Have you noticed that creative projects seem to have a timeline and evolutionary process all their own?
When I began developing what has now emerged as my new “At Peace with Life” ebook, I first wrote and packaged it as an e-mail based on-line course. The format just didn’t seem to work, so I started over, revising and revamping the material as an ebook.
Revision after revision later, the book is now ready for purchase on my website as a downloadable ebook for $19.95. The book comes complete with a $75 off coupon toward a consultation session to allow for more personal integration of the contents.
One reviewer said, “I love your beautiful, beautiful book.” Another said, “I expected to skim through it quickly, but found I couldn’t put it down. It prompted my own insights about the grief recovery process.” Another said, “It’s creative. Thought provoking.”
The book, At Peace With Life: Embracing Health and Creativity After Loss, focuses on how we can connect with our innately healthy and resilient spirits after a major experience of change. The change might be a spousal loss, health loss, job loss or loss of a world view, for example, the loss of innocence after a traumatic experience.
Recent research published by Bonanno et al (2002) suggests that resiliency is common after the loss of a spouse. In the Bonanno study, nearly one-half of subjects did NOT experience significant depression or distress following after their partners died. Several factors seemed more predictive of resiliency: a happy marriage, an independent spirit, overall self-confidence and coping skills, an acceptance of death and a belief in a just world.
The good news the research points to, I think, is that there is a way for all of us to come through loss with resilience and health. There are principles, basic truths, that we use to create our experience of life from the inside-out, that enable us to weather life’s challenges, including the most difficult, with grace, balance and gentle humor.
It seems to me that people, including those who struggle to connect with their resilience overall, often appear to reclaim the best of the best within themselves WHEN they are confronted with a major loss. Over and over I’ve seen loss become the birth canal for greater generativity, creativity and an indomitable spirit! The “Women of Wisdom” stories on this website testify to that fact.
So, if you’ve come through a loss and are ready to re-engage with life in a new, strengthened, more creative way, I invite you to read “At Peace with Life.” I’ll welcome your reflections about the material.
Bonanna et al. (2002). “Resilience to Loss and Chronic Grief: A Prospective Study from Preloss to 18-Months Postloss.” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. Vol. 83, No. 5, 1150-1164.
Posted by Linda Sandel Pettit on 07/31 at 04:09 PM in Loss |
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