Bruce Feiler, author of the New York Times bestsellers The Secrets of Happy Families and Council of Dads, has a new book out that is perfect for our times – Life is in the Transitions: Mastering Change at Any Age. From the publisher’s website we read: “Galvanized by a personal crisis, he spent the last few years crisscrossing the country, collecting hundreds of life stories in all fifty states from Americans who’d been through major life changes—from losing jobs to losing loved ones; from changing careers to changing relationships; from getting sober to getting healthy to simply looking for a fresh start. He then spent a year coding these stories, identifying patterns and takeaways that can help all of us survive and thrive in times of change.”

Feiler notes that the idea that we’ll have one job, one relationship, one source of happiness for most of our lives is outdated, and that we now live in a non-linear world that forces us to make transitions. While this trend has been occurring for some time, what is new right now is that the whole world is going through these transitions at once. How we face these life altering changes, and what tools we can use to help the process these events is at the core of this book.

Through anecdotes and pattern analysis, Feiler identifies commonalities to these very individual experiences and outlines strategies for navigating what he calls “lifequake” events. He illustrates how these key events can force a transition that ultimately leaves us stronger, more creative, and better adapted to our world than we were initially. In these wild times, Life is in the Transitions: Mastering Change at Any Age could be exactly what the doctor ordered.

Cheryl Shainmark is a writer, editor, and certified hypnotherapist with a private practice in New York. A long time contributor of articles and book reviews, Cheryl is now a senior editor and a regular columnist at Merlian News. When she is not reading, reviewing, or dreaming about books she can be found playing with cats of all stripes at her quiet country retreat.

Bruce Feiler transformative experience

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