Taming Your Outer Child by Susan Anderson

Taming Your Outer Child by Susan Anderson is a unique look at the self-sabotaging qualities about yourself. We’ve all witnessed ourselves not at our best moments and wondered where the heck that came from. Well, Susan Anderson has a very good guidebook on how to tame that outer child of ourselves and have a better life by doing so.

Book Description

“Chances are, you’ve already had run-ins with your Outer Child — the self-sabotaging, bungling, and impulsive part of your personality. This misguided, hidden nemesis blows your diet, overspends, and ruins your love life. Your Outer Child acts out and fulfills your legitimate childlike needs and wants in the wrong place, at the wrong time, and in counterproductive ways: It goes for immediate gratification and the quick fix in spite of your best-laid plans.

Now, in a revolutionary rethinking of the link between emotion and behavior, veteran psychotherapist Susan Anderson offers a three-step program to tame your Outer Child’s destructive behavior. This dynamic, transformational set of strategies — action steps that act like physical therapy for the brain — calms your Inner Child, strengthens your Adult Self, releases you from the self-blame and shame at the root of Outer Child issues, and paves new neural pathways that can lead to more productive behavior. The result is happiness, fulfillment, self-mastery, and self-love.” – Taming Your Outer Child

My Thoughts

Taming Your Outer Child is a book that can help anyone to redirect their self-sabotaging behavior and create truly life changing behaviors instead. This book is full of a lot of very helpful information, but it isn’t just a good guidebook, it also has helpful action plan ideas to actually put into motion what is discussed, which is helpful!

This book discusses your outer child in relation to self esteem, abandonment issues, your past and future, stress, trauma, dieting, procrastination, love, passion, feeling unloved, debt, and depression.

Overall, I think that this book has a lot of great ideas, some are the normal self-help book type of ideas, but still valid and of course helpful. Susan Anderson also does a great job of incorporating fresh, new ideas and tips into this book to help anyone struggling with that outer child. I recommend it!

* Thank you to the publisher of Taming Your Outer Child, New World Library, for providing me with a copy of this book for review. All opinions expressed are my own.

Tantra for the West by Marc Allen

Tantra for the West by Marc Allen is a book about ancient principles of tantra. You can actually use it for every part of your life, not just sex. So, if you ever wanted to learn more about this way of life, delve into this book and take a tantric journey of your own!

Book Description

“What does tantra have to do with your relationships, work, money, creativity, sex, food and drink, being alone, meditation and yoga, aging and healing, politics, freedom, and enlightenment? Everything!

Tantra is usually thought of as sex with some kind of mysticism thrown in. Marc Allen goes back to the original meaning of tantra and shows how it can be applied to every moment of your life, excluding nothing. Tantra for the West is filled with ancient and modern principles and practices that help you use all your experiences as part of your mental, emotional, and spiritual growth. 

Within your way of life — whatever it may be — within your everyday thoughts and feelings, within your fantasies and dreams are the keys to love, freedom, and fulfillment. As soon as you can see this, you’ll find yourself on a direct path to realizing the life of your dreams.

This highly acclaimed book has inspired readers all over the world for over thirty years, and is now completely revised, with new material added. It gives you simple keys and practical tools that can be wildly, creatively adapted to your individual needs. If you spend even a brief amount of time with this book, you will discover for yourself the transformative power of tantra.” – Tantra for the West

My Thoughts

Tantra for the West is a well-written and researched book. Marc Allen never disappoints with his books, and this one is no exception. I must confess that before reading this book, I was one of the many people who thought that tantra was all about sex. I admit, I was wrong! It is so much more and can help with every part of your life, which is a really cool concept and makes it even more appealing.

Through reading this book, I found that every moment can be a direct path towards what I want, but I have to actually take the step and thought processes to get it going in the direction I want it to take. I also found that the moment we are all currently in, what we are feeling, thinking, doing, is more than just being in a certain spot.

Overall, I really enjoyed this book. One of my favorite lines in the book is so simple, but something we should all remember “Ask and you shall receive.” Why is it my favorite? Well, I’m one of those people who doesn’t usually like to ask for things. However, if we don’t ask for it, how can anyone else ever know we need something or need help? It is a simple truth, but one I (and I’m sure many others) needed to be reminded of. Don’t want to ask because nobody is around? Well, ask anyway – God or the universe (or whatever you believe in) is always listening.

* Thank you to the publisher of Tantra for the West, New World Library, for providing me with a copy of this book for review. All opinions expressed are my own.

DIY Essential Oil Bug Spray

I absolutely HATE store bought bug spray. It feels gross, stinks, and makes me breakout because it is full of chemicals (I have sensitive skin).

To enjoy being outside without constantly swatting the air around me (you know the bug dance, right?) I made up this all natural, super easy and cheap bug spray with my Young Living essential oils.

I used a 2 oz spray bottle, filled it with distilled water, and added in 6 drops each of Purification and Citronella oils. Just before using, shake it up and spray on anywhere you'd use your new DIY bug spray.

Grand total for handmade bug spray: $1.28

For more info on essential oils and to sign up or buy as a member or retail customer, check out www.essentialdreamers.com or go to Young Living and use my member ID: 1860270 I'll also add you to some amazing FB groups and help you with any questions you have along your oily journey! 

Polyvore: Spring Trend 2015 - Floral Skirts

Spring Trend 2015: Floral Skirts by starry943 featuring Marc Jacobs

The Relationship Handbook by Shakti Gawain and Gina Vucci

The Relationship Handbook by Shakti Gawain and Gina Vucci is a beautifully written book for you to use right away about ALL types of relationships in your life. If you want to learn strategies to help make each of your relationships better (or know when it is time to move on from them), this is a book you will definitely want to read!

Book Description

“Using knowledge and skills honed over a lifetime of teaching and learning, personal development pioneer Shakti Gawain presents a powerful, life-changing work on a subject she has always been passionate about: our relationships. In her popular workshops and in her personal life, she has tested and refined the insights and exercises in this book, which she cowrote with her longtime collaborator Gina Vucci. Their approach reflects the fact that each of us is in relationships not only with romantic partners, family, coworkers, and children, but also with internal core beliefs and a variety of selves, including primary, disowned, and shadow selves.

These revelatory teachings incorporate strategies for becoming aware of hidden beliefs, applying the Voice Dialogue process developed by Drs. Hal and Sidra Stone, and learning to experience every relationship as a path to self-knowledge. Through her gentle guidance, Shakti shows us how every relationship we have at every moment can be seen as a path toward greater consciousness, healing, and growth.” – The Relationship Handbook

My Thoughts

The Relationship Handbook gives us all a powerful tool to use to create better relationships with the people we choose to surround ourselves with. Most books on this subject only look into personal or romantic relationships, but not this one! This one also has us look deeper into ourselves and see the primary, disowned, and shadow selves – how revolutionary!

Shakti gently guides us on a better path to understanding ourselves so we can then not only have better relationships in our lives, but to help us on a path to greater healing and growth. Learning how to listen to ourselves is probably one of the harder things that she helps us to do with this, but it is an important part to actually do if you want to succeed with this handbook. The exercises contained in the book are excellent. My favorite is the “Forgiving and Releasing Yourself” one which helps to forgive ourselves for mistakes we have made to other people as well as ourselves.

Overall, I really enjoyed reading and working through this handbook. It is an excellent resource that I think everyone could benefit from using. I highly recommend it.

* Thank you to the publisher of The Relationship Handbook, New World Library, for providing me with a copy of this book for review. All opinions expressed are my own.

Polyvore: Nautical Style with Plus Size Princess

Nautical Style with Plus Size Princess by starry943 featuring pepper shakers

Conscious Evolution by Barbara Marx Hubbard

Conscious Evolution by Barbara Marx Hubbard is a book that will perhaps change the way you look at evolution and the way our future as a civilization is headed – for the better. In this era of unrest and fears of global catastrophes, Hubbard explains that these may just be part of the storm before a big change in a “conscious evolution”.

Book Description

“In this era of government gridlock, economic and ecological devastation, and seemingly intractable global violence, our future is ever more ripe for — and in need of — fresh, creative reimagining. With her clear-eyed, inspiring, and sweeping vision of a possible global renaissance in the new millennium, Barbara Marx Hubbard shows us that our current crises are not the precursors of an apocalypse but the natural birth pains of an awakened, universal humanity. This is our finest hour. Conscious Evolution highlights the tremendous potential of newfound scientific knowledge, technological advances, and compassionate spirituality and illustrates the opportunities that each of us has to fully participate in this exciting stage of human history. As we do, we will bring forth all that is within us and not only save ourselves, but evolve our world.” – Conscious Evolution

My Thoughts

Conscious Evolution is a really deep book that is an important text for humanity. It has been updated by the author and includes additional response to the biggest challenges and opportunities that we are currently seeing at this point in the history of our world.

Hubbard takes us not just through the human potential movement, but into the social potential movement that is helping to evolve our world into social synergy, interconnectivity, and spirit based compassion for all of humanity.

This book is composed of four parts: The New Story of Creation, Conscious Evolution: A New Worldview, The Social Potential Movement, and The Great Awakening.

I really like the overall message that instead of working on our own selfish desires in our lives, we should instead be working more towards a better future for all of humanity. I definitely recommend it.

* Thank you to the publisher of Conscious Evolution, New World Library, for providing me with a copy of this book for review. All opinions expressed are my own.

Polyvore Maxi Dress Set

Lovely in LA - Maxi Dress by starry943 featuring leather shoes

Game of Thrones - Daenerys Targaryen

In excitement for the new season of Game of Thrones starting tonight, I made these sets on Polyvore. Enjoy! :)

Game of Thrones - Daenerys Targaryen by starry943 featuring a chain necklace

Game of Thrones - Daenerys Targaryen by starry943 featuring heeled sandals