The Deep River Within: A Woman's Guide to Recovering Balance and Meaning in Everyday Life

Between family, professional work, housework, working out, e-mail and the simple essentials like bathing, eating and even sleeping, there is always too much to do. Readers who identify with the above and lament their lack of time will find themselves engrossed within the first few pages of this spiritual self-help title, as Seixas describes with candor and personal experience the unhappy life situation so many women face today. A psychotherapist by profession and founder of Deep River seminars, Seixas outlines the steps for slowing down in today's world by drawing from case studies in her work, outlining the basic spiritual principles of her seminars and providing a range of helpful, easy exercises for readers to practice. Getting to the spiritual within is not easy in a culture that favors multitasking, endless activity and the pressure to strive for perfection, but Seixas advocates what she calls "dropping down" as key to this process, which involves "moving from a more outward focus at the surface of our lives, to a more inward focus deep within ourselves." Seixas's accessible prose and the slow, lasting journey she advocates are welcome in light of the many self-help books that teach us to snatch moments of rest while still keeping on the go, go, go. (Sept.)