduction and 10 chapters (prescriptions, as the author put it). You can read what they are in Editorial reviews, so just to illustrate what to expect from each prescription, here are the exercises from the first chapter:
1. Must be done with a friend. Relax, picture a capsule of light around friend's body, cup your hand over her head, feel her energy.
2. Same as previous but should be done with strangers in the mall (or any other public place).
3. Do basic breathing exercise and at the end of it picture a tail stretching down from your spine, connecting you to the earth.
4. Relax for 5 minutes and direct your intention to your third eye (it is somewhere between your eyebrows).
5. Observe babies around you and how they are able to live in the now and learn from them.
6. Find your pulse and feel it.
7. Adopt a mantra and repeat it when you need to protect yourself from negative energy.
8. Learn to take mini technology fasts: check e-mail less frequently, don't fax for few hours...
The title of the first chapter is: Awaken intuition and rejuvenate yourself. I feel that none of the exercises helped me do that. I didn't find the exercises in other chapters helpful either. And the exercises are the best thing in the book! The rest is just stories from author's and her friends and patients lives, that just go on and on and teach you nothing. Also, there is a constant self-important and self-congratulatory tone to the author's writing, that I found irritating.