A Patchwork of Comforts: Small Pleasures for Peace of Mind

""Just think how much different our lives would be--calmer, happier, healthier--if we spent more time nurturing ourselves and less time on the endless string of tasks we assign ourselves each day,"" says Wiseman, who is clearly a wise woman. For this book, she contacted""everyone"" she knew to ask about the simple pleasures that comforted them most. The results are not terribly surprising: spending time alone, eating out, petting a dog or cat, daydreaming, shopping, reading, meditating, cooking. (""Chopping veggies counts as therapy when you imagine familiar faces on them first,"" Wiseman quips.) But then, the joy of small comforts comes not from originality but from easy familiarity, so the fact that there are few surprises here is more an asset than a liability. Many readers will rediscover their own""small pleasures"" in these pages and be reminded to indulge in them more often