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Holiday Gift Guide: Your Present: A Half-Hour of Peace (Review)

November 29, 2011 By

Give yourself or someone you love the gift of relaxation for the holidays with the award-winning Your Present: A Half-Hour of Peace, the stress-relieving CD from National Stress-Relief expert Susie Mantell. I’ve been listening to guided imagery CDs since I was in my 20s, and Your Present: A Half-Hour of Peace is one of two that I use regularly to help me de-stress and sleep soundly.

The Holidays are such a stressful time with so much to do, lots of extra running around, on top of all of our regular daily activities, it can be exhausting. I know that for me, I find myself worrying more than usual starting right about this time of the year, every year.

Holiday cards. A picture for the holiday cards. Stamps and address labels for the cards. Presents for the kids. Something for the bus driver, the kindergarten teacher, the activities teacher. Presents for my parents, my siblings, all their kids. Decorating. The tree, the outdoor lights, an advent calendar. Who to visit on which day. And oh yeah, bills still need to get paid, groceries bought, blog posts written. That’s what swirls around in my head in a constant motion during the holidays!

This is a gift you can give that will definitely keep on giving. Doctors, nurses, therapists and caregivers alike use Your Present: A Half-Hour of Peace to reduce the symptoms associated with stress, depression, anxiety, insomnia and sleeplessness. Listeners even find relief from pain of arthritis, Fibromyalgia and TMJ, headache, muscle tension, back and neck pain! Giving someone this CD is like buying them a trip to the spa, except it only costs $14.95!

Listening to Your Present: A Half-Hour of Peace is like being covered up with a warm blanket and letting relaxation wash over you like a wave.  Susie Mantell‘s voice is soft, and low, and the definition of “soothing”. Any time I put the CD in, within a minute of listening, I feel my shoulders drop and my neck relax.  Sometimes I listen to it on my laptop just long enough to relax and settle my mind, and sometimes I put it in my Discman so it can soothe me to sleep.  It works so well that it took me 3 or 4 listens before I ever made it all the way to the end!

In those 30 minutes, listeners visualize soothing images like the ocean, and a green forest, before visualizing a soothing, healing light entering their body and relaxing all the way down from the head to the toes.  I like that Susie says it’s normal for the mind to wander during meditation, and to acknowledge the thought and then put it away for later.  The CD makes me feel empowered, reminds me that I’m doing the work of relaxation, with Susie as my guide.  I really hope I’m expressing to all of you just how wonderful this CD is, to buy as a gift now or any time of the year!

BUY IT: Thanks to a special holiday deal, you can buy Your Present: A Half-Hour of Peace for your friends or family and get one for yourself to! Just buy the CD 6-Pack and you pay for five CDs and get one FREE!

Buy Your Present: A Half-Hour of Peace, the stress-relieving CD, for $14.95 plus shipping, at relaxintuit.com

Get 100+ Free Stress Management Tips and Strategies

Follow on Twitter @relaxintuit.com  for lots of free stress tips too!

disclosure: I received a complimentary copy of Your Present: A Half-Hour of Peace and was asked to post my honest opinion.

 

 

Filed Under: Holiday Gift Guide 2011, Music Tagged With: , , ,

The Essential Carole King CD Set

May 9, 2010 By

The Essential Carole King CD Set is now available from Ode/Epic/Legacy, a division of SONY MUSIC ENTERTAINMENT.  If you were a kid in the 70s  like I was, the music of Carole King is ingrained in your childhood memories. Carole King’s album “Tapestry” was released in 1971 and quickly became a cornerstone of ’70s pop, an industry phenomenon, and introduced us to songs we’ve heard over and over again ever since- “It’s Too Late”, “I Feel the Earth Move,” “So Far Away”,“Will You Love Me Tomorrow?” “(You Make Me Feel Like a) Natural Woman,” “You’ve Got A Friend”.

At the 14th annual Grammy Awards ceremonies in March 1972, Carole King became the first woman to win the “grand slam” – Record Of the Year (“It’s Too Late”), Album Of the Year and Best Female Pop Vocal (both for Tapestry), and Song Of the Year (James Taylor’s version of “You’ve Got a Friend,” for which he won Best Male Pop Vocal). She held that record until 1995 when Alanis Morrisette became the second woman to win all of those honors in one year.

When asked to comment about the impact of Tapestry, Carole King said, “I feel honored that Tapestry has made a difference in small ways and large ways in people’s lives around the world. It’s been a major part of my life, too,” she adds. “As a songwriter, I’m so happy that the songs have held up for all of these years. As a performer, I’m still enjoying playing them live, most recently on my Living Room Tour.”

What many people, even Carole King fans, might not know is that in addition to writing her own music, King wrote some of the most famous pop songs on the charts, like Little Eva’s “The Loco-Motion” and The Chiffons’ “One Fine Day”.  Disc One of The Essential Carole King is King singing her own songs, and Disc Two is some of the songs King wrote for others.  I’m trying to educate my kids on these classic songs that have been part of American culture for so long!

You can learn more about Carole King and what she’s doing now (including her Reunion Tour with James Taylor!) on her personal website http://www.caroleking.com and on her Facebook page http://www.facebook.com/CaroleKing. And if you’ve ever heard your Mom listening to Carole King songs, buy her The Essential Carole King CD Set for Mother’s Day. She’ll love it!

DISC ONE/THE SINGER
1. It Might As Well Rain Until September
2. Child Of Mine
3. I Feel The Earth
4. So Far Away
5. It’s Too Late
6. You’ve Got A Friend
7. Sweet Seasons
8. Been To Canaan
9. Corazón
10. Jazzman
11. Nightingale
12. Only Love Is Real
13. Medley w/James Taylor: Will You Love Tomorrow/Some Kind Of Wonderful/Up On The Roof
14. Really Rosie
15. Pierre
16. You Can Do Anything w/Babyface
17. The Reason w/Celine Dion
18. Now And Forever

DISC TWO/THE SONGWRITER
1. Will You Love Me Tomorrow – The Shirelles
2. Take Good Care Of My Baby – Bobby Vee
3. Every Breath I Take – Gene Pitney
4. Crying In the Rain – Everly Brothers
5. The Loco-Motion – Little Eva
6. Up On the Roof – The Drifters
7. Chains – The Cookies
8. One Fine Day – The Chiffons
9. Oh No Not My Baby – Maxine Brown
10. Just Once In My Life – The Righteous Brothers
11. Pleasant Valley Sunday – The Monkees
12. (You Make Me Feel Like A) Natural Woman – Aretha Franklin
13. No Easy Way Down – Dusty Springfield
14. Wasn’t Born To Follow – The Byrds
15. Hey Girl – Billy Joel

Filed Under: Music Tagged With: , ,

Giveaway- Make Learning Fun With Rock ‘N Learn!

September 7, 2009 By

This giveaway is closed.

rock n learnWhether you have little ones learning the alphabet or older kids who need to learn multiplication facts, I’ve got info for you on a totally  fun way to teach and learn educational skills – through rockin’ music!  Rock ‘N Learn combines music kids (and parents!) will love with skills like phonics, multiplication, division, science and social studies, even Spanish and French.

Younger learners will love the  cartoon characters, games, movement, and especially the MUSIC in the many Rock ‘N Learn titles aimed at preschoolers and kindergarteners. We received Alphabet, Alphabet Circus, and Alphabet Exercise for Kaitlyn, and she requests at least one of them almost every day.  Her ability to recognize both uppercase and lowercase letters improved dramatically after only a few episodes of Alphabet. Chris and I had already taught her the uppercase letters, but after watching Alphabet, she started pointing to letters on cereal boxes and stuff around the house and saying the letter. Alphabet Circus combines fun learning songs for each letter with the excitement of a circus, with ringmaster “Alphabet Al”. Alphabet Exercise gets her moving as she follows along doing Jumping Jacks, Windmills, “Picking Cherries”, and “Soaring With Eagles”.  The songs are so catchy, too. There are companion CDs that come with books that parents and teachers can use to reinforce the skills from each video. It really is Rockin’ AND Learnin’!

alphabet_videoalphabet_exercise_videoalphabet_circus_video

For my older son who is 10.5, I requested Multiplication Rock and Division Rap on DVD, and Division Rock on CD.  If you have a child learning these skills either for the first time or if they need to brush up on facts, I highly recommend any of these.  Nathan really struggled with learning his multiplication facts last year, not that he couldn’t learn them, but that he couldn’t come up with the answers quickly in his head. Listening to the CD, with the question and then a pause so he could figure in his head, and then hearing the answer, really reinforced to him that he DOES know multiplication, so it boosted his confidence AND helped him with factors that he was stuck on.

For example, this is what your child will see on Division Rap- they can go directly to division concepts like how to use multiplication to check division answers, parts of a division problem, what to do with remainders, story problems (which Nathan also struggles with so I was VERY glad to see that included), and an introduction to long division. Each number from 2 through 9 has a very cool rap song, and there’s a drill section that just goes through each number.  In my years as a parent I have not found anything that is more in tune with what appeals to today’s kids in terms of how they learn and what kind of music they like to listen to than Rock ‘N Learn. Seriously!

multiplication_rock_videodivision_rap_video

BUY IT:  To check out all of the titles from Rock ‘N Learn including how to save by buying DVD collections, visit Rock ‘N Learn.

WIN IT: Rock ‘N Learn will send one winner any two titles of their choice! For your main entry, you must visit the Rock ‘N Learn site, browse the titles, then come back here and leave me a comment telling me which two titles you’ll choose if you win. Enter by Wednesday, Sept 16. at 12:00 PM EST.

RULES: Open to U.S. only. Comments must contain the above information or they will be DELETED. When filling in the comment form, you must use a first name or blog name and a valid email address. Comments left with keywords will be DELETED. Winners will have 72 hours to reply to their email requesting their mailing info or a new winner will be chosen.

BONUS ENTRIES: Once you leave your main entry, you can earn additional entries for each of the following that you do or have done:

  • Subscribe to the RSS feed for MomReviews, links are in the top right corner
  • Blog about the giveaway or add the link to a contest round-up. Leave the URL in your comment
  • Follow MomReviews on Twitter – new!!  Leave your twitter ID in your comment
  • Tweet the giveaway, leave the status URL in your comment (under your tweet, where it says how long ago you posted the tweet, that’s a link you can click for the specific page for that tweet. Copy the URL)  You can tweet ONCE PER DAY, leave a separate comment for each

Enter to win your choice of 2 Rock ‘N Learn DVDs from @MomReviews ends 9/16 http://bit.ly/137iwZ

Thanks for entering and good luck everybody!

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Filed Under: BLU-RAY and DVD Reviews, Kids Tagged With: , , ,
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