I first met Amanda Ling over 20 years ago when we both played a show in Singapore. I was performing with a Malaysian singer-songwriter and Amanda played keyboards for a Singaporean band. Over the years, I’ve been following her work off and on, and around the more recent years, noticed her shift into the world of wellness from yoga to meditation to studying for a Marie Kondo course, music therapy and sound therapy and now coming out with a new book that captures her unique worldview as both a musician and wellness practitioner.
It fascinates me to read about her journey and see where it’s led her now.
Structured across 8 chapters, the core of the book focuses on Amanda’s ALIGN framework: Awareness, Letting Go, Integration, Ground to Grow, and Navigation.
As we go through the book we discover much about how Amanda approaches the ongoing journey of personal growth and also how her life’s journey relates to each step. She also hints about the follow up book to this and shares how anyone can explore how to work with her should the ALIGN framework resonate with them.
Although the initial chapters were all useful and interesting, I actually got the most insights reading the later part of the book where Amanda shared more context on her personal journey. As someone who was more familiar with her music rather than her personal path, I learned a lot more about her from this part of her writing. For instance, seeing how her background as a musician who constantly was working late nights as both a DJ and live musician was something that resonated with me, as I also experienced various forms of burnout over the years.
Amanda writes in an approachable way, which is friendly and helpful especially if you’re new to healing. That being said, if you’ve been curious about the different ways one could approach things, it might be fascinating to see how all these experiences shape Amanda’s work now.
All in all, this is an interesting book that I would recommend for anyone interested in discovering how a musician went through her journey in healing herself and understanding herself more. It’s a good read and also a good way to have a feel for how Amanda approaches this subject, in case you would like to work with her in a 1-on-1 capacity.
Pros: An interesting take on the healing journey from someone who has tried a lot of different ways.
Cons: With references spanning yoga, music therapy, and KonMari, the breadth of modalities can feel a bit dense at times if you’re brand new to these concepts.
TLDR: If you are on your wellness journey and are looking for a guide for your healing process, it might be worth checking out what Amanda shares in this book.
Get the book here or go to Amazon here: https://www.amazon.com/ALIGN-Shift-Chaos-into-Clarity/dp/981945347X
Context: I received a complimentary copy of the Kindle eBook during the launch period. This review was not solicited. I just wrote it after reading the book to document my thoughts on it.
[Review Archive]
I wrote a lot of other book, course and video reviews too.
Check out the rest here:
[Read more reviews]
[Submissions for Review Consideration]
- Are you an author who wrote a jazz, guitar or music book?
- Have you created a DVD or an online video course or subscription based website?
- Would you like me to review your book/course?
Please send me a message at azsamad3 at gmail.com with:
For courses: a link to the course/video/product + access info etc.
For books: a link to the book (Dropbox) or PDF attachment (if it’s small) for review consideration.
Depending on whether I dig the book/course, I’ll let you know if I do plan to review it!
I cannot guarantee a review for every submission & if I’m not too into it, I may opt not to review it. I mean, it’s better to get a good review that for me to write a bad review just because it’s not a match for the kind of stuff I dig right? :p
NOTE: All reviews reflect my honest personal opinion so be aware that I will point out both cool Pros and Cons that I see in the work. You dig?