“Drawing on her own extensive research and experience, Maureen Healy wisely leads parents and caregivers into the heart of awakening and activating the innate confidence with which every child is born. This is a book that parents will read over and over again.” – Michael Bernard Beckwith, author of Spiritual Liberation: Fulfilling Your Soul’s Potential
Deerfield Beach, FL – Ask Maureen Healy, an emotional health and parenting expert, and the author of Growing Happy Kids: How to Foster Inner Confidence, Success, and Happiness (HCI Books) and she’ll share the very best things she has learned in over 20 years of global experience fostering children’s happiness.
She has traveled from the Bronx to the base of the Himalayas helping young children lose their self-doubt and sadness. On the way, Maureen has also helped countless parents discover how to help their kids become more confident and happier no matter what.
Happiness can happen for everyone. Do you want to teach your audience simple ways to become happier? There are things they can do about it immediately to put a smile on their face, and on those of everyone around them. Maureen Healy can help your audience develop the skill of becoming happier and begin seeing how they can spark that in their kids, too. Ask her the following questions and she’ll explain:
The Science of Happiness: Happiness and all emotional health start with having a healthy brain. Neuroscientists (brain doctors) all say that so much of our brain’s development is as a result of our choices in eating well, sleeping enough, exercise, positive thinking and making smart choices. By making smart “brain choices” you create the foundation for your happiest life.
How Everyone Needs a Happiness Teacher: You wouldn’t get into a car without a lesson on how to drive, where the gas is and how to put on the brakes – would you? So why go searching for happiness without a teacher that can shorten your experience of pain. I promise the only thing you (and your children) have to lose is your unhappiness.
How Helping Others Makes You Happier: Science and spirituality both show that by helping others you feel happier. It doesn’t matter if you do something “small” like walking a sick neighbor’s dog or something “bigger” like organizing a fundraiser for someone who needs a little extra help. The mere effort of helping others actually makes you happier.
Avoid the Blank: (I’ll be happy when ____): Every parent, adult and child at some point gets caught up in thinking that I’ll be happy when (fill in the blank). The blank is the problem. You may have filled it in when my husband vacuums the house, the kids pick up the toys from the floor or someone besides me walks the dog. This type of happiness always leads to disappointment so Maureen shares her wit and wisdom on where real happiness comes from (Hint, Hint: It’s not from filling in the blank!).
Happy Kids have Rich Inner Lives: Science shows that children find their happiness from something inside of them. It is not connected to their socio-economic status, their parents’ marital status or where they live. Happier kids are reported to feel more grateful, generous and spiritual than their unhappy counterparts.
Here are 7 Keys to Raise Stronger and Happier Kids Today:
Build Confidence Daily (even for 5 minutes!): It is the everyday things we do with our children that help them feel stronger, and happier no matter what. So you may say affirmations together on the way to school (they are captive here!) or read a bedtime story every night that teaches about your child’s power within — the point is that small things done over and over again really build your child’s sense of strength.
Get Them Moving: Children need to move their bodies and get their energy released in a healthy way. Because physical activity, eating right, and a good night’s rest are the biological basis of your child’s emerging sense of self-confidence. Also, be sure they do something they love from making a garden to becoming a soccer star. (Let them pick it!)
Sign Them Up for 1 Weekly Confidence Building Activity: Your child’s weekly confidence building activity may be a sport like soccer or something else like singing lessons. Most importantly, they need to see themselves succeed (really important) and also have a regular way to see themselves master a task thus building outer then inner confidence.
See Success Together (visualize, affirm, meditate, pray, and sing): Oprah always says that if you can believe it, you can achieve it. So help your child believe more fully in him or her self. Perhaps it is doing affirmations together like “I love me” and “I am amazing in every way” or doing a guided meditation, singing a song that sparks them up or drawing a vision board. Let your creativity loose so you both become more self-assured. Have fun with this!!!
Get Inspired: Do something inspiring together whether it is going to see magnificent waterfalls, flying a new kite on the beach or learning hula-hooping. By doing something that lights your child up, they learn how to build a new skill and you’ll see their confidence soar.
Create an Uplifting Space: Decorate your child’s space so they see happy photos of themselves, their awards displayed, goals (or vision board) hung up and they have their favorite things all around them. By making the space feel good to your child they’ll realize this world is supporting them, their dreams can come true and everyone wants to see them succeed. (Feng Shui can help too!)
Play More: Happier children know the importance of play whether they are outdoors helping their parents’ garden or playing tag with their peers! So the more you help your child build skills, see their power within and play in their daily lives the happier they’ll be. I promise.
This book helps any adult nurture in themselves and their children a deeper sense of confidence and ultimately happiness. The Five Building Blocks of Confidence presented in this book has made countless children and parents feel more confident.
Maureen Healy is a children’s emotional health expert with more than 20 years of global experience. She writes a popular blog for Psychology Today, and the PBS Series, This Emotional Life. Her work has been featured on ABC, NBC, the CW and in popular magazines like Spirituality & Health and Parenting, too. Maureen also uniquely brings together western science and eastern wisdom to help any adult raise happier kids today. More info: www.growinghappykids.com.
Contact: Kim Weiss/HCI Books (800) 851-9100 ex. 212 or [email protected] Author is also available on short notice – call her directly at 828-450-2023 or [email protected] Growing Happy Kids: How to Foster Inner Confidence, Success, and Happiness Maureen Healy ISBN: 978-0757316128 $14.95 April 2012
Bonita Springs, FL – Only a family knows the unvarnished truth about someone. Everyday, face-to-face interactions can reveal character more effectively than anything else. Al Capone’s brother, Ralph Capone, knew this – and that’s why he begged his granddaughter Deirdre Marie Capone not to publish the Capone family secrets until she was the last living member of the family. Uncle Al Capone, The Untold Story from Inside His Family (Recap Publishing) is the result, revealing for the first time many startling facts about one of the most famous gangsters of the twentieth century.
In one hard-hitting chapter after another, Capone examines her great-uncle’s involvement in the St. Valentine’s Day Massacre, the real reason he went to Alcatraz, ethnic prejudice in the early twentieth century, and much more. She offers compelling evidence that Al Capone was specifically targeted for prosecution by law enforcement agencies with the collaboration of the media, which made gross exaggerations of her uncle’s exploits and fueled a phenomenon of half-truths and utter falsehoods. From the family’s roots in Angri, Italy to the author’s ongoing investigations today, this debut offers a comprehensive and moving portrait of an iconic American family and one woman’s efforts to make peace with the past.
As a child, she didn’t know he was a notorious gangster; he was just her Uncle Al. He taught her how to swim, ride a bike, and play the mandolin. But after he died on her seventh birthday she began paying the price of being a Capone. From age 7 to 13 her classmates were not allowed to play with her. When she was 10 her father committed suicide due to the burden of the Capone name. At age 18 she was fired from her first full-time job because of her name. As soon as she could, she left Chicago and her family name behind.
Readers have found Uncle Al Capone dramatic, unyielding and provocative. A moving, highly readable portrait of the Capone family and its mob ties, the book takes a close look at what it means to survive a legacy of notorious criminal activity. Through years of meticulous research and exhaustive interviews with aunts, uncles and cousins, Capone tells the story that eluded dozens of writers: Al Capone as a loving, if flawed, family man.
Deirdre Marie Capone has been a guest on a number of regional and local radio and television shows, and appeared on NBC’s Today Show, the CBS Sunday Morning Show, the Fox Network and The History Channel.
Available at bookstores, online or at www.unclealcapone.com Uncle Al Capone: The Untold Story from Inside His Family (Recap Publishing) ISBN13: 978-0982845103 $17.99
Ridgefield, CT – It reads like a deeply personal account of a year in a woman’s life. But it is, in fact, fiction. It reveals the passion, commitment, and daily challenges in the life of every mother, professional woman and citizen. This Mother’s Life (Infinity Publishing) is written as a daily journal, exploring topics as wide-ranging as politics, religion, relationships and divorce.
Nina Mohadjer chose to write a novel instead of an autobiography because in many ways, the life she chose to portray is one common to every working mom. “This character doesn’t have a name because I would like to have every woman identify with her,” she says.
“…[W]e know how it is to do the splits as we stretch to balance family and work for twenty hours a day. Only a woman who has children and a boss can understand how….unforeseen events have to be expected and taken into account. Only she will understand how running from a parent–teacher conference to a new policy meeting to a night of intimacy is an everyday task,” Mohadjer continues.
Reviewers have applauded her candor and spirit. “It is gritty, big time, Nina has put into a book things women might ‘think’ but being ladies would never say, but she says it all….She drills down to some no-holds-barred conversation….It’s all in there, marriage, sex, prejudice, raising children, how women feel about each other, everything. This is a brutally honest book that comes from her life and maybe from yours.” Another reviewer calls This Mother’s Life “riveting” and “heart wrenching.”
Readers will recognize the journey of this remarkable woman as she moves from feeling foreign wherever she is, to feeling at home in the heart of her dreams.
Nina Mohadjer was born in 1970 in Iran, raised in Germany and has lived in the US since 1993. With a German law degree, an American law degree, and a MBA, she speaks five languages and has worked for several years in eDiscovery for class-action lawsuits. Mohadjer started writing at age seven and has always been fascinated by women’s rights and life’s challenges. Growing up between two cultures made her realize that she was not only bi-cultural, but also at times torn between the two worlds. Nina lives in Ridgefield, Connecticut with her two teenage daughters.
This Mother’s Life is available in softcover and eBook online here and at Amazon.com and BarnesandNoble.com $12.95 ISBN13: 978-0-7414-6710-2
“This is like no self-help book you have ever read. It’s both highly original and grounded in practical reality. Its focus is deeply personal while also shedding light on our larger culture. The authors come across like the kind of people they are helping others to become – gracious and powerful, smart and humble, connected to others, and fully themselves.” William J. Doherty, Ph.D., professor and director of the Minnesota Couples on the Brink Project at the University of Minnesota and author of Take Back Your Marriage.
“…our genetic survival will depend on human beings who cooperate, care for one another, and who have the capacity for limbic resonance, rather than just pursuing more and more stuff.”
Deerfield Beach, FL – This thought-provoking book goes far beyond the tired clichés of typical self-help books. America, and many other nations, is so out of balance that we are too often confused by who is “the victim” and who is “the perpetrator.” Those who are too “nice” get exploited, and those who are too “mean” get what they want at others’ expense.
From their ecological-systemic perspective, psychologists John and Linda Friel explain the role of evolution, genetics, and biology; personal, marital, and family dynamics, and cultural and political forces in creating a society that is riddled with entitlement, narcissism, incivility, fake self-esteem, and a disturbing lack of basic knowledge. In their latest book, The Power and Grace Between Nasty or Nice: Replacing Entitlement, Narcissism, and Incivility with Knowledge, Caring, and Genuine Self-Esteem they show how and why these must be replaced by caring, humility, genuine self-esteem, and real knowledge.
Power without graciousness results in bullying and nastiness. Graciousness without power results in being a doormat. When we temper power with graciousness, we elevate ourselves beyond our purely brutish selves and become competent, grateful, humble, effective, and truly powerful—attributes that are sorely lacking in a fast-shrinking world where anxiety and over-reaction often reign supreme. Using cutting-edge neuroscience and down-to-earth examples, the Friels show how you can move into the power zone between victim and perpetrator, and how even one very small change held firmly for six to twelve months can cause more system-wide change than anything else you can do, whether it’s in your home, your office or in your community. You’ll discover:
Non-citizens now launch half of all Silicon Valley start-up companies.
The U.S. divorce rate is very high in southern states—Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Kentucky, Oklahoma, and Texas—that do not support gay marriage, and lowest in northeastern states like Massachusetts, New Jersey, and New York, which do support gay marriage.
The term “American Exceptionalism” was coined by Soviet Communist Party leader Joseph Stalin.
There is a genetic link between how much we contribute to charities, whether we are liberal or conservative, how many risks we take, how much pleasure we get from volunteering at a soup kitchen, and how tolerant we are of others’ differences. Thomas Jefferson wrote: “If a nation expects to be ignorant and free, in a state of civilization, it expects what never was and never will be”
Why conflict can be a life-enhancing part of human relationships and why avoiding conflict can be just as destructive as constantly pushing for it.
Why the opposite of dysfunctional is dysfunctional. One who is hyper-independent is just as dependent and needy as one who is clingy and helpless.
Why cutting off all contact with relatives—even in quite abusive situations—will keep you almost as hooked in to them as if you simply stayed home and lived with them.
Why not always getting along with a family member is normal; and why not speaking to them for years is not normal, and is destructive to all members of that family.
Why the ability to allow disappointment to enrich your life is one of the keys to happiness.
And, why any system in nature—the solar system, the nervous system, a system of work-mates in a work-group in a high-tech corporation—will never change until there is a disturbance in the system. This provocative and profound book will show you how to navigate those changes by bringing your best self forward.
About the authors: John C. Friel, Ph.D., and Linda D. Olund Friel, M.A., are internationally recognized authors and skilled clinicians. They are psychologists in private practice in St. Paul, MN. John also has an office in Reno, NV. They are New York Times bestselling authors, selling over 500,000 books, are the founders of the ClearLife® Clinic Program, and have appeared on The Oprah Winfrey Show, ABC News 20/20, in USA Today, Parents, and Cosmopolitan.
Available online or at bookstores or to order directly from the publisher, contact: (800) 441-5569 or www.hcibooks.com The Power and Grace Between Nasty or Nice: Replacing Entitlement, Narcissism, and Incivility with Knowledge, Caring, and Genuine Self-Esteem (by John & Linda Friel) ISBN-13: 9780757315862 $14.95 May 2012
Dallas/Fort Worth, TX – Have you ever set a major goal in life such as becoming an award-winning actress, being signed by a record company or publishing a book? Bridgette Murphy dared to dream big and guess what? She became a successful author and had an opportunity to act with Oscar winner Hillary Swank.
If you don’t dare to pursue a dream then life will pass you by, leaving you to ask: “What if?” In Bridgette Murphy’s Bold, Fierce and Transformed: The Process of Life-Changing Transformation (Xulon Press), she shares how to be bold enough to recognize the barriers but daring enough to move forward in order to accomplish our goals; in other words, how to reach our full capacity in spite of life’s adversities!
“It’s about being fierce, persistent, and passionate enough to break through every obstacle and reach your desired destination,” says Murphy.
Not willing to accept the barriers life delivered, she chose instead to dedicate her life, gifts, and talents to inspiring others and helping them come into their purpose. This is profoundly evident in her book which offers the encouragement to press beyond internal and external barriers, pursue your passion and God-given purpose – and reach your true potential.
Bold, Fierce and Transformed is a life-changing book that invites you to take a transformational journey. It is a practical guide to help readers understand that no matter where they are now, it’s not where they always have to be. Infused with inspirations, Murphy’s book challenges each reader to stretch beyond their comfort zone and venture into a land of personal growth.
Murphy is the President and CEO of Bridgette Murphy Enterprises – a global enterprise that specializes in delivering practical, purpose-driven messages to religious organizations, educational institutions, women, young professionals and adolescents through the art of dancing, writing and speaking.
A passionate writer, visionary, innovator, teacher and in-demand corporate speaker, Murphy has helped women and youth come into their purpose as they understand their value, find their passion for life, and reach their true potential. Please visit: www.bridgettemurphy.com for more information.
Bridgette Murphy’s inspiring and motivating book will challenge you to your core to be bold, be fierce, be transformed!
Available at www.bridgettemurphy.com, online, and at bookstores: Bold, Fierce and Transformed: The Process of Life-Changing Transformation By Bridgette Murphy Xulon Press ISBN: 978-1-61996-415-0 Paperback/$14.99 ISBN: 978-1-61996-416-7 Hardcover/$22.99 ISBN: 978-1-61996-417-4 e-Book/$7.49 March 2012
Delray Beach, FL – On May 16, Frank McKinney will walk his daughter Laura to St. Vincent Ferrer School for the last time – a tradition that started over 1,650 walks ago, and has carried on unbroken since Laura’s first day of Pre-Kindergarten on August 21, 2002.
That’s right; Laura has never been driven to school in the 10 years since she started Pre-Kindergarten. Rain, cold, wind, even hurricane warnings… it didn’t matter! Frank and Laura experienced epic adventures, stories, and wildly imaginative games on their daily odyssey!
What began as special time to spend together, just Dad and Daughter, has grown into an amazing daily ritual that now involves as many as one hundred of Laura’s schoolmates who are eager to join them on the first Friday of every month.
The 7-block walks, through the McKinney’s jungle-like back yard, past an eerie nature preserve, and over a 1949 drawbridge, inspired Frank McKinney’s young reader fantasy novel; Dead Fred, Flying Lunchboxes, and the Good Luck Circle (www.Dead-Fred.com).
Perhaps the most inspiring part of the story is it happened in today’s world of too-busy-to-care dads and disconnected parent/children relationships.
Still walking hand-in-hand when most teenagers wouldn’t be caught dead with their dad, Frank and Laura use this time to share their love for each other and all that is good in this world.
A five-time bestselling author in three genres, McKinney’s release, Dead Fred, Flying Lunchboxes and the Good Luck Circle (www.Dead-Fred.com), captures a fantastical account of this monumental streak.
Los Angeles, CA – The price Jerome Robbins paid in his personal life for his art was extraordinarily high. Watermill Revisited, the new e-book from Christine Conrad, provides a unique understanding of the controversial ballet Watermill, and weaves her long relationship with this internationally acclaimed director and choreographer into a fascinating story that connects Watermill with the underlying stresses of Robbins’ romantic relationships.
Filled with details never before revealed, Conrad explains how Watermill followed an extremely shattering personal time for this brilliant artist. And as Robbins pointed out in his work notebooks, it was autobiographical and he was ‘healing.’
Created in 1971 for New York City Ballet and influenced by Japanese Noh drama, Watermill has been described as one of the most unusual pieces from this renowned choreographer. Reviewers either loved or hated it and it was decidedly controversial where ballet audiences were concerned. The combination of its slow pacing, unconventional images, and bold sexual dance moves provoked a mixture of stunned silence or enthusiastic applause at the end of performances.
Water Mill is the name of a beach town on Long Island where Jerome Robbins had rented houses. He loved being by the ocean. It was his retreat from the city; a place where he found peace in the solitude and scenery and allowed him time to reflect and regroup.
In Watermill Revisited, Conrad makes the link with an earlier ballet, Facsimile, that told of a similar tale of triangulating between lovers – a pattern Robbins was never able to conquer in his lifetime. Filled with details from journals written by this very private man during his lifetime, this absorbing book gives lovers of theater and dance a read not easy to put down.
Watermill Revisited is the author’s second book about Jerome Robbins; the first being her pictorial biography Jerome Robbins: That Broadway Man, That Ballet Man. However, in Watermill Revisited the writer goes into greater detail about her relationship with Robbins and adds new levels of intriguing details about him that have never been revealed until now.
Watermill Revisited follows Christine Conrad’s well-reviewed novel Mademoiselle Benoir, written in epistolary form and inspired by a true story. Conrad began working full-time as a writer for film and television in Los Angeles in the early 1980’s, and is well-known for originating the screenplay of Junior which starred Arnold Schwarzenegger. Her short stories have been featured on BBC Radio and she has received rave reviews from The London Times, Daily Telegraph, and others. Raised in NYC, she has worked in theatre, as an editor in book publishing, and as New York City film commissioner.
Christine’s life took an unexpected turn when a serious illness in the mid-1990’s galvanized her to become an advocate for women’s health. This encouraged her to write two best-selling books on natural hormone replacement and launch her non-profit foundation www.naturalwoman.org that has helped thousands of women get life-changing treatment.
Christine Conrad continues to live and work in Los Angeles and is currently working on several different projects. For more information please visit: www.watermillrevisited.com.
