A Slower Pace--for Peace

WHAT’S THE RUSH?

by James Ballard

Audio Renaissance, abridged nonfiction. Length: three hours. $17.95. Read by the author. Available in bookstores.

This looks like the answer to every workaholic’s dream as it promises to let you “step out of the race, free your mind, change your life.” This audio, however, doesn’t quite deliver on that promise. James Ballard is a runner who discovered the Zen-like peace that comes with meditating while running. He makes several useful suggestions to help listeners step away from hectic lives and learn to relax. He speaks, for instance, about “reframing,” which teaches you to shift your perspective, thus making an unpleasant situation more palatable. He wants the listener to slow down and focus on the moment. He has several such common-sense ideas in this audio. But Ballard stretches our patience with his overuse of anagrams and cutesy vocabulary. And I found his exercises more annoying than useful.

A few exercises, such as ones focusing on breathing, are interesting. Others, in which you close your eyes, blinking them open every few seconds to check on your direction, seem poorly conceived. Ballard reads slowly and clearly with an expressive voice that is comforting in the way a good friend might be. The book is only lightly abridged, but it works better in print because it is much easier to reread his affirmations than to rewind a cassette in hopes of finding one that hits home.

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PASS THROUGH PANIC

by Dr. Claire Weekes

HighBridge Audio, original audio material. Length: two hours. $17.95. Read by the author. Available in bookstores.

One can only wonder what motivated HighBridge Audio to release this outdated material on audio. Claire Weekes, a physician who pioneered research into panic disorders and who died in 1990, recorded this material in 1967 as part of an eight-week radio series. This tape sounds like a poor-quality soundtrack to a 1950s-era propaganda health film. Although much of what Weekes has to say is valid, the fact that this tape reflects the medical community’s knowledge of more than three decades ago means there is no mention of the psychotropic drugs now used to treat many panic disorders. Needless to say, newer treatment methods are also not included. And this does not exactly seem like a service to people suffering from this condition and looking for up-to-date information. Even so, there is some useful material, such as Weekes’ valid points about creating useless fears. However, she tries to talk the listener out of a panic attack in just a few minutes. It all sounds too easy and too quick. And the audio is a challenge to listen to. Weekes reads the material with a booming voice that is uncomfortable to listen to, and her sense of timing is awful. This is not a woman who was comfortable in a studio.