Chanticleer Book Reviews

Tag: Personal Transformation

EXIT The MAZE: One Addiction, One Cause, One Cure by Dr. Donna Marks – Addiction Recovery, Personal Transformation, Overcoming Trauma

Exit The Maze: One Addiction, One Cause, One Cure by Dr. Donna Marks is a welcoming and comprehensive enchiridion of untapped wisdom that offers a step-to-step guide to getting out of any form of addiction.

No one sets out to become an addict; it catches us off guard. An addiction can happen quickly or slowly and can affect anyone regardless of intelligence, social class, ethnic group, or religion. With pitch-perfect prose, Dr. Donna Marks invites readers into the root causes of different forms of addiction, while offering pragmatic and evidence-based solutions that are bound to yield results.

Buoyed by the personal experiences of the author along with numerous case studies, Dr. Marks further offers deep insights into the inadequacies of traditional treatment models. For example, she notes that most rehab centers lack adequate staffing and overstep the limits of their capabilities. Another example is the famous 12 steps of fighting addiction which she believes do help to stop a behavior and develop a solid support system, however, she also sees that the program falls short

Marks attempts to address the traumas that underlie most addictive behavior.

This book does not stop there but offers alternative solutions to beat any form of addiction such as facing the pain, releasing it, writing out the thoughts and feelings that are disturbing you, forgiving the pain, letting go of resentment, visualizing a new life for yourself, and eventually exiting the maze. With valuable and reflective questionnaires at the end of every chapter, the result is a comprehensive compendium that is not only educating but eye-opening.

This guide is divided into twelve chapters that begin with a welcoming and illuminating quote from scholars and other well-known people. Each chapter amplifies the previous ones, resulting in a well-nuanced and easy-to-read self-help journey. Further, Dr. Marks’s empathetic and honest tone creates a much-needed balm for those longing to exit the frustrating rabbit hole of addiction. She closes on the last ultimate step of exiting the maze which includes self-care such as caring for the body, spirit, mind, and relationships.

The core backbone of this guidebook is the extensive research that Dr. Marks did in preparation for writing it.

Exit The Maze: One Addiction, One Cause, One Cure offers a unique roadmap to assist readers in discovering true healing and comfort. The book’s suggestions are concise and emphasize the need to deal with unresolved emotional trauma, as it is more often than not the doorway to addictions, as many try to blot out the pain. As addictions and depression escalate in the modern world, Dr. Donna has written a blueprint for living a post-addiction life of serenity and self-love.

Indeed, this revolutionary guide delivers a much-needed anchor designed to inspire, guide, and steer readers through all forms of addictions including gambling, love addiction, and drug addiction, just to name a few, and exit to the other end, triumphantly and fully recovered.

Exit the Maze: One Addiction, One Cause, One Cure won Grand Prize in the 2020 CIBA Mind & Spirit Book Awards for Spirituality and Enlightenment Non-Fiction.

July 8, 2022
The MAGICAL GUIDE To BLISS by Meg Nocero – Personal Transformation, Self-Discovery, Follow-Your-Dreams

The Magical Guide to Bliss is the first book in Meg Nocero’s creative and empowering Butterflies & Bliss Trilogy, an authentic series that nurtures readers along their paths of self-discovery.

With heartfelt intention, Nocero openly shares daily lessons and reflections that helped her find happiness, and will hopefully help others to move beyond their comfort zones and view life as an adventure. The Magical Guide to Bliss invites the reader to recognize the value in simple things like faith, hope, love, and joy. These facets of life help in an effort to transport ourselves and those around us from a realm of sorrow and defeat to uplifting enlightenment.

This unique motivational journey has 366 entries, each representing a day of the year. In the calendar-like set up, each month focuses on a specific concept and features Nocero’s reflections on it. From February’s theme of love, to the “Attitude of Gratitude” welcomed in November, all 12 chapters highlight a distinct transformative idea. Readers can explore the book from beginning to end, or as a leisurely daily practice either according to the calendar, or at random.

Each reflection opens with a related quote from a wide range of writers, artists, and celebrities.

Whether the sound advice of actress and comedian Lucille Ball to “Love yourself first and everything falls into line,” or British novelist C.S. Lewis’ affirming words “You are never too old to set another goal or to dream a new dream,” the messages reveal that each day offers new opportunities and a chance to step into bliss. Prayers of gratitude from the renowned Dalai Lama to thoughts of the French artist Henri Matisse about searching for a balanced life and peaceful existence all prove to be well-chosen phrases to compliment the overall purpose of this guide.

Nocero’s own glorious revelations offer insight on a variety of efforts like letting go of the past and overcoming fears, using your imagination, breathing in life’s blessings while breathing out the hardships, and staying optimistic.

These valuable insights come along with magical keys and mantras intended to open the locked doors encountered on the road to bliss. The keys come in the form of simple actions to take, such as writing out a vision statement, watching an inspiring movie, repeating positive influencing words, or performing deep breathing exercises to clear your mind and connect with your spirit.

A small photo journal along with bibliography and suggested readings at the end of the book adds a personal touch. These recommended works served Nocero along her own blissful path, and she hopes they will prove equally beneficial to others.

Reeling from the loss of her mother, Mary Jo, the creation of this guide clearly served as a catalyst for Nocero to move beyond the darkness of a devastating time in her life. The Magical Guide to Bliss is dedicated to the loving memory of her mom.

This motivating work is a simple road map that’s easy to follow. While there is some repetition along this soul-stirring route to bliss, it reinforces the powerful messages and affirmative insights being shared.

“Your past is over, your present is waiting, and your future holds much possibility.” Nocero’s ardent and passionate writing proves a worthy guide for that future.

July 4, 2022
EDGE: Turning Adversity into Advantage by Laura Huang – Business Motivation, Success Self-Help, Personal Transformation

Edge: Turning Adversity into Advantage by Laura Huang is a valuable mixture of business strategy, science, and examples, all directed to help readers develop their unique skills and strengths.

Author Laura Huang takes readers through her own journey to becoming an award-winning Harvard Business School professor. Along with real-world examples of both successful entrepreneurs and up-and-coming business students, she lays out a four-part guide on how to create your personal edge.

Creating your own edge is essential to getting ahead in life no matter who someone is or where they come from. Huang herself is a child of immigrants and was one of a few female engineering students at her university. She had to navigate her own specific challenges, figuring out what worked for her and what did not.

Instead of being in business to invent or promote the next big thing, Huang is in the business world for its rich research opportunities.

In Edge: Turning Adversity into Advantage, Huang will take readers through her process: Enrich, Delight, Guide, and put in Effort, to create their special edge. Huang reiterates throughout her book that anyone can have an edge; they can use who they are and whatever adversity they have faced to their advantage in not just business, but in their everyday life.

Huang uses her research expertise to give relevant sociological, philosophical, and business contexts to each section of the book.

Edge: Turning Adversity into Advantage is not about gaming the system to get ahead in business, and Huang stresses that there is not one method to follow. She presents her research and gives examples of how to gain an edge in ways that can create new opportunities for you.

Along with all the examples and stories, this book follows its own advice to Enrich, Delight, Guide, and put in the Effort. Edge: Turning Adversity into Advantage is at the same time enlightening, engaging, and truly a wake-up call to take charge of the growth of your life.

Edge: Turning Adversity into Advantage won Grand Prize in the 2020 CIBA Harvey Chute Book Awards for Business & Enterprise Non-Fiction.

June 22, 2022
Beyond Balancing the Books: Sheer Mindfulness for Professionals in Work and Life by George Marino, CPA/CFP – Mindfulness, Healthy Lifestyles, Positive Transformation

George Marino, a practicing CPA and Mindfulness Coach, explores the possibilities for sustainable positivity in one’s work-life through mindfulness principles and practices in his new book, Beyond Balancing the Books: Sheer Mindfulness for Professionals in Work and Life.

It would be difficult to find a profession more fraught with detail, deadlines, and distress than a typical CPA. Applying to that particular realm the idea of mindful meditation is a challenge that author Marino has taken on because it is a process he has lived. He opens his book by comparing two CPAs and their approaches to life and work-life.

Larry wakes up early, already stressed by the problems facing him at the office. Whenever he’s alone, he reaches for the nearest device to fill the silence; he is a Type A personality, driven and competitive. However, work increases his inner anxieties, fears, and self-doubts. Amy, by contrast, wakes at her usual time, feeling rested, starting the day with a positive mantra, enjoying breakfast with her family, and looking forward to the possibilities of helping others through her work skills, focusing on the client’s needs and feelings. Through these examples and many others, Marino illustrates basic tenets and techniques of mindfulness, a practice that, among other benefits, can reduce physical symptoms of stress.

Marino has designed his mindfulness-based template around the phrase “beyond balancing the books,” or the three B’s.

“Beyond” signifies the stillness and peacefulness that result from reining in the thought process by simply becoming aware of one’s surroundings. “Balancing” refers to the blending of “human” and “being,” that is, of one’s typical human physical state and the possibilities of a mental or spiritual realm that exists and can intermingle with, and enhance, one’s physical existence. “The books” represents our “accounting for what really counts” – finding higher purpose. Simple exercises, such as three minutes of deep breathing, provide a start in the right direction. Marino expands the practices to help readers examine their true feelings about troublesome situations. Doing so helps his clients to accept and allow their feelings to meld into larger, positive goals.

Marino has a second career as a life coach, where he counsels those in his own profession and those outside of the accounting world. At One Heart Coaching, LLC, he employs images of the accountant’s crucially essential work tasks of preparing taxes and assisting in business management. His book is filled with a wide variety of wisdom, from the classical – Sufi poet Hafiz, Shakespeare, modern writer Eckhart Tolle (The Power of Now). Discovering and practicing mindfulness changed Marino’s life, and he desires to help as many individuals as possible.

Readers will benefit from the many supplemental resources such as a “Mindfulness at Work Questionnaire for Professionals” and a reading list for further study. Marino’s guidebook is a rich mine of helpful advice for anyone seeking a calmer, more spiritually focused approach to life’s dilemmas. Highly Recommended!

May 18, 2021
SACRED LIFE: Healing from the Virus in Consciousness by Bedri Cag Cetin, Ph.D. – Spiritual Self-Help, Personal Transformation, Spiritual Growth

In his biographical work, Sacred Life: Healing from the Virus in Consciousness, Bedri Cag Cetin, Ph.D. explains his version of “The Golden Key,” a phrase he uses to formulate an “Inner Guide” which seeks above all else “…peace, happiness and harmony for all involved.”

Cetin uses his advanced education, world travels, failed and then healed personal relationships, business dealings, and training under spiritual leaders to formulate his thoughts. According to Cetin, decisions based on or that cause fear, chaos, or blame reflect Ego-driven actions in one’s journey toward inner peace; whereas using one’s Inner Guide to make decisions will result in peace and harmony.

Each chapter in the book reflects a chapter in his own journey. Cetin illustrates the times in his life when he either caused chaos from Ego based actions or eventually found peace due to trusting and surrendering to his “Inner Guide.” At the end of each chapter, the author offers insights and comments that further explain his ideas. The organization of each chapter, premise, personal example, realization, acceptance of the Inner Guide, ultimately make Sacred Life easily understandable and therefore valuable.

Sacred Life falls into a loose category of “spiritual self-help” books.

Throughout the book, the author’s casual voice makes it very easy for the reader to grasp these universal and sometimes ethereal truths. Similar in tone to Tosha Silver’s Outrageous Openness, Sacred Life offers neither pretentious nor overly complicated phrasing. Rather, the path created in the book may deliver a great journey for those seeking to learn the first steps toward a more enlightened life. At the end of the book, Cetin encourages his readers to ask their Inner Guide, “What is it that I really want?”

Reminding his audience that Healing, a return to Wholeness, requires a total surrender of the illusions and barriers that obstruct the way. The Ego’s chronic addiction to “feel good” behaves much like a drug addict’s dependence on drugs. The resulting action unravels into spiritual numbness.

Cetin refers to this “numbness” as the “dark night of the soul,” but he encourages readers not to despair. Through work and attention to the Inner Guide, one can be unburdened from carrying years of accumulated baggage and find true freedom and happiness.

Universal truth points to peace and harmony.

Sacred Life: Healing from the Virus in Consciousness reflects and explains a universal truth: That peace comes from awareness, and conflict arises from dependency on the Ego. Training one’s thoughts and desires to be satisfied with peace, happiness, and harmony could ultimately end all discord and create a balanced, peaceful life.

April 24, 2021
The YOU BEYOND YOU The Knowledge of the Willing by Ramzi Najjar – Personal Transformation, Motivational, Spiritual Growth Self-Help

In The YOU beyond you – The knowledge of the willing, Ramzi Najjar addresses his audience with the contemplative calm of a mystic guru and the fervor of an old-time evangelist, in a how-to guide to good health, happiness, and inner peace as a personal philosophic treatise addressing the physical and spiritual quality of life in the 21^st century.

In the Preface, Najjar quickly captures readers’ attention with the question, “In a chaotic world, and a life of prevalent restlessness, how can we make sense of the non-sensical [sic]?”

Who doesn’t relate to that?

In seeking an answer to that question, rather than asking the who, what, when and whys of traditional philosophy, Najjar accepts that negative and “nonsensical” life conditions are a given and asks the question how.

How can one change the negative impacts of these conditions upon one’s own being?

Najjar contends, “… you become what you perceive … and what you permit to enter your body…,” and this is the underlying premise upon which the book is based.

The author developed the rationale for his guide from personal experience, learning, observations, and understandings, along with widely accepted, common-sense information, uncited hypotheses, and research from various disciplines. In addition to ideas borrowed from areas of psychology, metaphysics, and epistemology, the author includes some concepts found in Eastern religions. The author weaves these bits and pieces together to create a new paradigm for 21st-century spiritual enlightenment.

At 137 pages, The YOU beyond you is not a long book or a difficult read.

Ramzi Najjar provides detailed explanations, relevant metaphors, and personal anecdotes to support his conclusions. Along with a preface, lengthy forward, and conclusion, he presents his ideas in six chapters: “Body Pollution; Mind Pollution; Restoring our body and mind; Getting imprinted with the correct memory; The Source and how to access it; and, Letting the right Memory run our life.”

The first three chapters are relatively short and provide a fairly comprehensive review of the benefits of common-sense behaviors and choices, and of proven healthy practices that can pave the way to personal transformation. The latter chapters dip into metaphysics and spiritualism integrated with historical and current scientific thought regarding genetic memory found in contemporary neuroscience, energy medicine, and integrative physiology. If one follows the suggestions in Najjar’s latest guide, there is no doubt the outcome will lead to motivational and spiritual growth.

The YOU beyond you may appeal to a varied audience. While at times verbose and loquacious, the intensity of Najjar’s arguments keeps the reader engaged. Many readers will relate to his friendly sometimes pedagogical, first-person voice and will find the book motivating and inspirational. All in all, The YOU beyond you is an interesting and provocative read.

March 15, 2021
SOULSTROLLER: Experiencing the weight, whispers, & wings of the world by Kayce Stevens Hughlett – Women’s Biographies, Personal Transformations, Self-Help

In a creative blend of existential memoir and artful travel journal, Kayce Stevens Hughlett’s SoulStroller takes readers along on an adventurous journey of self-discovery. Reminiscent of Elizabeth Gilbert’s popular Eat, Pray, Love, Hughlett focuses on family issues, ancestral memories, and dreams explored within the context of personal travels, focusing on the importance of moving beyond our comfort zones.

Here we come to learn that a SoulStroller is a term used for an individual who ventures into the fullest version of their true selves. Guided by intuition and spiritual essence, they stroll through life with a feeling of curiosity, compassion, contentment, and gratitude. Like a pilgrim on a quest, they follow their heart, rather than move ahead with a tourist mentality of set goals and to-do lists.

Raised with the traditional expectations of the “good girl,” Hughlett lived the first 30 years of her life within 150 miles of Oklahoma City, an area of white, middle-class, conservatives. The blinders came off when she moved to Seattle. Divorced, and remarried with two children, Hughlett indicates that when everything is FINE, sometimes that refers to the acronym for “fucked up, insecure, neurotic, and exhausted.”

It is during a trip to Mexico in search of a therapeutic boarding school for her troubled son that she finds a sense of peace and a firm idea of place as she falls in love with the desert landscape. With the outstretched arms of the saguaro cactus offering a sense of peace, it is in this moment that everything changes.

Hughlett’s journeys go far beyond visits to the likes of the Eiffel Tower and Louvre. Whether enjoying the delicacy of an eggplant and cheese sandwich on the banks of the Seine or meeting a charmingly eccentric and her poodle, Hughlett learns to distinguish the essential rhythms of her own life.

Hughlett writes with a comfortable conversational voice that invites readers into her world view; one that she approaches with both exuberance and trepidation. The overall narrative unfolds in a generally chronological sequence, though journal entries and recollections can at times reflect past memories or events.

Insightful words from several authors, poets, scholars, and artists are used to grace the opening of each chapter, including contributions as varied as those of Roald Dahl, Thich Nhat Hanh, Gloria Steinem, and Henry Miller. Mark Twain’s quote seems to epitomize the central “SoulStroller” sentiment in “Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.”

Each section of the book concludes with a simple practicum highlighting suggestions for readers to venture into their own SoulStrolling mindset. Exercises range from quiet meditation and writing prompts, to practicing self-kindness and ideas for travels off the beaten path.

While Hughlett considers that her story may be too personal or esoteric for some readers, her work speaks to her positive growth, as her travels and experiences have allowed her to trust her own voice and value the lessons of her own journey. This is a book that strings together individual pearls of wisdom that have universal appeal.

SoulStroller by Kayce Stevens Hughlett won 1^st Place in the CIBA 2018 Journey Awards for Narrative Non-Fiction.

October 2, 2019
COCOON of CANCER: an INVITATION to LOVE DEEPLY by Abbe Rolnick & Jim Wiggins – Spiritual & Mental Healing, Personal Transformation, Living with Cancer

When author Abbe Rolnick’s husband Jim Wiggins slipped off a ladder in 2013, he was told he had osteopenia and would need to rest his back. He and Abbe went to Africa, but the pain persisted, in fact, got worse. Finally, the author “…got the call, the one every person dreads.” Jim had cancer, a rare, aggressive form called Multiple Myeloma. The plasma in his bone marrow had increased, taking over the normal cells, causing anemia and acidity that began to eat away at his spine. Life for Abbe and Jim would never be the same. What followed was a total disruption: for Jim it involved chemo, radiation, stem cell implants, pain, weight loss, and even height loss; for Abbe, an exploration of basic fears, and, of course, the deepest terror of loss of a loved one.

Rolnick’s book is told for the most part in a series of emails among friends and family. Since she is a fiction writer (River of Angels, Color of Lies) she was able to express her feelings to others, especially to Jim, in a manner both poignant and poetic. She recounts the couple’s simple acceptance, the moments of despair, and the daily activities and routines they shared despite the discouraging limitations of Jim’s medical necessities. Whenever possible, the couple cuddled at night, exchanged kisses, watched funny, upbeat fare on television. The memoir is remarkable for these moments, balanced by the necessary, at times dreadful and dire medical information that impinged on their lives every day for a year. The couple had to live away from home, ask family for help, including cells donated by a brother, and rely on the kindness and expertise of strangers. As Rolnick puts it, “Cancer explodes with ramifications.” Jim’s round-robin emails form an especially touching piece of the narrative as he attempts to apply logic, masculine bravado and a mild sense of humor to the horrors he is experiencing.

The author offers advice on keeping up with insurance issues, dealing with the caregiver role, with fears, and with the ultimate uncertainty. She doesn’t know, nor does anyone, how long remission might last. She advises being honest with doctors and with oneself, and notes that her viewpoint was often the most helpful, especially when Jim would deny he had pain while she observed how much pain he really felt from his overt reactions like groans and grimaces. At one point, the cancer clinic lab made a massive mistake; handling it judiciously but firmly was a learning experience. Two people, the author believes, can perhaps take in the totality of the problems. She describes the year as like being in a cocoon—dominated by the disease, yet growing and changing within.

Leaving us saddened but cautiously relieved by the end of her account, with Jim at home, forming a new life around continued treatments, Rolnick has taken us on a journey, tough and full of dangers, but with a quiet resting place for now—and now is all that matters.

October 4, 2017