BOOK REVIEWS

FINDING THE DEEP RIVER WITHIN
A Woman’s Guide to Recovering Balance & Meaning in Everyday Life
By Abby Seixas
This book is about slowing down. It is a guide for contacting the dimension of our being where our spiritual qualities live. It is a guide to reclaiming our lives. Instead of focusing on our “things to do” lists, we should be thinking about what we have accomplished already. When we are overwhelmed by our priorities, we lose perspective about what is truly important and we forget to realize our stillness, clarity and aliveness that is deep within us.

Author Abby Seixas, a psychotherapist who specializes in helping women, explains the importance of the deep river realm and what she’s coined as the “art of slowing down”. With her encouragement and practical guidance, as well as compelling stories about struggles and successes, she details the three preliminary doorways and six core practices for inviting richness and a deeper and calming nature into our lives.

By recognizing the power of our culture, and what forces us to speed forward, we can work on our choice to slow down. Exercises throughout the book guide the reader to block negative beliefs and incorrect emotional assumptions by first acknowledging them. As the chapters progress, a powerful program for living in a more balanced and less hurried world is revealed.

Published by Jossey-Bass, a Wiley Imprint, this book is available at your local bookstore, by calling (800)225-5945, or at www.josseybass.com
Reviewed by Sonia von Matt Stoddard

IF WOMEN RAN THE WORLD SH*T WOULD GET DONE
Celebrating All the Wonderful, Amazing, Stupendous, Inspiring,
Butt-kicking Things Women Do
By Shelly Rachanow
Women are amazing creatures. When they see something that needs to be changed, improved, or must just get done, they take care of it. In this book, women everywhere are praised for all they do for their families, their friends, their jobs, the world and themselves.

The very first chapter includes a very amusing 25-item task list of things a woman can accomplish in a mere five minutes, with five family members, all at once! Author Shelly Rachanow is a law school graduate who claims she comes from a long line of butt-kicking women. With inspiring true stories, anecdotes, factoids and often-amusing yet honest insights, women everywhere are honored for their accomplishments.

If you are ever feeling like you have been running around doing for others all day with nothing to show for it, or your best doesn’t seem to be good enough, there is also space in each section for listing those butt-kicking accomp–lishments. In this way, we can pull out the book, review our accomplishments and realize that it is all right to praise ourselves and keep the inspiration going to accomplish even more tomorrow.

Published by Red Wheel.Weiser.Conari, this book is available at your local bookstore or at www.redwheelweiser.com
Reviewed by Sonia von Matt Stoddard

LOVE WILL FIND YOU
Nine Magnets to Bring You and Your Soulmate Together
By Kathryn Alice, RScP
How are you able to tell if someone is your soulmate? Author Kathryn Alice, the love guru who teaches workshops throughout the country, reminds us about common sense, such as simply believing you can have love, and how dropping cynicism will do wonders for your love life. While being single can be a wonderful time in your life, and is important for self-growth, nothing will keep your soulmate from you if you follow the author’s advice.

The “magnets” of the book are individual chapters that explain and explore the author’s philosophy. We start off with believing our soulmate is out there and creating a place where we invite love. Releasing old loves and negativity is an essential part of the process that leads to discovery about you and your special love style. She also debunks myths and notions about dating, like believing there comes an age when you are too old, or too unattractive to do so.

What you eventually come away with from this book is that there is really no right or wrong way to find your soulmate; how–ever, your preconceptions and affirmations of less-than-positive feelings and values may be the only things standing in your way.

Published by Marlowe & Company, this book is available at your local bookstore or at www.KathrynAlice.com
Reviewed by Sonia von Matt Stoddard

MOMFULNESS
Mothering with Mindfulness, Compassion, and Grace
By Denise Roy
Motherhood, when practiced with mindfulness, compassion, and a willingness to let it awaken our hearts and transform our lives, can be a spiritual path. In the practice of “momfulness”, we mother not only our children, but also ourselves.

The author, a spiritual director, licensed marriage and family therapist and mother of five, starts off by telling us that this is not about perfection, nor is it about adding something else to our endless list of tasks. The author shows us small ways in which we can carve our moments of solitude and stillness so that we can listen to our hearts and our longings. By making ourselves better, we increase our spirituality and balance, and we allow ourselves to become more connected.

Momfulness is mindful and compassionate and involves cultivation so that we strengthen our ability to understand what we need, what our child needs, and what is right for the moment. We do this by developing a practice of meditation, clearing clutter, recognizing the sacred in all things and the treasure of community. By listening to the anecdotes and inspired lessons, Roy teaches women they have the power to change the world, one family at a time.

Published by Jossey-Bass, a Wiley Imprint, this book is available at your local bookstore or at www.josseybass.com
Reviewed by Sonia von Matt Stoddard

MY GIFT OF LIGHT
A Bereaved Mother’s
Loving Pilgrimage from Skeptic to Psychic Medium
By Sandy Wiltshire
Is it possible for a skeptical, agnostic individual to transform into a psychic medium in just one year?  The sudden and tragic death of Sandy Wiltshire’s daughter, caused this author to question her entire belief system. She needed to know that after death, her daughter was in a safe place. Falling into deep despair and depression, Wiltshire immersed herself into books and research about after-death communication.

Wiltshire began to communicate with her deceased daughter and found that she began to channel messages from others. Her difficult yet successful journey is described in detail, from her initial abandonment of hope to the miracles along the way that gradually brought her closer to her goal of communication with her deceased daughter, as well as the discovery of her purpose to heal with these communications.
The book is extremely detailed and poignant in its honesty. Included are some actual conversations, as well as a discussion on automatic writing. It also offers hope as well as several practical resources for readers to explore their own spirituality.

Published by Quality of Life Publishing Company, this book is available at your local bookstore or at www.QoLpublishing.com
Reviewed by Sonia von Matt Stoddard

Reaching Through The Veil To Heal
By Linda Drake
Loss is an inescapable part of life. Recovering from the death of someone close to us is especially difficult, says Linda Drake in her new book, “Reaching Through The Veil To Heal”. Drake shares powerful, true stories that underscore vital lessons in accepting loss, coping with grief, understanding death and reconnecting with life.

Linda continues, ‘’Spirit explains that death is God’s reward for completing our life purpose. At death the body releases its physical density to the freedom of spirit. A life force energy with every human spirit remains after death, reviewing and evaluating the life and then undertakes new tasks. Understanding that the spirit of a departed loved one remains and continues to provide support and love is very comforting to those left behind. .’’ 

Linda helps her readers to understand why sometimes a loved one’s death leaves a void with unresolved emotional issues. In her book, she also offers a better understanding of the stages of grief, and dying, life purpose, signs from the spirit world, karma and reincarnation.

Published by Llewellyn Books, this book is available at your local bookstore, www.lindadrakebooks.com or www.llewellyn.com/bookstore/forthcoming.php?nm=1  For more info email: Linda@WingsOfLightByLinda.com
Reviewed by Stephen McCrory

Living the New Song Triune Music
for Personal Transformation and World Harmony
By Andrea Arrowsmith
Born with only 5% hearing, Andrea Arrowsmith is pioneering a new kind of music meant to be a catalyst for personal transformation and global peace. Her book tells the story of how she first heard this music and began playing and recording it for the public with the help of Mary Riley, co-founder of their organization, the Inner Sounds of Light Institute.

For over fifty years, Andrea’s life journey has focused on bringing down the mathematical frequencies of sounds that are inaudible to human ears, by layering chords on her keyboards. In reading about Andrea’s passion for this music — which she describes as her private prayer and her soul’s reason for being on earth — one may have flashes of the medieval mystic Hildegard von Bingen, who also devoted her life to expressing her private visions in a number of mediums, including music.

In her new book “Living the New Song”, Ms. Arrowsmith expands upon many concepts discussed by the ancient Greek, Pythagoras. She describes indepth the particular nature of this music she is bringing forth — music that she calls Triune Music. She states that Triune music has three components: music of the spheres; soul songs, which originate from individual tones, or keynotes of people; and angelic choirs. Triune music is a new genré of music for the third millennium, belonging to all faiths. Its purpose is the transformation of souls and society into love and harmony.

Published by The Inner Sounds of Light Institute, this book (including CD) is available at www.HealingSoulSongs.com or by email at: soulsongs@newmexico.com
Reviewed by Celeste Adams

Angel Horses
Divine Messengers of Hope
By Allen & Linda Anderson
The majestic beauty of horses has intrigued and inspired humans throughout the beginning of time. They have served us on many levels and have earned the respect of being called “man’s best friend” just as much as dogs. It is up to us to open our hearts to their divine gifts.
The authors convey the reality of spiritual and emotional aspects of horses in a series of true short stories with biographies of the peo-ple who contributed their stories. Horses speak to us through stories so we can hear, feel and recognize the Spirit of these majestic animals.
This book is divided into four chapters each of which contains stories that chronicle experiences people have had with horses who gave them hope. With their horse sense and sixty-million-year-old world view, horses offer hope for love and the fulfillment of dreams, hope for having courage and endurance, hope for healing and regaining health, and hope for spiritual connection and reuniting after death. They are angels among us — that is the simple truth.
Allen and Linda Anderson are authors, inspirational speakers and members of the clergy. They co-founded the Angel Animals Network dedicated to increasing love and respect for all life — one story at a time. They are the best-selling authors of “Angel Animals”, “Angel Dogs”, “Angel Cats”, “God’s Messengers: What Animals Teach Us About the Divine” and “Rescued: Saving Animals from Disaster”. Owned by a menagerie of animals, they donate a portion of revenue from their projects to animal shelters and animal welfare organizations.

Published by New World Library, “Angel Horses” is available at your local bookstore and at www.angelanimals.net
Reviewed by Kathy DeSantis

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