Peter Costello
How to be Our Best Self in Times of Crisis
by Stuart Breen and Tom Gunning
(Veritas, €7.99)
As human beings we seemed made to thrive at times in moments of danger. Yet the present pandemic, being what it is, created great and unexpected troubles: physical, mental and spiritual.
This little book by two writers experienced in self-help may prove of great use to those wanting, in a brief form, some immediate help in coping through established means.
Stuart Breen, for instance, is involved in the Irish Tai Chie Chuan Association. Tom Gunning is involved in religious instruction for young people and is the co founder of the Parable Garden Educational Projects in Co. Wexford. Images from this walkway are used in the text to great effect, and it seems to be a ‘must-see place’.
The central idea of this booklet lies in the fact that in dealing with any crisis we have to have care for our bodies, our mind and our spirit. We have to treat not just a single symptom, but the whole person. By ceasing to lament the changes and danger that have come upon us, we can find our way back to our “best selves”. We have to live with and within the world instead of trying to escape it.
Those who will be feeling the effect of the new levels of lockdown will greatly benefit from these brief pages. But they should not be an end in themselves, but perhaps the first step on a journey of a thousand miles that will lead to new things, and for many that will involve the discovery of new depths in the old, and great benefits in the new world, a world which can be made new every day.