29 Gifts: How a Month of Giving Can Change Your Life
Product Description
At age thirty-five, Cami Walker was burdened by a battle with multiple sclerosis, a chronic neurological condition that made it difficult for her to walk, work, or enjoy her life. Seeking a remedy for her depression after being hospitalized, she received an uncommon prescription from an African medicine woman: Give to others for 29 days.29 Gifts is the insightful story of the author’s life change as she embraces and reflects on the naturally reciprocal process of giving and receiving. Many of Walker’s gifts were simple —a phone call, spare change, a Kleenex. Yet the acts were transformative. By Day 29, not only had Walker’s health and happiness improved, but she had created a worldwide giving movement.The book also includes personal essays from others whose lives changed for the better by giving, plus pages for the reader to record their own journey. More than a memoir, 29 Gifts offers inspiring lessons on how a simple daily practice of altruism ca… More >>
29 Gifts: How a Month of Giving Can Change Your Life
This is a great book for anyone. I read to my ill mom in spurts. She looks forward to every reading…
I literally just finished this book and needed to share with others how incredible it is. I have never written a book review before, but felt it was more than necessary! Cami Walker’s story is so honest and easy to relate to. You feel like if you were in her situation you would be thinking, saying, and doing exactly what she does. Her diagnosis of MS and her past of addiction bring such a profound sense of strength to her story. Though the 29 gifts don’t come easy, this book shows you the remarkable journey the giving takes her on. Seeing how much giving with kind intentions has helped her life, I am inspired to start my own 29 days of giving. I can’t wait for each and everyone of my friends and family members to read this book! And what a perfect time of year to begin a more conscious practice of giving!
This book was just what i needed at the right time. I was feeling down and alone because of my MS and this book brought light, hope and a purpose to life.
i recomend this book for anyone that is having a serious doubt in thier life.
read it and feel good.
Cami Walker got an unusual prescription from a holistic health educator to treat her multiple sclerosis: Rx = “give a gift a day to someone else for 29 days.” The gifts didn’t need to be expensive: save a piece of cake for her new husband, make a phone call to support a friend, send an email complimenting a friend for an accomplishment, etc.
The Rx didn’t cure her MS, of course, but Walker believes it helped her cope with fatigue, insomnia, pain and preoccupation with her disease. This practical, straight forward book explains how well it worked for her.
She writes: “My first reaction was that I thought it was an insane idea. But it has given me a more positive outlook on life. It’s about stepping outside of your own story long enough to make a connection with someone else.”
A recent Well blog in “The New York Times” describes a number of scientific studies that support the effect. “In one, a 2002 Boston College study, researchers found that patients with chronic pain fared better when they counseled other pain patients, experiencing less depression, intense pain and disability. Another study, at the Buck Institute for Age Research in Novato, Calif., also found a strong benefit to volunteerism, and after controlling for a number of variables, showed that elderly people who volunteered for more than four hours a week were 44 percent less likely to die during the study period.”
Ironically, my wife received a copy of this book a few weeks ago from a friend who suffers from a variety of serious issues. She’s been following the Rx for a few weeks, and she reports that she feels better, and certainly her gait and mental state has improved.
As a long term care giver for my wife, this little book makes a great deal of sense. I’ve been following a similar approach: each day I write down three things I’m grateful for. At first, they were big things; now even small pleasures appear on my list.
Gifting or remembering pleasures — both have the same purpose — putting one in a happier frame of mind. Getting outside of one’s personal problems certainly makes us feel better and may help us improve our personal health as well.
What, after all, do you have to lose?
Robert C. Ross 2009
I really enjoyed this book and started my own 29 gifts in 29 days, I kept it simple and really didn’t expect anything but after a month of giving I looked back and realized I had a few medical problems which at first seemed serious but turned out to be nothing. I also came into a large sum of money that is going to change my everyday life. I really think everyone should read this book, Cami is very open and honest about her life, the trials and tribulations. I learned a lot from her.