RX: FROM THE DESK OF RICHARD A. SWENSON, M.D. Overload is not having time to finish the book you're reading on stress. Margin is having time to read it twice. Overload is fatigue. Margin is energy. Overload is red ink. Margin is black ink. Overload is hurry. Margin is calm. Overload is anxiety. Margin is security. Overload is the disease of the 90's. Margin is the cure. As a medical practitioner, Dr. Richard Swenson sees a steady stream of exhausted, hurting people coming into his office. A majority of them are suffering from an uncontrolled societal epidemic: living without margin.
Margin is the space that once existed between ourselves and our limits. It's something held in reserve for contingencies or unanticipated situations.
As a society, we've forgotten what margin is. In the push for progress, margin has been devoured. So we feel distressed in ill-defined ways. We are besieged by anxiety, stress, and fatigue. Our relationships suffer. We have unexplained aches and pains. The flood of daily events seems beyond our control. We're overloaded.
In Margin, Dr. Swenson provides a prescription against the danger of overloaded lives. Focusing on margin in four key areas-emotional energy, physical energy, time, and finances-he offers an overall picture of health that employs contentment, simplicity, balance, and rest.
If you yearn for relief from the pain and pressure of overload, take a lifelong dose of Margin under the care of a specialist. The benefits of good health, financial stability, fulfilling relationships, and availability for God's purposes will follow you all your days.
"I am excited that Dick Swenson has decided to put in print the guiding principles of his life and Christian ministry. I am confident this book will be a great inspiration and practical help to all who read it."-Jay Kesler, president, Taylor University
"If contentment made house calls, its prescription would be 'increase your reserves.' In his timely book, Dr. Swenson offers the perfect prescription for our hurried lives. Margin is a home remedy for people who've run our of time, energy, confidence, and courage."-Tim Kimmel, author of Homegrown Heroes and Little House on the Freeway
"With the experience and insight of an astute clinician, Dr. Swenson offers an abundance of thoughtful, constructive steps to overcome the pressures of contemporary life that impair our efforts to attain balance and find inner peace. Margin provides valuable suggestions to every reader interested in physical and emotional health."-Armand Nicholi, Jr., M.D., associate clinical professor of psychiatry, Harvard Medical School
