“Morning Sunshine,” by Robin Meade

I just finished reading Morning Sunshine: How to Radiate Confidence and Feel It, Too, by Robin Meade. If her name and picture look familiar, you’ve probably seen her on HLN’s morning show, like I have; that was a big part of the reason I was interested in reading her book. She’s always very cheery and fun, and I like watching her.

The book was very introspective, as it detailed how she overcame anxiety and panic attacks (on the air!) to become the vibrant on-air personality we all know. For me, it was encouraging to read about someone so successful and prominent who has lived with anxiety and has pushed her way through it to find an identity for herself that is separate from the panic. It’s always good to find out that we’re not the only ones, right?

Robin is very candid in her description of what she dealt with and how it affected her life, both professionally and personally. I enjoyed the personal accounts of her experiences much more than I did her descriptions of her time in counseling for her anxiety. Once she began with that, unfortunately, she started losing me. Those chapters were strange, and there were moments when I thought, “Why didn’t she just get her therapist to coauthor the book?” Over and over she says, “Dr. Case says…..Dr. Case said……Dr. Case….Dr. Case…..Dr. Case…..” On and on. Frankly, it got old.

Another thing I didn’t like about the book was the somewhat worldly approach to finding self-confidence and living in light of your gifts and talents. I just wanted her to acknowledge that all of that – confidence, gifts, and talents – come from God. It was strange to me that she never pointed to Him for that, since she frequently mentions her Christian upbringing and how she leaned on prayer during her struggles.

It’s not a bad book, per se, but it just didn’t have a lot of what I was looking for in a book with that title. It’s worth checking out.