Your Fully Charged Life

December 14, 2020
Murphy, former executive editor for Good Housekeeping, dishes up a hodgepodge of ideas for living a happier life. She covers myriad aspects of relationships, health, and work, and is never short on advice, though self-help readers will be familiar with many of her suggestions, among them maintaining a gratitude journal, visualization prompts, and ways to “reframe what’s lame” in one’s mind to respond positively to feedback. There isn’t much of a guiding principle at play, and the magpie approach results suggestions borrowed from a number of schools: readers are encouraged to set boundaries, meditate, listen to music for motivation and to increase energy, apologize correctly, and make the bed every morning. Murphy also divulges how her positivity suggestions helped her through health struggles and depression following the death of a friend, but these fleeting serious moments, and her take on the Covid-19 pandemic (“The lockdown reminded me that it’s okay to feel however you feel”), feel incongruous with the otherwise relentlessly sunny tone (a “cycle of good deeds and good vibes will energize us for life”). This self-care buffet will leave readers feeling overstuffed.