There is a new trend in wellness and self-improvement books on the shelves each telling us how to be successful in life and in our careers, how to bring meaning to our lives, what to do, what not to do, what to eat, what not to eat and so on. This new trend combines spirituality and wellness with physical and mental health. Jolene Hart in Ignite Your Light A Sunrise-To-Moonlight Guide to Feeling Joyful, Resilient, and Lit From Within, in line with this new trend connects our energy within with healthy dieting for a meaningful and resilient life. 

Jolene Hart believes that we all have energy that lit-from-within and our energy is the feeling conveyed by our presence; it defines us in a way that only we can choose. Her aim in writing this book is to show that this lit-from-within effect influences our beauty, strength, gratitude, relationships, health, and over time as it becomes our lifestyle, it encompasses our day-to-day experiences.

Ignite Your Light is about building a beautiful life, and finding your best sources of joy, healing, and energy in the process, from sunrise to moonlight, because the deepest healing often happens at the energetic level. She describes thirteen energy influencers that include mindset, movement, environment, relationships, food and spirituality, and gives clues about how to flip them on so that our life floods with light. 

This book is designed in four main chapters, each covers a part of the day from sunrise to the midnight, as each of the energy influencers given in this book are organized to fit into four parts of the day: Sunrise, Daylight, Sunset, and Moonlight. In the introductory chapter titled Be the Light You Want to See, she provides a blueprint for energetic change, which can be put into practice in a day to day basis. For the starters she offers a quiz to learn more about your energy and to pinpoint the part of your day to explore first for the biggest energetic power surge. She uses words that describe light—”bright energy” and “dim energy”—to discuss the overall spectrum of effects that the energy influencers in our lives have on the way we feel, the way we look, and the way we respond to and experience life. Her argument is that “you can be the judge of what brightens or dims your light, simply by feeling” (p. 24) by taking three steps to energetic change, namely awareness, discovery and expansion. In the following chapters covering four main parts of the day, she guides her readers to reflect with the sunrise, the daylight, the sunset and the moonlight energy, to ask questions to assess another person’s energetic role in our lives and to find out energy themes for each part of the day. 

Chapter 2 titled Sunrise covers the earliest part of the day, from about five a.m. to nine a.m., which is part of the day, she claims, the energy of our mindset, movement, and the way we prepare ourselves for the day makes a lasting impression on our energy. She gives unique recipes for each part of the day as an energy influencer and the recipes she offers for the Sunrise is designed to brighten our energy at the breakfast. She advises to start the day with sun salutation. Its pose sequence stretches and gently activates muscles, increases circulation and lymph flow, allows for deep, cleansing breaths, and connects your mind to the power of the sun all within a few minutes. Since moving our body helps circulate energy and nutrition, rev up detox processes, strengthen the immune system, and calm anxiety and reactivity, she suggests appropriate physical exercises for each part of the day. 

Chapter 3 welcomes Daylight, from nine a.m. to five p.m., when the energy of work and creativity, relationships and connection, and breath are major energetic guides. She offers recipes for power-packed lunches and snacks during the most active part of the day. The following chapter, titled Sunset, covers the part of the day from five p.m. to nine p.m., a time to make more room for laughter, play, and music, as well as to enjoy our sacred home space, all of which, she claims, strongly influence our personal energy. In sunset, she suggests her readers to prepare to experience the energy of water and natural objects, and offers them recipes that restore and nourish at a time of day when we gather with family or friends to enjoy a meal, or simply eat to replenish ourselves. The last chapter, Moonlight covers the dark hours between nine p.m. and five a.m., which is a moment to pause for the energy of spirituality, energetic release, and sleep. She provides sleep-supporting sweets, snacks, and drinks to prepare her readers to connect with the spiritual energy to finish the day in a peaceful and tranquil mood.  

In the closing remarks, she reminds her readers that the impact we make with our energy is so much more profound and lasting than appearance alone. When you finish reading this book, you have the impression that the life you desire is rooted in your energy and you are the only person who has the power to change it every day, even in every moment. I found this book very inspiring compare to any self-help book written elsewhere, because Jolene Hart, who is a health coach who has been educating women on the deep connection between diet, lifestyle and beauty offers a holistic approach for a total mind, body and spiritual healing.

I heartily suggest this book not only to women but also to anybody, who wants to eat pretty and shine on, as I may use her slogan.   

Prof. Dr. Kamuran Elbeyoglu, Girne American University