Sorting Through a Position Statement for My Book

"This is a [WHAT] that does [WHAT] for [WHO] because [WHY]." -Ryan Holiday, Perennial Seller

This is a personal development book that shows how to move from a hurtful and stuck place to hopeful and hope-filled perspective for people who have been through great disappointment because so many become stuck and jaded and stop truly living.

This is a practical guide for people stuck in survival-mode, even wanting "out" of life to move from deep hurt to a hope-filled life that can help others, even save a life and make the world a kinder place. 

What is the WHY for your book? Why is it needed right now? Why are you motivated to write this book?What next steps do you want to take with your book - proposal 

This guide is needed right now because more people are experiencing depression and anxiety at higher rates and living in survival-mode. Many are even choosing suicide to escape their pain. 

I am motivated through my own story of great disappointment and hurt by those closest to me whom I thought were my friends. I went through my own process of feeling very stuck and ready to give up to ultimately resolving to heal and reaching out to help others to hold on despite their pain.

The next step I would like to take with this book is to create a book proposal including the outline which I have begun working on.

We will work through a process of releasing pain, receiving help, resolving to heal and reaching out to help others. Our universal point of connection is that we all have experienced pain in one or more seasons of our life. We all can become stuck and be susceptible to giving up and wanting out. It is important for us to persevere and keep going.

The Hunt for a Book Title :: Brainstorming

The Hunt for Wonder: Reclaiming your Life through Exploration and Compassion

This came to my mind as a book title or article title or SOMETHING!

The original title I've pondered is From Hurt to Hope: The Way is Through, Not Out or : Practicing How to Release, Receive, Resolve and Reach Out.

Reorienting our lives into fresh perspectives when our lens has been tainted by the world's disappointments, traumas, mental health and our own fallenness is a likened to a spiritual discipline in my life.

It is a constant, daily practice of recognizing that all I see is not ONLY what is present. I find myself wishfully dreaming of being rescued from my own demons and strongholds, but then acknowledging that I must do the deep soul work needed. Only I can make such a decision for my life.

I can read a thousand books and go through a million more "guided" journals on those books but in the end if I don't actually take action outwardly then I will remain stuck in paralysis.

This has been the last five years of my life as I have taken various risks professionally and personally and courses and signed up for email lists and listened to advice and a constant digestion of information...but now I need to act.

Trauma and little "t" trauma adds up and in my case, it was vicarious/secondary trauma with helping others (social work/marriage & family therapy) along with coping with our family's mental health struggles, stresses in ministry, then raising two boys. Accumulation is a dangerous tool for burn out.

It is only in the last two years that I have started to unpack slowly, very slowly...the impact of ministry, boundaries, secondary trauma, my role, my mind, my heart and God's continual companionship.

Monday Musings :: The Book I Am Writing

A Sneak Peek of the book that I am writing is described in this post.

It is a book that would be part of the genre Christian Living and Personal Improvement. 
It is for those of us who are consumed by disappointment and pain that life is not turning out how we thought it would. It is for the disillusioned and fatigued wondering what is the next right step for us to take. We may not even know that we are in this state, until life hits us square between the eyes with our own loss and mortality.  

It will take us, YOU the reader and myself, through a transformational process of experiencing solely Hurt and Pain to a place where living Wholeheartedly and with Hope is an innate posture or daily rhythm. 

Although it is not a linear transformational process, but rather a cyclical process, this book will identify the attitudes and emotions that may keep us stuck in each phase of the process.

This process includes four phases that each have mentalities with them, where we become stuck due to our attitudes, thoughts and behaviors. However, there is hope and in each phase we are able to pursue a renewing of our mind and retraining of our emotions. Each phase includes a shift in our mindsets and in our daily practices of responding to our worlds. We move from a reactive state to a proactive state acknowledging what we can control and what we surrender to God.

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I have an outline pieced together and will be working on a Book Proposal next as I puzzle piece together various thoughts I have written down in the past. May we all be transformed through the healing practice of writing and witnessing the change in others.