Error loading page.
Try refreshing the page. If that doesn't work, there may be a network issue, and you can use our self test page to see what's preventing the page from loading.
Learn more about possible network issues or contact support for more help.

Life Is Not a Stress Rehearsal

Bringing Yesterday's Sane Wisdom Into Today's Insane World

ebook
1 of 1 copy available
1 of 1 copy available

For most of us, life has become such a pressure cooker of unrealistic expectations, information overload, relentless marketing, and workaholism that we spend our days stressed out over being stressed out. Guided by the timeless wisdom of her grandmother Francesca, renowned stress coach and humorist Loretta LaRoche makes us see the wisdom of a more civilized time, when no one carried a cell phone during a peaceful walk on the beach. Life Is Not a Stress Rehearsal takes an honest and hilarious look at the gizmos, self-help regimens, talking heads, comfort products, nutrition plans, and sexual freedoms that we have all come to believe will make our lives better. She shows us that in many ways, they're filling our lives with more stress and insanity and keeping us isolated from the thing that matters most in any healthy life: real human connection.

When you spend time with children or family, does it feel like you're wasting time that could be spent working? Do you spend more time preparing for the gym than exercising? Do you read about sex, but never go on dates? Do you carry a beeper or cell phone wherever you go even though you're not a trauma surgeon? Then Life Is Not a Stress Rehearsal is the book for you. With Loretta LaRoche's signature mix of lighthearted insight and cutting-edge research, it will teach you how to take a step back and see the insanity for what it really is, take lessons from the way life used to be, and find your way to becoming a calmer, saner person. Among the topics Loretta discusses are:

  • Just Have Some Lasagna and Shut Up!: On Living Without Guilt

  • A Three-Dollar Bottle of Water!: On Consumerism and Common Sense

  • Edgar Allan Poe in Analysis: On Individuality and Our Culture of Self-Improvement.

  • Why Watch People Talk When You Can Talk to People?: On Turning to Mass Media for Connection

    With Loretta's contemporary wit and a hearty dose of Francesca's old-world wisdom, Life Is Not a Stress Rehearsal is a breath of fresh air for everyone who's suffocating in our techno-crazed, germ-phobic, "go-go-go" world. By teaching you to slow down, smell the roses, and even laugh at yourself again, Life Is Not a Stress Rehearsal will allow you to take a step back from the lunacy that your life has become. It will remind you of a simpler, saner time, when what matters and what doesn't was a little easier to see, and lets you separate the noise that surrounds you from the wisdom within.

    From the Hardcover edition.
    • Creators

    • Publisher

    • Release date

    • Formats

    • Languages

    • Reviews

      • Publisher's Weekly

        April 23, 2001
        Stress-management consultant LaRoche (Relax! You May Only Have a Few Minutes Left)
        asks us to slow down, turn off the cell phones and laugh at modern society's absurdities. She points out that sedentary Americans obsessively work out at the gym, but never take the stairs or go for a walk; we watch sitcom families on TV, but don't spend time with our own families; we buy brand names instead of generic products simply because they impart status—all part of her lament at our collective loss of perspective. Unfortunately, as these examples suggest, most of LaRoche's points will come as no surprise to even the most stressed-out and status-conscious readers. Her breezy statements about the war between the sexes are also problematic ("The brains of men and women are patterned differently, and it happened over tens of thousands of years when we lived in tribes in the wilderness"). Finally, while some readers will appreciate LaRoche's good-natured pep talk, they may find her unbridled enthusiasm for exclamation points grating, as well as her constant use of throw-away expressions like "Listen," "I mean," etc., which are better suited to the motivational speaker lecture circuit than the printed page.

      • Library Journal

        December 20, 2000
        Relax! This is just more advice from an expert on stress management.

        Copyright 2000 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

    Formats

    • OverDrive Read
    • PDF ebook

    Languages

    • English

    Loading
    Check out what's being checked out right now This project is made possible by CW MARS member libraries, and the Massachusetts Board of Library Commissioners with funding from the Institute of Museum and Library Services and the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.