Interview with Allison Keating, author of The Secret Lives of Adults
Allison Keating, author of The Secret Lives of Adults has some great interview answers and book recommendations this week! Before jumping into the interview, please check out Allison's book The Secret Lives of Adults:
Review from Book Depository: People have been sharing their life stories with psychologist Allison Keating for the past eighteen years, and the words she hears most often are ‘I feel overwhelmed,’ followed by ‘I thought I’d have it figured out by now.’
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The Secret Lives of Adults
Adulthood is tough. As we try to divide ourselves between our partner, children, parents, siblings, friends and colleagues, it is no wonder we can feel overwhelmed, often neglecting the most important relationship of all – the one we have with ourselves.
The Secret Life of Adults invites you to audit and improve your seven key relationships, looking at how the experiences of your past impact on who you are today.
Buy On:
Book Depository €17.61
Waterstones £14.99
Amazon UK £14.99
Amazon US $9.99
Q. Do you have a favourite smart thinking book (and why that book)?
Man’s Search for Meaning by Viktor Frankl was a life changing book for me. I picked it up in the library the day before a Cognitive Psychology exam and I couldn’t put it down, I stayed reading it until it was time to go home. It was the pivotal line that there’s a gap between stimulus and response and so many more that live as a live narrative in my mind on a daily basis. To remember that we have the freedom to choose our response and the potential of that freedom is so immense and cathartic.
It was the light and hope that no matter what you experience in life that if you can find meaning in it, transforms your experience with it. I was lucky enough to see reality of this courage when I worked with asylum seekers who had experienced trauma and torture. Their courage and resilience was awe inspiring.
Man's Search for Meaning
Review From Book Depository: A prominent Viennese psychiatrist before the war, Viktor Frankl was uniquely able to observe the way that he and other inmates coped with the experience of being in Auschwitz. He noticed that it was the men who comforted others and who gave away their last piece of bread who survived the longest - and who offered proof that everything can be taken away from us except the ability to choose our attitude in any given set of circumstances.
The sort of person the prisoner became was the result of an inner decision and not of camp influences alone. Only those who allowed their inner hold on their moral and spiritual selves to subside eventually fell victim to the camp's degenerating influence - while those who made a victory of those experiences turned them into an inner triumph.
Buy On:
Book Depository €5.87 Waterstones £7.99 Amazon UK £5.62 Amazon US $8.39(All links earn commission from purchases that help fund this site. Prices accurate at time of writing)
Q. What's the most recent smart thinking book you've read (and how would you rate it)?
I am savoring every word and sentence in Radical Acceptance by Tara Brach which is pretty handy as I probably only manage to read two pages per night before I fall asleep. This has nothing to do the with the book and much more to the fact that I’m tired! It is amazing as each idea is so beautifully explained and I try to stay mindful of what I have read the night before, throughout the next day. I love books that you can put into practice. It is that magic in books that just keeps me coming back for more.
Radical Acceptance: Embracing Your Life With the Heart of a Buddha
Review From Book Depository: For many of us, feelings of deficiency are right around the corner. It doesn't take much--just hearing of someone else's accomplishments, being criticized, getting into an argument, making a mistake at work--to make us feel that we are not okay. Beginning to understand how our lives have become ensnared in this trance of unworthiness is our first step toward reconnecting with who we really are and what it means to live fully.
Writing with great warmth and clarity, Tara Brach brings her teachings alive through personal stories and case histories, fresh interpretations of Buddhist tales, and guided meditations. Step by step, she leads us to trust our innate goodness, showing how we can develop the balance of clear-sightedness and compassion that is the essence of Radical Acceptance. Radical Acceptance does not mean self-indulgence or passivity. Instead it empowers genuine change: healing fear and shame and helping to build loving, authentic relationships. When we stop being at war with ourselves, we are free to live fully every precious moment of our lives.
Buy On:
Book Depository €12.11 Waterstones £14.99 Amazon UK £10.48 Amazon US $12.69(All links earn commission from purchases that help fund this site. Prices accurate at time of writing)
Q. Do you have a favourite childhood book?
I have so many, and each chart out different times and experiences I was having, as I was growing up. I loved Tom's Midnight Garden, there was something so magical about that book that I feel it is still part of me.
Tom's Midnight Garden
Review From Book Depository: When Tom is sent to stay at his aunt and uncle's house for the summer, he resigns himself to endless weeks of boredom. As he lies awake in his bed he hears the grandfather clock downstairs strike . . .eleven . . . twelve . . . thirteen . . .
Thirteen! Tom races down the stairs and out the back door, into a garden everyone told him wasn't there. In this enchanted thirteenth hour, the garden comes alive - but Tom is never sure whether the children he meets there are real or ghosts . . . This entrancing and magical story is one of the best-loved children's books ever written.
Buy On:
Book Depository €5.78 Waterstones £6.99 Amazon UK £4.90 Amazon US $4.59(All links earn commission from purchases that help fund this site. Prices accurate at time of writing)
Q. Do you prefer reading on paper, Kindle or listening to an audiobook?
Interestingly, I would have always said a book. As I currently recording my own book for audio this week I am definitely opening up to and I’m very curious to try audiobooks. This may be the new chapter in my love for reading.
Q. Do you have a favourite bookshop (and why that shop)?
As I proud badge-wearing nerd, when I started being allowed go into town on my own as a young teenager I used to hit the bookshops first, I loved walking through the huge bookstores looking at the Psychology books. I also love Manor Books in Malahide. Local bookshops are so important . A highlight in my life was when I walked past the book shop one day and stopped in my tracks as I saw my book in the window for the first time and I was very uncool and very excited first time author.
Many thanks to Allison for taking the time to answer my questions and give me some great book recommendations!
Please don't forget to check out her book The Secret Lives of Adults.
Daryl
Image Copyrights: Gill (The Secret Lives of Adults), Vintage Publishing (Man's Search For Meaning), Ebury Publishing (Radical Acceptance), Oxford University Press (Tom's Midnight Garden)
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