Your Life in Rhythm: Achieving Freedom from Burnout, Busyness, and Guilt

* Is your to-do list dictated by a constant striving to balance your work, home, and spiritual life? To really get things done you need to go with the flow! Introducing you to "rhythmic living," Miller helps you understand how to release misplaced priorities, adjust expectations, and move with the God-ordained cadences of the created order. 225 pages, softcover from Tyndale.

Your Life in Rhythm offers a realistic solution to our crazy, overly-busy, stressed lives. Miller exposes the myth of living a “balanced” life, and offers “rhythmic living” as a new paradigm for relieving guilt and stress, while accomplishing more of what matters most in life. Rhythmic living details six practical strategies for living a more fulfilling life.
Instead of managing time, Miller suggests that we flow with life, living in tune with the natural rhythms of nature. By applying the rhythm strategies, we can reduce stress, frustration, and guilt while increasing fulfillment and inner peace. The point is not to balance all of our responsibilities at one time, but to focus attention on what matters most at different times. Although this sounds easy enough, the six strategies he outlines are crucial to helping the reader to achieve this goal.
Miller helps us to understand the stages and seasons of life we all experience over a lifetime. This new understanding, when applied, will solve time-management problems and help readers to let go of misplaced priorities and relieve their overbooked lifestyle. The rhythm solution, in short, brings freedom.
In a nutshell:

• Helps readers think through their overbooked lifestyle.
• Presents a new way of thinking about life management.
• Helps readers to let go of misplaced priorities.
• Helps readers understand the seasons of life and adjust their expectations.
• Presents rhythm “solution process” for common time management issues.

Dealing with life’s demands and struggles in a fresh, new way is the focus of Bruce Miller’s book, Your Life in Rhythm. Given the complexities of today’s lifestyles, many people are stressed, burned out, confused, overwhelmed, and spiritually bankrupt. Guilt, anxiety, and feelings of inadequacy plague the busy mom, the husband in a competitive job, and the child trying to “make the grade” in school. Miller throws out the notion that a balanced life is the goal. Instead, he suggests that life is a series of rhythms, and by accepting the waves of what life presents to us, we will be happier, more productive, and can reconnect with God and each other.

According to the author, a balanced life is just another way of trying to do it all, instead of sorting and prioritizing one’s goals and activities based on natural rhythms that occur throughout one’s entire life. He divides life’s rhythms into Kairos and Chronos stages. Kairos stages occur in a linear fashion, such as a birth, a wedding, kids leaving home, or retirement. Recognizing once-in-a-lifetime stages and accepting them as such can make the experience less stressful and even more rewarding. Kairos stages are cyclical patterns. They are about experienced times, good or bad; a right time or a wrong time. Chronos stages are about measurable time—clocks and calendars. Yearly, monthly, weekly, and daily activities are parts of the Chronos stage. By structuring one’s life according to these two stages, the individual will gain freedom from guilt and overwork. Releasing expectations that do not mesh with either of these two stages will relieve the person of unnecessary guilt, worry and anxiety. The balance, if there is one, is the alternating work and rest that comes with life’s rhythms.

Being the founder and senior pastor of a large church in McKinny, Texas, Miller knows first-hand about being over-driven and over-worked. He developed his theory of life stages to help cope with his own life issues, and it has brought him much comfort. This book is easy to read and follow. There are appendices and references to charts and graphs on Miller’s website for the reader to try to apply the points made in each chapter. There are meaningful quotes, from the Bible and well-known authors, which support Miller’s statements. As a self-help book for the Christian reader looking for an alternative way of coping with a hectic world, it is recommended. – Anita Tiemeyer, www.ChristianBookPreviews.com

Average Rating:

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Reviewed by A. Moorehead (McKinney Texas), July 25, 2009

I read this book just as I was entering a new phase of life, and was deeply encouraged by its message of hope and peace to people in all life stages. The book speaks of life as a series of unique seasons, each with its own valuable opportunities. The author emphasizes the importance of embracing each of these seasons fully, whether that means working hard during finals week, focusing fully on a new baby, resting well during a family vacation, or taking the time to deeply grieve a great loss. I feel that anyone, no matter what their current circumstances can have greater peace and joy by releasing themselves from the world's expectation of constant busyness and keeping up a relentless pace. This book confirms what I felt in my heart all along but had not found the words for--our life's goal should not be pursuing unatainable and elusive "balance", but of being in tune with God's rhythmic plan for our lives.

Reviewed by Natalie Ference (Raytown, MO), June 25, 2009

I was looking forward to Your Life in Rhythm even more. I'm a big fan of the books Margin and The Overload Syndrome and this sounded like a book in a similar vein. Even if you don't agree with every idea and application, it is worth pondering and there are some good reminders. Gen. 2:2 set an example for us to rest--not just when we're so exhausted we can't go another step--regularly, and, as Miller writes, as part of a rhythmic cycle in keeping with how God designed us physically and mentally. Miller presents two kinds of time: Kairos is quality time and Chronos is clock and calendar time. It is a bit confusing at first but the more you read the more sense it makes. Plus each chapter includes guided questions and activities to help you implement the principles into your life. Kairos rhythms are personal seasons such as grief, crisis, and recovery, and life stages such as childhood, adulthood, and old age. Examples of the Chronos cycles are God's creation of the world in seven days, Israel's cycle of yearly feasts, and the 24 hour days where the sun circles the earth. You learn how to pace yourself, how to build life-enhancing rituals into your schedule, and find the balance between work and rest.

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