No more bossy diets or impossible exercise routines. Instead, actress Mariel Hemingway divides healthy living into four foundational areas and reveals that looking and feeling great are just a few simple choices away. Examining our attitudes toward food, exercise, home, and silence, this easy-to-use guide teaches you to break old patterns, listen to your body, and make the best decisions for your life.

Stardom, thanks to Woody Allen and his film "Manhattan," came at an early age...but so did the problems of a broken and dysfunctional family. Yet in a life so out of kilter, Mariel Hemingway summoned the strength and inner resolve that enabled her to find -- and to keep -- her balance.

In "Finding My Balance," actress Mariel Hemingway uses the lessons and practices of yoga as a starting point for her own personal reflections and larger-than-life family story. The result is a searingly honest memoir that is as deeply moving as it is helpfully prescriptive.

Mariel turned to yoga and its meditative practice in an effort to maintain her center when her life threatened to spin out of control. Having experienced family tragedy, sudden stardom, and the continuing challenges of a full and demanding life, Mariel learned through practice how to find her balance in emotionally disorienting situations. Throughout the book, Mariel uses her yoga training as a starting point for each chapter, carefully describing a

particular position, then letting her mind wander into thoughts of the past and of her tumultuous life.

As each chapter begins with instruction, so does the book end with exercises organized in a sequence that can be followed by anyone who wants to practice them. As a special bonus for this edition, Mariel has added a section that describes the basics of her own "In Balance Philosophy," calming words of advice for people in search of their own emotional center.