Arianna Huffington

Huffington succinctly and intelligently discusses the disturbing decline of the American middle class in this short book. She discusses how this came about, the symptoms and possible solutions.

Some of the topics covered include: the fear that arises in the absence of economic opportunity and the insecurity of the current situation, how we define the middle class, capitalism without a conscience, our crumbling infrastructure, the state of our schools and education system, the corporate show more takeover of our democracy and the badly broken democratic process, the squandering of our resources – both natural and human- and the failure of the “free press” to serve the public interest (and the rise of citizen journalism) .

Of course, each of these topics is worth a book of its own, but Huffington is giving us the basics here. As her narrative moves forward one can feel the sense of urgency and passion. Somewhere around page 150 she moves to a call to action by urging us as a society to deal with our crises and challenges now, hold the powerful responsible, stop waiting for other to solve the problems – and for problems too monumental for individuals – support the raw power of government initiatives. Then she names just a few things that would make a big difference in the health of our society. The picture of America is pretty bleak and we have been loathe to really look at it. I think at one point she uses the metaphor of a middle-aged man refusing to see the thinning hair and crow’s feet, fantasizing that he’s still young….

But what I like best about this book is that Huffington doesn’t leave the reader despairing over the degradation of our society. “The greatest antidote to despair is action,” she declares. And so the last section of the book is a call to action for the individual. Huffington offers some practical actions one can take to overcome the bullies in our society, fight apathy, build community, exercise empathy and develop resilience. It’s very heartening and hopeful.

I’ll end with a quote she used by the social activist Geoffrey Canada:

If not us, who? If not now, when? show less

I listened to the unabridged audiobook version of this and I found it timely, and full of wisdom and food for thought. I had a difficult time with the reader, though. Maybe I am just too critical or overly sensitive to reader's voices, but this one (Coleen Marlo) over-enunciated to the point of it sounding phony half the time. Also, although she has no accent or speech problem, every word that ended in *d*, she pronounced as if it ended in *t*. So, *and* became *ant*, *world* sounded like show more *worlt*, and so on. I found this to be a distraction for me but because I wanted to hear the whole book, I did not give up. However, I think I may go and buy the book because there were several parts I'd like to have underlined so I could return to them and reread. I am at a point in my life right now where health, self-care and well-being are taking on particular meaning so this book was a serendipitous choice at the moment. show less

Arianna Huffington became an apostle of sleep after collapsing from exhaustion in her hotel room and breaking her cheekbone. She was a workaholic who burned candles at both ends who viewed sleep dimly, if not as disdainfully as some other famous people in her new book, The Sleep Revolution. After coming to realize how unhealthy and unsustainable her lifestyle had become, she made peace with sleep and recognizing that many Americans shared her proclivity for work and productivity above all show more else, became an evangelist for it. Her book diagnoses both a personal and societal issue. She catalogs the costs and externalities of lack of sleep (accidents, health problems, loss of productivity at work, etc.), provides a lot of scientific evidence about sleep's benefits, discusses dreams, and finally, in the second half of the book, gives some tips on how to get a good night's sleep. She covers a lot of ground, and she does so in a very readable way. However, partly because she is addressing both the larger societal issues, as well as those that may plague individuals, this book is less a self-help book for a person looking for specific tips (there is some of this, but it's not the focus) than a more general read. show less

4 stars: Very good

From the back cover: As so many of us are coming to realize, there is far more to living a truly successful life than just earning a bigger salary and capturing a corner office. Our relentless pursuit of the two traditional metrics of success- money and power- has led to an epidemic of burnout and stress related illnesses, and an erosion in the quality of our relationships, family life, and ironically, our careers. We need a third metric, which includes our well being, our show more ability to draw on our intuition and inner wisdom, our sense of wonder, and our capacity for compassion and giving. Our eulogies celebrate our lives very differently from our resumes. They don’t commemorate our long hours in the office, our promotions, or our sterling Power Point presentations as we relentlessly race to climb the career ladder. Instead, they celebrate cherished memories, shared adventures, small kindnesses and acts of generosity, lifelong passions, and the things that made us laugh. Drawing on the latest research and science in the fields of psychology, sports, sleep, and physiology that show the profound and transformative effects of meditation, mindfulness, unplugging, and giving, Ariana shows us the way to a revolution in our thinking, our culture, our workplaces, and our lives.

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I picked up this book to read specifically at a time when I was reassessing my relationship with online media and social media. While I can’t say any information in the book was new to me as I’ve been on this path for a few years, I did find it very personally helpful to read it all at once, while at the same time assessing what changes I wanted to make and motivating myself to do them. There are appendices at the end with various tools to use these to help make your changes. I found the social media detox apps to be particularly good. I plan to keep this book, and read periodically when I find the need to recalibrate, and take stock of who I am and how spiritually healthy I am feeling. (Note: she also had an entire chapter around gratitude, and the proven worth and effect of regular gratitude. I didn't flag any of these parts to quote as its already such a deep part of my being. Suffice to say, it has proven benefit and if you aren't practicing it now, I can't recommend enough. Its been life changing for me. A six year habit which I'll continue until I die.)

Quotes for rereading, which I found insightful.

And every day, the world will drag you by the hand, yelling ‘this is important! And this is important! You need to worry about this! And this! And this!’ And each day, it’s up to you to yank your hand back, put it on your heart, and say’No, this is what’s important’ (Quote by Iain Thomas)

Mindfulness is not just about our minds but our whole beings. When we are all mind, things can get rigid. When we are all heart, things can get chaotic. Both lead to stress. But when they work together, the heart leading through empathy, the mind guiding us with focus and attention, we become a harmonious human being. Through mindfulness, I found a practice that helped bring me fully present and in the moment, even in the most hectic of circumstances.

There is no work-life balance. We have one life. And what is important is that you be awake for it. (Quote by Janice Marturano).

[after describing overt worry for things which rarely happen]. We need to liberate ourselves from the tyranny of our fight or flight mechanism. And yet much of our life has actually been structured so that we live in an almost permanent state of fight or flight—here comes another dozen emails calling out for a response, must stay up late to finish the project.. Under our current definition of success, a chronic state of fight or flight is a feature, not a bug.

In fact, we take much better care of our smart phones than ourselves. Look at how mindful we are of our smartphones. People have little recharging shrines all over their houses, with a cord permanently attached to an outlet right by the door or the bed. For many of us the first thing we do when we get home is make sure our phone gets recharged. … and yet on the flipside, for our bodies, our minds, and our souls, we will run them right into the ground until they shut down.

[Discussing metrics of national success by GDP]. Yet, the gross national product does not allow for the health of our children, the quality of their education, or the joy of their play. It does not include the beauty of our poetry or the strength of our marriages; the intelligence of our public debate or the integrity of our public officials. It measures neither our wit nor our courage; neither our wisdom nor our learning; neither our compassion nor our devotion to our country; it measures everything in short, except that which makes life worthwhile. [Quote by the brilliant Robert F. Kennedy].

Wisdom is about recognizing what we’re really seeking: connection and love. But in order to find them, we need to drop our relentless pursuit of success as a society defines it for something more genuine, more meaningful, and more fulfilling.

For Marcus Aurelius, the quality of our day is up to each one of us. We have little power to choose what happens, but we have complete power over how we respond. It all starts with setting the expectations that make it clear that no matter how much hardship we encounter—how much pain and loss, dishonestly, ingratitude, unfairness and jealousy—we can still choose peace and imperturbability. And from that place of imperturbability… we can much more effectively bring about change.

[Lou Reed] had been out of the hospital for only a few days, and insisted on being taken outside into the morning sun. {rest of the quote by his wife Laurie Anderson]. As meditators, we had prepared for this—how to move the energy up from the belly and into the heart and out through the head. I have never seen an expression as full of wonder as Lou’s as he died. His hands were doing the water-flowing 21 form of tai chi. His eyes were wide open. I was holding in my arms the person I loved the most in the world, and talking to him as he died. His heart stopped. He wasn’t afraid. I had gotten to walk with him to the end of the world. Life—so beautiful, painful, and dazzling—does not get better than that. And death? I believe that the purpose of death is the release of love.

[talking how people respond during natural disasters/emergencies]. But we forget every day we are surrounded by opportunities to act on that same instinct for giving. These chances are always ‘under foot’. As the nineteenth century naturalist John Burroughs put it, ‘The great opportunity is where you are. Do not despise your own place and hour. Every place is under the stars, every place is the center of the world.” show less