Today we have an unique daily devotional!


Synopsis: Starting on New Year's Day and continuing over the course of the calendar year, this book offers a journey of profound transformation, based on psychological spiritual principles that have been scientifically validated for their value in fostering personal development. Each day, readers will enter the inner world of one of the world's most influential minds. Day by day, great thinkers and great doers serve as muse and motivator for taking steps toward a more meaningful and fulfilling life, which, in turn, creates a better world.


"We are all human beings and those minds of the past are part of our human family," Singer stresses. "We can relate to these individuals and be inspired by their insight, vision, and how they lived their lives. We are no different from Gandhi, Martin Luther King, Jr., or Oprah. We all have the capacity to be great in our own unique way and contribute to changing the world," says the author.


For every day of the year, it combines gems of wisdom with proven self-actualizing strategies and personal growth techniques. After starting their day with a compelling quotation from a great mind-Einstein, Freud, Confucius, M. Scott Peck, Dale Carnegie, Vince Lombardi, Anton Chekhov, Anais Nin, Walt Whitman, Henry David Thoreau,Henry Ford, Eleanor Roosevelt, Mother Teresa, Harriet Beecher Stowe, Martin Luther King, Jr., St. Augustine, George Santayana, and Milton Berle, among others-readers will commit to through the following practices:
1. Meditation- Singer offers a reflection on the immediate relevance and application of the quotation for the day.
2. Visualization- Singer encourages readers to take a moment to picture themselves living the for the day.
3. Affirmation- Singer provides one for each day's commitment to change to help readers internalize it, believe it, and apply it throughout the day.
4. Mindfulness- Singer urges readers to focus on the present and truly living each moment of the daily guidance for change.


For each month, Singer suggests two books for gaining further knowledge,insight, understanding, and inspiration to change. The recommended reading list ranges from Norman Vincent Peale's Power of Positive Thinking to Paulo Coelho's The Alchemist.


About the Author: An award-winning author, a trained psychotherapist, and an Assistant Professor of Human and Social Services. He has studied Eastern Psychology, Buddhist Healing,and Non-Violence at the Doctoral level, and remains a devoted student of wisdom recorded throughout history.A native of Pennsylvania, he now makes his home on the island of Grand Cayman. To learn more, please visit his website: www.EmbracingthePresent.com

Review: This is an interesting daily devotional, as it isn't focused on the bible, but on the words of some our our greatest thinkers and writers! I like that each day's entry is SHORT and quick to read through. The thought for journaling for the day can be one you think on/act upon all day and then journal upon at night. As the entries are only dated by month and date, not year, the book can be used over and over.


Here's an example for today:


Today's quote: "Life's most urgent question, is what are you doing for others." Martin Luther King, Jr.
Today's Meditation (first sentence only): Liberation from suffering comes only from kindness to the human race and and the willingness to make a difference in other human beings' lives."
Today's Personal Journaling: "What will YOU do to enhance humanity today?"


As you can see, very simple, but basic ideas. Obviously if you were so inclined, you can find an applicable bible verse and add it to your journaling, as say an extra homework assignment. I think this is a great way to broach wider subjects and a wider audience by the author. In fact, I would highly recommend this book to kids entering college, and those graduating, as a way of focusing themselves daily and enriching their lives. It would also be a good resource for teachers and church leaders (especially for quotes applicable to sermons!).