Editor's Note:
This review was originally published in San Francisco Book Review.
Aura McClain’s Happiness in Quantum Leaps offers insights and advice to achieving love, joy, peace, and happiness by aligning physical, mental, and emotional healing, guided by faith and spirituality. The author draws upon her personal journey toward defining her own approach to wellness in order to overcome adversity through the most challenging times. It is a book that is relevant for Christians of all persuasions, an invitation to further explore one’s relationship with God by doing the necessary work to achieve mental and emotional peace. For the faithful, it is a guidebook to tapping into one’s personal trove of strengths, guided by one’s faith in the benevolence and forgiving nature of God.
McClain emphasizes her background in engineering, as a woman who has embraced science and technology as her profession. Perhaps this perspective offers her a vantage point to critique the insufficiencies of science—particularly pharmacology—to adequately heal the wounds of the mind, heart, and soul. There are passages in the book that can come off as being anti-science, including rightful indignation against the excessive influence of the pharmaceutical industry in addressing behavioral health issues. The author cautions against wholesale rejection of the wisdom shared in the book due to opinions shared about prevailing scientific knowledge. Science and religion can and should continue to co-exist because humanity derives benefits from both.
McClain shares anecdotes of personal disappointments that are relatable and authentic. Personal narratives bounce from one part of the author’s life to another, and in the end, the reader gets a full picture of McClain’s journey toward redemption. Some lessons focus on everyday coping strategies, while other lessons address significant, life-changing challenges. The author reveals early experiences of isolation from her community of Filipinos following a family tragedy. The sense of exclusion is palpable, and understandably, it has shaped how the author has nourished independence and individuality, while also cultivating a strong reliance on her faith in God to withstand adversity.
The narrative is strongest when the author shares personal reflections on the power of controlling one’s mind, merging her devout Christian orientation with lifelong exposure to science. While McClain draws from the wisdom of other religious traditions, readers who are grounded in Christian-centered values will find the teachings most applicable and relevant. When the author is not quoting Bible verses, the book reads much like other secular self-help volumes that advocate for a holistic approach to health and well-being, one that does not compartmentalize body, mind, and spirit.
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| Aura McClain |
Aura McClain’s Happiness in Quantum Leaps offers insights and advice to achieving love, joy, peace, and happiness by aligning physical, mental, and emotional healing, guided by faith and spirituality. The author draws upon her personal journey toward defining her own approach to wellness in order to overcome adversity through the most challenging times. It is a book that is relevant for Christians of all persuasions, an invitation to further explore one’s relationship with God by doing the necessary work to achieve mental and emotional peace. For the faithful, it is a guidebook to tapping into one’s personal trove of strengths, guided by one’s faith in the benevolence and forgiving nature of God.
McClain emphasizes her background in engineering, as a woman who has embraced science and technology as her profession. Perhaps this perspective offers her a vantage point to critique the insufficiencies of science—particularly pharmacology—to adequately heal the wounds of the mind, heart, and soul. There are passages in the book that can come off as being anti-science, including rightful indignation against the excessive influence of the pharmaceutical industry in addressing behavioral health issues. The author cautions against wholesale rejection of the wisdom shared in the book due to opinions shared about prevailing scientific knowledge. Science and religion can and should continue to co-exist because humanity derives benefits from both.
McClain shares anecdotes of personal disappointments that are relatable and authentic. Personal narratives bounce from one part of the author’s life to another, and in the end, the reader gets a full picture of McClain’s journey toward redemption. Some lessons focus on everyday coping strategies, while other lessons address significant, life-changing challenges. The author reveals early experiences of isolation from her community of Filipinos following a family tragedy. The sense of exclusion is palpable, and understandably, it has shaped how the author has nourished independence and individuality, while also cultivating a strong reliance on her faith in God to withstand adversity.
The narrative is strongest when the author shares personal reflections on the power of controlling one’s mind, merging her devout Christian orientation with lifelong exposure to science. While McClain draws from the wisdom of other religious traditions, readers who are grounded in Christian-centered values will find the teachings most applicable and relevant. When the author is not quoting Bible verses, the book reads much like other secular self-help volumes that advocate for a holistic approach to health and well-being, one that does not compartmentalize body, mind, and spirit.