Mistake #1 Perfectionism
Spiritual Mistake #2 Flight to Light
Spiritual Mistake #3 Leaving Your Body
Spiritual Mistake #4 You Create Your Reality
Spiritual Mistake #5 Feeling the Pain of the World
Spiritual Mistake #6 The Safety/Danger Polarity
How You Do Spirituality Is How You Do Everything
The Keys to a More Calm, Confident Life
Living a More Calm, Confident, and Courageous Life
What to Do When You Feel Stuck
Seeing through the Anxiety to Your Self
Awakening from Anxiety is an amazing book that directly addresses a growing contagion of stress, anxiety, and panic attacks. Connie is heroic in her unique approach, which can benefit people of all ages and walks of life. It is a timely work that gives the reader a way to traverse physical, emotional, and spiritual obstacles to experience a more calm and balanced state of “being.”
The author gives personal examples as well as case studies of clients who have been able to overcome fear and anxiety to make changes in their lives. Connie has taken a complex subject and made it come alive to those who are new to, and those who are already steeped in, a “spiritual tradition.”
Connie’s unique approach to this subject is found in her insightful chapters on spiritual mistakes that can lead to more anxiety rather than that highly coveted state of “serenity.” While so many are hurling themselves into practices that awaken their heart to feel the suffering of humanity, Connie warns of “compassion fatigue, which can cause physical, mental, and emotional injury.”
Connie’s important work is so needed in our world today where new thought and ancient spiritual principles coexist side by side, creating either expansion of consciousness or confusion. She sorts this out in a very real and practical way. What a wonderful relief to know that we don’t have to achieve an image of perfection or grasp for an ideal of being a “spiritual person.” According to Connie, this can only create more stress, anxiety, and even panic attacks when we don’t think we are “doing it right” or aren’t “good enough.”
I thought this phrase from the author was brilliant: “My understanding of Spirit is that it is Infinite, Unlimited, everywhere Present, and all that Is. How can anything that has no limits or bounds be limited by our idea of a word called perfection?” The gift of this book helps me to realize that we are still okay even if we don’t meet the standards of others or the goals we may have knowingly or unknowingly set for ourselves.
Thank you, dear author, for sharing the deep insights you have acquired throughout your many years of teaching, counseling, and journeying your own life’s experiences. They are invaluable!
—Rama Jyoti Vernon, founder of California Yoga Teachers’ Association, co-founder of Yoga Journal, and author, Yoga: The Practice of Myth and Sacred Geometry and Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras, Books I and II translation.
As spiritual folks, we aren’t exempt from the experience of anxiety. In fact, because we’re often more sensitive, earnest beings in our endeavor to grow and awaken, we may be more prone to it.
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