I am glad to welcome Corinne Rodrigues of Everyday Gyaan back here. She has generously offered to help me keep up my daily posting schedule – and if that is not a great example of best-friendship, tell me what is! I admit that she is one of my main sources of inspiration for blogging everyday.
She is here today with a book review of a wonderful book “Spirit Recovery Medicine Bag: A Transformational Guide for Living Happy, Joyous, and Free“
Besides being one of my closest friends, Corinne is a Hyderabad-based blogger, writer, motivator – journeying happily through midlife. She blogs here and on Write Tribe and From 7Eight. Connect with her on Facebook, Twitter and Google+
Welcome, Corinne! ♥
Spirit Recovery Medicine Bag: A Transformational Guide for Living Happy, Joyous, and Free.
Book review by Corinne Rodrigues
Today, I’m happy to be sharing about Spirit Recovery Medicine Bag: A Transformational Guide for Living Happy, Joyous, and Free. This seems to fit in so well with the NaBloPoMo theme for September - healing.
Although the book is associated with the process of recovery from addiction, containing Lee McCormick’s personal journey of recovery and transformation, it is also addressed to a larger audience. This could be any of us struggling with the loss of a job, a love one, a broken relationship, etc.
What I liked about the book is the fact that it doesn’t have a ‘one solution fits all’ approach. Instead readers are encouraged to examine themselves and find their own path of healing from the numerous tools and suggestions offered. Readers are constantly encouraged to go back to Nature to find their healing, and this is something I found particularly appealing.
The authors have used an image from the Native American culture in which the medicine man (shaman) carried a medicine bag full of various tools for healing. The book is a collection of various ideas and tools that helps us to connect with the Source of all healing at times when we have lost our spirit.
Description of book
Feeling limited by circumstances, substances, or behaviors often leads to the simple, yet profound question, “Is this all there is?” This question is an opportunity to rediscover one’s truth and live life more fully and authentically. Spirit Recovery Medicine Bag offers readers a path to finding their personal answer to this question in an engaging two-part format.
In Part One, readers will join Lee McCormick as he reflects on his personal journey of recovery and transformation—a journey that initiated him into a life of helping others recover their own sense of self and purpose. Part Two is a medicine bag of healing practices designed to guide readers in developing self-awareness and awakening their sense of power-specifically the power of choice rooted in personal values and commitment to living those values. Covering a variety of topics addressing spirituality, awareness, and consciousness, the authors pose questions for reflection and self-investigation along the way.
Spirit Recovery Medicine Bag is not a negation of Twelve-Step recovery, but a tool for expanding awareness and increasing involvement regardless of the path one is walking. In Twelve-Step language, it builds on Step 12’s direction to practice these principles in all one’s affairs. The authors believe that the inner journey to one’s truth and the creative expression of that truth make for a good definition of spirituality, and they offer readers a very real message of the possibility of living “happy, joyous, and free” through spirit recovery.
The authors
An apprentice of the Nagual don Miguel Ruiz, Lee McCormick is founder of The Ranch, a holistic recovery treatment center located on two thousand acres in middle Tennessee, and Spirit Recovery Inc. He is currently the program consultant at Renaissance Malibu, a world class healing and treatment facility, where he implements the spirit recovery model at their facility in Malibu California. He shares his time between the Santa Monica Mountains above Malibu and at his ranches in Tennessee.
Mary Faulkner holds a master’s degree in religious education specializing in spirituality. She has written books on the topics of spirituality and recovery, including Women’s Spirituality: Power and Grace and Easy Does It Relationship Guide for Recovering Couples. She is a co-founder of Integrative Life Center, former director of women’s services at Cumberland Heights both in Nashville, TN, and currently, the trauma specialist and a spiritual advisor at The Ranch in Nunnelly, TN. Along with a private practice, Mary certifies counselors and healthcare professionals in Integrative Hypnotherapy for Transforming Trauma.
Excerpt from Spirit Recovery Medicine Bag:
Dreaming the New Dream
Find a quiet place where you won’t be interrupted for an hour or so. Get comfortable, relax, and allow yourself to get in touch with your deep hopes and dreams. You might begin with the question we often ask kids, What do you want to be when you grow up? If you have any trouble finding an answer, give the question more time. Put it on the back burner. There is no need to rush to find your answers. Your brain is wired for curiosity and creativity-it likes wondering, and it will find your answer. You don’t have to know before you know.
Next, change the focus from your career goals to the type of person you want to be. What qualities or characteristics do you want to embody? For example, transformation encourages us to live from the heart, cultivate a positive mind, be of service, and live honestly. What values or characteristics would this require-for example, creativity, bravery, humor, cooperation, peace?
In your journal, make a list and don’t worry about how you can develop these qualities. They are on the human hard drive; you just have to download them and live them. From the items on your list, pick the top three-the ones you most want to have in your life. Now select one, and imagine how it feels to have this quality. Experience this quality emotionally, and breathe it in fully. Keep imagining your life with this quality until you can feel it physically. Notice where in your body the feeling resonates. Toxic beliefs that cloud your new vision begin to come to mind, giving you the opportunity to choose to invest in them further or let them go. Some will dissolve on their own. Others may require deeper investigation. This is you transforming into you.
Spirit Recovery Medicine Bag is certainly a book I would recommend for anyone seeking emotional healing.
Spirit Recovery Medicine Bag: A Transformational Guide for Living Happy, Joyous, and Free.
Author : Lee McCormick & Mary Faulkner
Publisher: HCI Books
ISBN-13: 9780757317941
Genre: Recovery
Thank you, Corinne! Love you!
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