All people have the magic of believing in being able to do something. If a person tries hard then they will accomplish amazing things! The book tells the journey of an unsure-of-himself boy who becomes an important neurosurgeon who saves countless lives and learns a million things along the way. Jim thought he would always be a poor useless man, never going to college or achieve any of his life’s goals. Until one visit into a magic shop changes his life and teaches him how to believe in himself. One of the main points of this book was to never underestimate one’s value and what they can or cannot do. This book also shows the importance of being kind to others. Meditation and self-esteem helped Jim out at medical school. And he probably wouldn’t have accomplished such things without Ruth from the Magic Shop. In fact, Dr. Doty even started The Center for Compassion and Altruism Research and Education (CCARE) at Stanford University in California with the help from the current, 14th Dalai Lama. CCARE has students as well as professors and different doctors studying methods of developing compassion and raising awareness and selfless concern of others within all individual people. A powerful thing that was pointed out in this book was, “We are not defined by our circumstances.”
Go to Into the Magic Shop: Mindfulness Exercises to learn some of Dr. Doty’s mindfulness exercises.