(Reviewed by JD Jung)
“Rather than turn away from problems and wait for others to fix them, I need to uncover what can be done within my reach.”
Infinity Stone works in insurance sales. She was raised Catholic where she was taught that faith should be combined with doing good works. She is also interested in New Thought philosophy (she is aware of the inconsistency of the two) and was motivated by some of the teachers to implement spiritual concepts for forty days. So she decided to spend a minimum of one hour a day working towards gratitude, connecting, and giving back.
Stone documents each of the forty days in her book, 40 Day Shift: A Journey of Karma and Giving Back. Since it was her busy season at work, much of her giving back was in the form of monetary contributions. However, she did find time to help out and volunteer, such as in senior assisted-living and food banks, in addition to donating blood.
I found that I regularly donate to some of the charities she gave to. However, there were new ones that I was unfamiliar with. I checked out the ones I was interested in on Charity Navigator, a charity “watch-dog” site. Though those charities received top ratings, I can’t assure the legitimacy of all of the charities mentioned.
More importantly, I learned of all of the different ways I can monetarily give to charity without writing a check. One is by adding an extension to your home page, another is checking in at certain restaurants. These are just to name a few.
Personally I wasn’t interested in her religious or New Age studies, such as opening up the third eye, Reiki and the rest. However, since the entire book is only forty-six pages, I didn’t feel that I wasted my time.
I recommend this book to everyone whether you have the financial means or not. We can all give back in so many different ways. This book will help you discover how. After all, as Infinity writes,
“What if everyone in the world behaved the way you did, what would the world be like?”
