Reviews written by pamelaw

Reading much like a mystery, Ainslie MacLeod explores how investigating past lives for fears that have nestled themselves in our psyches is key to transforming ourselves.
His client work with past life regression opens doors to reasons why certain behavior seems unexplainable. The fear of high places, for instance, when nothing in this lifetime would have caused that fear.

The Transformation: Healing Your Past Lives to Realize Your Soul's Potential offers inspiration through exercises including empowerment, peace and fairness, all motivations addressing various fears. Setting goals for overcoming blocks, healing karmic wounds and accessing innate abilities are illustrated within these pages.

Even without having past life regression, we are still able to understand unexplained fears by the many examples MacLeod uses in his work. As we begin to grasp the idea of these fears inhibiting our soul's purposeful work, we are better able to work with them for release. This powerful undertaking is essential in furthering individual evolution and thus contributing to the greater, global connection. We're here "to follow the road-map your soul created" and as we dig more deeply into our fears --some, lifetimes old-- the healing is indeed transformational and soul worthy.

Knowing disappointment is not an option and patience an issue only if it's missing, this "born-again Buddhist" Wayne (Jahn) Stier leads us on a mega-journey infused with humor and determination. Through travel, work, adventure, discovery, new beginnings and further trials this dying man owns his life.

With gusto, often little money, a loving wife and incredible will Stier embarks on a quest to live his moments without the condition of convention. He waxes poetic. He sings through his pain. Stars When The Sun Shines reminds me I am here while I'm here; make the most of it. Captain my destiny.

This mini-memoir is a lovely tribute, not merely to its author but to all of us who choose
life's rich tapestry of the unexpected. Wayne Stier's words of wisdom and humor are as necessary in today's hustle of life as raindrops on parched earth.

Like so many books written on attracting what we desire, living a divine life and creating our reality, "Happier than God" Turn Ordinary Life into an Extraordinary Experience" joins the ranks. Neale Donald Walsch offers easy to read (often repeating phrases he really wants us to get) ideas that, though not always original, are positive and approachable.

While I am seldom drawn to "step" programs and instruction, Walsch's chapter on 17 Steps to Being Happier than God, does have some good ones: give others every experience you seek, bypass the drama, and understand sadness --to name a few.

"Happier than God" reminds us to honor the divinity of others and ourselves, in that order. In the moments we are able to stand in that space with gratitude, our lives can be transformed from ordinary to the extra--ordinary.

Nancy Anderson's, Work With Passion in Midlife and Beyond" is not merely a how-to book leading one toward purposeful employment and generating income. It is an imaginative journey in further understanding ourselves --self actualizing. This process of knowing who we are is essential in our ability to create a passion-filled and successful occupation, one in which we find pleasure, meaning and challenge.

Anderson's taking-small-steps guide assists by asking us to look at what no longer works, identify fears that hold us captive from change, weed out the dross in our lives, cease playing the game of "victim/rescuer/persecutor," be more mindful of our strengths and temperament, and set realistic goals. Using client stories, practical exercises and insightful questions, we further our own sense of authentic self in determining what we truly want to undertake as livelihood.

I found this book to be soulful, encouraging, realistic and creative not only in ushering me to the next stage of work life, but continuing to build on who I am personally at midlife (plus:).

By making a commitment to self investigation,Suzanne Scurlock-Durana claims a life is transformed. "Full Body Presence - Learning to Listen to Your Body's Wisdom" will take readers on an inner landscape tour through a series of principles and explorations. The main requirements for this adventure are willingness, curiosity and openness to the "now."

Beginning with trust as a sensation, Scurlock-Durana invites us to notice where we feel -or don't feel- this in our body. Using exercises such as meditation and journal questioning, we are brought into present moment to experience with all our senses and energies where we may be blocking wisdom within our bodies.

Continuing with four other principles (feel, integrate, expand and choose) and three explorations (awareness, grounding and releasing limitations) as tools "we can access our inner knowing, nourish ourselves with what we need, and create an intimate and strong relationship with ourselves on all levels."

The phrase live-in-the-moment, has long been a mantra for many of us, but one that takes on added importance and power in a time when we often feel beleaguered by the demands of life. Listening to our body's innate wisdom is no longer a part-time luxury. It is essential for transforming old fears and doubts and constructing a more solid connection to spirit's vital energy.

Cynthia Sue Larson's "Aura Advantage," covers a range of information about understanding our energy field. Beginning with simple and practical information about this "weathervane of the soul" Larson utilizes straightforward language, history and great exercises to heal and protect, via our aura.She cites medical articles, biological studies, and photographic tests that substantiate the presence of an energy we possess, equal if not more powerful, than DNA.

Being aware of colors in our auras can offer opportunity to witness a deeper part of self, cleanse negativity, attract the positive, and understand where we are at any given moment. We can energize dreams, find things we've lost, be more in touch with our purpose and maintain good health through the awareness and practice of auric connection.

"Aura Advantage --How the colors in your Aura can help you attain your desires and attract success" reminds us we are all connected. Through our subtle, light bodies we weave in and out of one another's lives more than we might realize. Larson's book is an essential read in teaching us the ways we can use this aspect of ourSelves in more fruitful and life-giving ways.

From a parent (or grandparent) perspective, the intentional theme of Tiger-Tiger is most worthy. For any of us raising youth, teaching children about comprehending and responding to feelings is certainly important. Katie's whimsical story and accompanying colorful illustrations, however, fall short in relaying this message simply to her 4-10 year-old audience.

Two early childhood educator friends I polled (one a youth librarian) offered a few points to consider. Much of the sentence structure is complex, ie., "how does it feel if you are not thinking the thought..., can you absolutely know?... and the "turnaround" (theory of changing the way you think and feel about something). This language is not appropriate to the brain development of most 4 and 5 year old children, possibly older depending on the child's individual level of understanding.

While I thought Wilhelms' drawings were bold and playful, my friends felt they were unoriginal and not a particularly good match to the story. They are both very familiar with his illustrations in children's literature.

I will read this book to my younger grandchildren (5-10 years of age) and really "test the waters" with it, because I do believe the message intended is a good one. The educators, on the other hand, told me they wouldn't buy or use "Tiger-Tiger Is It True?" with their classroom children.

Kevin Hall's Aspire, Discovering Your Purpose ThroughThe Power of Words, is a hearty pep talk by a close friend, spiritual guru, erudite professor and dad all rolled into one. His tale telling of the wise and courageous souls he meets along the way are strokes of inspiration, pumping us up for the road to find our greatest treasure of self. His line of questioning and journal entries offer us the opportunity for personal insight. What IS one word that describes YOU?

The serendipity experienced by meeting the "great" people he encounters is a jeweled illustration of the unknown paths we often travel to navigate life's trajectory. His passion -and subsequently the reader's- is sparked by "shoshin," beginner's mind, as we wander the streets, homes, shops and running paths with him. He is led from one person to another, "discovering the intersection between...heart and what the world needs..to discover...mission and purpose in life."

Hall's "accidental" encounter and regular meetings with Arthur, a retired university professor with a passion and brilliance for the study of words, becomes our inspired study as well. Words, "the currency in human exchange" draw attention to our gifts, educate, and heal. They can also harm and hinder should we use them without thought, without "namaste" --honoring the spirits of all those we encounter. Aspire will initiate us through a short list of words into "ollin," getting into your life with heart action, its mission an affirmation of soul's work in humanity.

Joyce Schwarz' The Vision Board, The Secret to an Extraordinary Life, offers another example of manifesting your dreams. Through collage-type art, affirmations, key words, mantras and "visioning" (inner spiritual practice) as a group activity, the life you desire can be created. Reminders of gratititude and belief in one's own innate power are reinforced in these pages, with individual and group samplings of vision boards.

Reading this book reminded me of a similar project I did 20 years ago during a Life Transition Course. Clipping magazine images, words, deco, then fashioning them into an art form with accompanying list of future specifics, was indeed a powerful way to envision ambitions and longings. Years later when I rediscovered this "collage" I found I had indeed reached my goals. There is energy, creativity and potential for attracting abundance through this medium.

The Vision Board reminds us also to hold gratitude for what we seek (as well as what we have), and to affirm regularly what our artwork reflects in regard to health, relationship, career, success and family. The premise of this how-to publication is honorable and worthy of consideration. However, the layout of the book seems crowded, jumbled --even a little chaotic. In retrospect, perhaps that was the author's intent: to have the book itself appear as a collage, eyes moving from one cut-out, word grouping, quote, illustration or explanation to another.

There is no better time than now to introduce Judith Orloff, M.D., and her reissue of Second Sight, when resourcefulness is imperative and compassion at a premium. Within these compelling pages, Orloff is a master guide, leading us into little known or forgotten parts of our deepest selves. Her authentic voice is a touchstone in a wilderness of confusion, loss and self doubt. Second Sight is more riveting than fiction, its message as vital as any spiritual text. Articulated in a manner that is easily read, you will be swept up in her intuitive experiences and knowledge. Perhaps in the process you will be transported to your own life’s particular unexplained mysteries.

Initiation, the first of two sections in this book, weaves a tale of remembering, hearing, and validating what was nearly lost to her since childhood. In small and greater ways this inner work evoked a healing process that not only facilitated Orloff’s own intuitive restoration, but prompted breakthrough work with her clients. In Part 2’s Teachings, the reader becomes acquainted with methods that guide and enhance development of personal intuitive abilities. Through ritual, meditation, dreams, synchronicity, patience and lots of practice we are disciplined into the innate wisdom of our perceptive sense. We all have it but you have to use it!

Second Sight is a brilliant reminder that if we “step out of the way” and pay attention, magic occurs. We can see “beyond the veil.” Not as a new age “phony holy” but as an insightful, compassionate individual, linked in the chain of humanity where we are connected to something beyond ourselves. Orloff terms this place, “an infinitely fertile spiritual source.” What lies at the heart of this source is knowing, creativity, wholeness, and sight. This book is an essential and dynamic read for those wishing to have their lives “transformed into an amazingly rich tapestry.“ Judith Orloff quotes Jonas Salk when referring to this second sight of ours: “It is with excitement that I wake up in the morning wondering what my intuition will toss me like gifts from the sea.”